The past 12 months had produced some of the best displays of aurora visible from Australia in living memory. Last night's display was probably one of the top five from the past year.
Prof Michael Brown indicated that the aurora came at the peak of a 12-year cycle, which means a lot of solar storms, a lot of solar flares, and these produce more aurora than normal.
He explained that these displays are produced by a geomagnetic storm caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with Earth's magnetic field.
Brown noted that while it’s hard to predict, there is a possibility of another auroral display soon, potentially in about four weeks.
Collection
[
|
...
]