Yellowknife Aurora Series 9

This photo is from a series of Aurora photos taken in September of 2015 near Yellowknife, NT, Canada.... more

by John McArthur

Title

Yellowknife Aurora Series 9

Artist

John McArthur

Medium

Photograph - Photography / Digital Art

Description

This photo is from a series of Aurora photos taken in September of 2015 near Yellowknife, NT, Canada.

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. Auroras are produced when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere), where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying colour and complexity. The form of the aurora, occurring within bands around both polar regions, is also dependent on the amount of acceleration imparted to the precipitating particles.

Uploaded

September 7th, 2015