Unusual orange aurorae were spotted in the sky over Scotland during a geomagnetic storm on November 25. This is reported by Live Science.
Earlier, an unusual orange glow was reported after a geomagnetic storm on October 19. Auroras occur when high-energy particles of wind energy excite gas molecules in the upper atmosphere. The excess energy is released in the form of light, the color of which depends on which particles of the magnetosphere interacted with solar radiation.
The two most common colors of the aurora are red and green, both associated with the excitation of oxygen molecules at different altitudes. When solar particles penetrate deep into the atmosphere and excite nitrogen molecules, they can cause rare pink auroras.
In theory, oxygen and nitrogen molecules can emit weak orange waves under certain conditions. However, even when this happens, the unusual color is most often hidden behind green and red.
In the sky over Scotland, the orange glow was caused by a mixture of red and green. This is only possible if the red and green light bands overlap perfectly, which is very rare.
