NATS 1870 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Aurora, Solar Wind, Stellar Magnetic Field
19 Nov 2014
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Document Summary
The aurorae: it is a luminescent interaction, there needs to be an input of energy to raise up electrons to higher levels, for aurorae: Transfer of kinetic energy: the colors of the aurorae depend on the speci c molecules that are excited by the charged solar wind particles. One solar wind particle can be responsible for exciting several molecules: blue color - comes from ionized nitrogen (120-180 km altitude) Solar wind particles can knock off electrons from the nitrogen molecules and create what are called secondary electrons (ones that aren"t from the solar win) These secondary electrons can then transfer their own kinetic energy to oxygen molecules lower in the atmosphere which creates the most common aurora color. This interaction generates the most common auroral color (green) and is produced by558nm emission from molecular oxygen: red color - often has nitrogen which gives off the red emission.
