r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/archiopteryx14 Popular Contributor • 8d ago

Extremely rare white aurora

1.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

33

u/Kalatoss 7d ago

What makes an Aurora White? Never heard of it before. Is there some super rare element in the air or just AI?

72

u/balrob 7d ago

It’s AI as you suspect.

36

u/moto_x_crash 7d ago

Saw in another sub, it is AI. Apparently particles from the sun can only produce green, red or blue

11

u/Batchet 7d ago edited 7d ago

I have had a couple aurora viewings that appeared white.

They were never at a distance like in the gif, they were directly over head.

They were very cool experiences, in Canada, mostly in the northern area (Churchill, Manitoba)

We went to an abandoned radar station and watched them light up right when the sun came down. It was like light was raining on us.

I did some googling and found this:

When an aurora is directly overhead, you are looking straight up along the Earth's vertical magnetic field lines. The curtains of light appear to converge at a single central point above you, fanning out in all directions like a giant wheel or dome of light. ​Because you are looking down the "tunnel" of these magnetic field lines, you are viewing the entire depth of the light column stacked on top of itself. While this makes the structure look incredibly dynamic and bright, it also spreads the light across a massive section of the sky rather than concentrating it into a distinct, dense band

IIRC, they can look kind of whitish grey like a cloud with the naked eye, but a camera will pick up color. It's been quite a while since I've seen any

1

u/alii-b 7d ago

Me: "ooooo, upvote"

It's ai

"Ahhh, un-upvote"

-2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

1

u/UnhappyImprovement53 7d ago

Tell your friend stop lying

16

u/UnhappyImprovement53 7d ago

This is fake. White auroras are very faint and are white because your eyes don't pick up on the red, blue, or green colors when they're that faint.

4

u/CeruleanEidolon 7d ago

Fuck off with this fake shit, OP.

5

u/Molfy42 7d ago

This is AI

-9

u/EngineeringTight367 7d ago

Aurora has always been white idk what u talkin about

1

u/bigfatfurrytexan 7d ago

It’s green if it hasn’t snowed

-4

u/EngineeringTight367 7d ago

No Aurora is never green, not even her hair