Ionosphere
Troposphere
Mesosphere
Stratosphere
Ionosphere is called so because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. Ionosphere stretches from 50 to 1,000 km and typically overlaps both the exosphere and the thermosphere. It has practical importance because it influences, for example, radio propagation on the Earth. It is also responsible for auroras.
- Auroras are essentially natural lights that appear as bright, swirling curtains in the night sky and can be seen in a range of colours, including blue, red, yellow, green, and orange. These lights primarily appear near the poles of both the northern and southern hemispheres all year round but sometimes they expand to lower latitudes.
- When witnessed near the North, these bright and colourful lights are called Aurora Borealis, while those in the South are called Aurora Australis. They are formed due to an active interaction in space between charged solar winds and the Earth’s magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is defined as the region of space above the Earth’s ionosphere in which charged-particle motion is dominated by the geomagnetic field. Collisions are so infrequent in most of this region that its electrical conductivity is nearly infinite.
- Solar radiation ionises the ionosphere. It is the magnetosphere’s inner edge and plays a vital role in atmospheric electricity. It is practical because, among other things, it affects radio propagation to far-flung parts of the globe.
- It is caused by an increase in activity on the surface of the Sun. The star continuously releases a stream of charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, and magnetic fields called the solar wind. As the solar wind approaches the Earth, it is deflected by the planet’s magnetic field, which acts like a protective shield.
- However, some of the charged particles are trapped in the magnetic field and they travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into the upper atmosphere of the Earth. These particles then interact with different gases present there, resulting in tiny flashes that light up the night sky.
- When solar wind particles collide with oxygen, a green coloured light is produced. Interaction with nitrogen produces shades of blue and purple. It is “much like how electrons flowing through gas in a neon light collide with neon and other gasses to produce different colored light bulbs,”
- Auroras expand to midlatitudes when the solar wind is extremely strong. This happens when the activity on the Sun’s surface goes up, leading to solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are ejections of large magnetic particles and plasma from the Sun’s corona.
- In such cases, the solar wind is so intense that it can result in a geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm — a temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field. It is during a magnetic storm that auroras can be seen in the mid-latitudes.
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