冰岛上空的龙形极光

2024年1月14日

Dragon Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng

Explanation: Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don’t exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun’s corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth’s magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth’s atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer’s mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.

Tomorrow’s picture: reflecting stars

冰岛上空的龙形极光
影像提供与版权: Jingyi Zhang（张敬宜） & Wang Zheng

说明: 你在天空看过龙吗？虽然龙是虚构的生物，但是在2019年，冰岛上空却真的出现一大片龙形的极光。这例极光的源头，是源自日冕洞的太阳风带电粒子，顺着变化不定的行星际磁场泛流到地球的磁层。而部分的带电粒子冲撞地球大气，激发了高层大气的原子，后来它们发出可见光辐射形成极光。这团奇形的极光是如此的迷人，就连摄影者的母亲都跑出来观赏，并成为影像部分的前景。随着太阳往2025年的活动极大期迈进，其表面不断出现异常大量的日珥、暗条、太阳黑子、和大型活跃区。

明日的图片: reflecting stars