[slideshow_deploy id=’299′] Think you already know a lot about Aurora and orders of magnitude? Or, want to see where you land before you learn more? Test your knowledge, here! Have you looked into the sky at stars or the moon and wondered how far away they were? Outer space is large, beyond belief. Outer space… Read More »Aurora Orders of Magnitude
We will explain the origins of one of more common measurements of geomagnetic activity, the Kp index, and compare it to the solar wind power that we talk about previously.
In our previous posts, we describe how the density, speed and magnetic field strength and direction of the solar wind are measured, what Bz is, and what those mean for the aurora. We also introduced a handy parameter called the solar wind power that combines all these measurements. Here, we provide more detail about the solar wind power that we use at Aurorasaurus.
We go into more detail about the role of magnetism in creating aurora and what “Bz” refers to.
What is the solar wind and what does it have to do with the aurora?
Radio astronomers are gearing up for a new generation of radio telescopes that will be based on radically new design concepts: a wide field of view and a high-fidelity snapshot capability. One such instrument is the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a radio telescope in the Australian outback. If such an instrument were to be built at high latitudes, it could provide a radio telescope’s view of auroral activity that could be used to forge a better understanding of what happens to plasma near the Earth during an auroral display.