There was a reporting of a glorious solar storm heading towards the earth and it was here recently. A European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet managed to view this solar storm through the International Space Station. He also took a photo of the magnificent site.
The event comprised the intense and charged solar rays interacting with the earth’s atmosphere. it was a time of a strong solar cycle for the sun. Space weather also triggers some gorgeous natural phenomena, visible from both the ground and orbit.
“We were treated to the strongest auroras of the entire mission, over north America and Canada,” Pesquet tweeted, accompanied by a breathtaking picture of the northern lights from above. “Amazing spikes higher than our orbit, and we flew right above the center of the ring, rapid waves and pulses all over.”
The auroras that are created as a consequence of the solar particles and the earth’s atmosphere interacting come into being when the Sun’s incoming particles get trapped in the Earth’s magnetosphere, the oblong magnetic shield that surrounds our planet. Some of these rays make it through and collide with atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This leads to an energy release in the form of light.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/38431238/Sept_10_X1pt6_flare_171-304_multiply_4k.0.0.jpg)
This fall, the Sun’s activity has reached a fever pitch, a period also known as the solar maximum, during its 11-year cycle. This phase sees the most activity, making auroras all the more likely to occur.
Events like these state how amazing such phenomena are. The magnanimity of this event can be guessed by the fact that it could be relished in sight by the people on the earth and also from the ones in space.