Normally, auroras are hard to find; the bright colours in the sky shine over Iceland, Finland or Sweden.
In May, however, the natural spectacle could also be observed over Austria when the sunspot AR 13664 caused 12 class X solar flares within 6 days, as reported by Futurezone. The result was auroras, or northern lights, in the sky.
Particularly strong solar storms
The colorful lights can be seen near the Earth’s poles – they occur when invisible particles emanate from the sun that is not normally visible except when they burn up in the sky. The Earth has a protective shield, the magnetic field, which shields these so-called solar storms. The particles are only visible near the magnetic poles in the Earth’s atmosphere. The fact that we also see auroras in Austria is due to particularly strong solar storms.
Such a solar storm arises from a group of sunspots—one with the designation AR 13697 returns. There is a good chance of seeing auroras between June 4 and 6.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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