Northern lights over Ukraine: scientists named the reason for the unusual phenomenon
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The multicolored glow in the sky, which residents of some regions of Ukraine observed on the night of April 23-24, 2023, may be the aurora borealis. Probably, the cause of such an unusual phenomenon in our latitudes is a powerful geomagnetic storm. Ivan Kryachko, head of the laboratory for methodological support of astronomical education and science of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, told “Ukrainian Pravda. Life” about this. The glow was seen in Brovary in Kyiv Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Volyn, Zhytomyr Oblast and Kharkiv. The phenomenon was also observed in various regions of the Republic of Belarus. Shine over Zhytomyr. Photo: Yuliya Ustinova “There are cases when the northern lights reach our latitudes and it is connected with a geomagnetic storm,” says Ivan Kryachko. According to the scientist, when the coronal masses of the Sun reach the charged atmosphere around the Earth, they penetrate into the atmosphere and interact with nitrogen and other molecules that are part of the air. “Different gases glow in different ways, one is green, the other is red, the third is crimson. And such a bright color of colors is obtained,” says the scientist. A powerful geomagnetic storm can be dangerous for aircraft and spacecraft. If the storm is strong, it can even cause power plants to fail. Volodymyr Kazhanov, an astronomer and employee of the Kharkiv Planetarium, is also convinced that yesterday Ukrainians, together with residents of many countries of the Northern Hemisphere, observed the aurora borealis. “A powerful G4 (Kp=8) geomagnetic storm occurred, associated with the bombardment of our planet by a coronal mass ejection that occurred on the Sun a few days ago. At 1:00 a.m. Kyiv time, the storm decreased in intensity, and the aurora borealis had already disappeared by this time the brightness that was,” the astronomer writes. As “Live science” reports, the northern lights were caused by a strong geomagnetic storm caused by a huge hole in the solar corona, which caused a huge disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field. This event caused auroras in the southern US states of Alabama and northern California. The March 24 solar storm was the result of the Sun’s coronal mass ejection. The outbreak was classified as a G4, or “severe,” storm on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s five-point scale. The consequences of a G4 storm can be a radio outage for several hours and interruptions in navigation. Storms can also push the auroras to much lower latitudes than normal. The aurora borealis, or northern lights, usually only appear at high latitudes near the North and South Poles because the Earth’s magnetic field deflects solar wind electrons toward the poles. However, when a solar storm begins, more charged particles collide with gases in the upper atmosphere, and nighttime “light shows” can appear closer to the equator. Read also: The Pentagon reported on UFO research: there is no reliable data
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