On May 11th, it was reported by several domestic media outlets that Earth recently experienced a massive geomagnetic storm, resulting in the strongest aurora in Altay, Xinjiang in the past 20 years. Multiple photographers captured stunning and vibrant images of the aurora, creating a truly dreamlike spectacle.
Geomagnetic storms are typical activities resulting from solar eruptions. As we know, the solar corona is the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere. When the sun erupts, coronal mass ejections occur, propelling billions of tons of solar material at speeds of hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second away from the sun's surface in a single ejection.
These ejections not only carry immense mass and velocity, but they also carry the sun's powerful magnetic field energy. When they impact Earth, they can cause changes in the direction and strength of the Earth's magnetic field, resulting in a geomagnetic storm.
Auroras are actually just a "byproduct" of geomagnetic storms. When the solar material carrying the sun's energy encounters Earth's magnetic field, a portion of it enters the polar regions along with the Earth's magnetic field and collides with the atmosphere located 100 to 400 kilometers above the ground.
During these collisions, energy is exchanged. This energy, after being absorbed by the outer electrons of atmospheric atoms and molecules, is rapidly released, resulting in the production of light.
