A natural phenomenon captured in Europe. A bright red arc is found in the sky over many countries. The red rainbow, invisible to the naked eye, was captured using modern cameras. Scientists explain previously unknown phenomenon by the residual effect of aurora.
A photo from open sources
Red arcs – residual effect of a magnetic storm / astronet.ru
When high-energy flows, charged particles arrive at Earth after a solar flare, they cause the so-called geomagnetic storms. These events are disturbances in the magnetosphere, parts of the earth’s atmosphere where the magnetic field of the planet dominates. The most dramatic consequences of these giant storms are vivid auroras in the corresponding regions of the Earth. But the result of the storm expressed in other amazing consequences, for example, weakly a luminous red arc high in the ionosphere. It is electrically charged parts of the Earth’s atmosphere, extending from 85 to 600 km above the ground. Arcs emit very specific wavelengths of red of light, but they are too weak to be seen to the naked eye. They appear in lower latitudes, in contrast to auroras, which are usually observed in more high latitudes.
A photo from open sources
Red arcs are not visible to the naked eye / www.infuture.ru
At first, scientists thought that too much light pollution in Europe it makes it difficult to see a dim red arc. But now, a new Observatory (ASIAGO), located in northern Italy, uses cameras with highly sensitive sensors and a fisheye lens, to observe these red arcs and faint auroras at greater parts of the continent. An international team of scientists observed the sky from observatories during geomagnetic storms that hit Earth in 2011 year. After comparing their observations with satellite and ground observations, researchers found that red arcs reach Europe, stretching from Ireland in the west to Belarus in the east. The fact that researchers are now able to see these arcs in Europe means that by combining similar data from America and the Pacific, scientists can now observe how far arcs extend over vast distances above the planet. And so way, how long does the process take for the magnetosphere to “drain your storm energy,” says researcher Michael Mendillo, space physicist at Boston University.
Aurora time
