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No. St. Elmo's Fire is caused by a discharge of atmospheric electricity. An Aurora Australis or an Aurora Borealis occurs when streams of particles from the sun's solar winds hit the earth's atmosphere at an angle (as can only happen at the poles). These particles interact with the edges of the earth's magnetic field and when they collide with the gases in the ionosphere, the particles glow creating curtains of blue, green and magenta. An aurora is sometimes accompanied by a crackling sound.

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Q: Is aurora borealis same as st Elmo's fire?
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What occurs about 130 km above Earth's surface near the polar regions when energy in the solar wind guided by Earth's magnetic field excites gases in the upper atmosphere?

Its called the Aurora Borealis for the Northern Hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the Southern Hemisphere. The particles excite the gases to make stupendous visual color displays that can be seen over thousands of miles.No two times are the same the shows can vary from undulating curtains to clouds of ever changing colours. As they say a Picture can paint a thousand words.Check the related source links below for a couple of picture that will give you an idea.


Why is the layers often called a cozy blanket around earth?

The entire atmosphere is considered the blanket for the earth because of the protection it provides from solar radiation. This includes gamma rays, X rays, and severe ultraviolet light. The way it works is as follows: Nitrogen in the atmosphere breaks down when exposed to gamma rays, and in the process the gamma rays are dissipated. Oxygen breaks down when exposed to X rays. And believe it or not, Ozone protects us from ultraviolet rays using the same process. Also, when an access amount of solar radiation hits the atmosphere the atoms get excited, and this effect causes the Aurora Borealis.


How does fire affect humans?

Fire affects human beings in different ways. For us, fire is vital at the same time a danger.Vitalities of FireSince the beginning of human life, fire has been a peculiar thing. Early humans learned it can be dangerous and figured out it could be used for cooking food, heat, and light. Now, we have evolved to learn more dangers and more uses for fire. To this day, we use fire for cooking food, for heat, and for light.Dangers of FireFire has been vital for human life and evolution. It has also been a dangerous thing. Fire causes burns and it has the capabilities to destroy houses, wildlife, and other buildings.In a nutshell so to speak, fire causes many injuries and casualties, yet at the same time helps us survive!However: It also inspired someone from The Moody Blues to write:"Blasting, bursting, billowing forth-With the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes,Man, with his blazing pyre..."~The song is titled "Higher and higher", I believe...


Possible threats to a forest?

Typically uncontrolled wildfires and logging.


What is the difference between a drought and a heatwave?

A drought and a heatwave looks the same because of the hotness. A drought is the dryness, shortage, and a crop failure for the plants, drought can affect humans, animals and a body of water. droughts produces famines..... A heatwave can increase the temperature of the particular place, but can create a fire or a forest fire and a drought can't.

Related questions

Does the Aurora Borealis form at the South Pole?

No.Aurora at the South Pole are called aurora austalis, and are caused by the same solar magnetic phenomenon that creates aurora borealis.


What is the difference between a Aurora borealis and a Aurora australis?

The Aurora Borealis is in the northen hemisphere at the north pole. However the Aurora Australis is in the southern hemisphere at the south pole. That is the only difference in them; they are both formed in the same way. They are both polar lights. One is the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights and the Aurora Australis, the southern lights. They are on the different poles on the earth, other than that, they are the same. Borealis is near the North Pole. Australis is near the South pole. The Aurora Borealis is at the north magnetic pole: the Aurora Australis is at the south magnetic pole. That's the only difference. They are both really the same thing but are visible from different places in the world. The aurora borealis can be seen in Northern England and in Scotland sometime, normally in summer and spring. The aurora austalis can be seen from places like Australia and New Zealand. Another difference is that the aurora borealis are brighter that the aurora austalis


Does aurora borealis have any bad effect on human and the world?

If you are looking up at the aurora borealis while you are walking, it would be possible for you to stub your toe on a rock. Otherwise, no. The Aurora Borealis works exactly the same as a fluorescent light; electrical currents running through the near-vacuum of the ionosphere. Except prettier.


Are Northern lights and aura borialis not the same?

Aurora Borealis and Northern Lights are both names for the same thing.


How did the Aurora Borealis get its name?

Aurora Borealis was named after the Roman Goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621.From the Latin "Aurora" = the dawn and from the Greek "Boreas" = The northern wind. (In Greek the winds coming from the four points of the compass had a different name. Boreas for the northern wind, Notus for the southern wind, Zephyrus for the western wind, and Euro for the eastern wind.)So Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) mean 'the dawn of the north'.Aurora is the Roman goddess of the dawn and Boreas is the Greek name for north wind. The same effect occurs in the south pole, however there it is called Aurora Australis. Australis is Latin for "South".Aurora Borealis was named after the Roman Goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621."Borealis" is the northern aurora, "Australis" is the southern aurora.


Does a aurora happen every night in antarctica?

Aurora is not restricted to nighttime. Aurora occurs persistently.It's best visible at night, however, even in Antarctica.Read more about aurora by following the link, below.


Can you find northern lights in the antarctic?

No. What you see there are the Southern Lights, which are caused in the same way, so in effect they are the same thing.Another AnswerThe confusion may be in the names. In the north, these lights are called Aurora Borealis, and in the South, Aurora Australis.


Why don't you see the aurora borealis on the moon?

The moon does not have the kind of magnetic field that the Earth does, and therefore it does not have the same kind of interactions with charged particles from the sun.


Are the northern lights th same as a rainbow or are they not the same?

The aurora borealis is the interaction of solar wind plasma with Earths magnetic field. A rainbow is the refraction of light through rain drops. They are not the same phenomena.


When do Aurora appears?

Magnetic storms occur on Earth when electrically charged particles from the corona and solar flares are added to the solar wind produced by the corona. When this happens, Earth's atmosphere radiates beautiful light called the aurora borealis or northern lights. This same light is called the aurora australis in the southern hemisphere.


What is the longitude and latitude of aurora borealis?

Aurora Borealis occurs with a center around the North Pole, and on clear, moonless nights during extreme solar wind periods, can be seen everywhere on Earth south of the Arctic Circle.There is no longitude or latitude for the Northern Lights.Since the Northern Lights are caused by the atmosphere, they are constantly changing and moving. They cannot have an exactlatitude and longitude because they are almost never in the exact same spot.


Why do you not see the Aurora Borealis all the time?

Because aurora borealis is created due to solar wind from the Sun. That will predominantly come if the Sun has a solar eruption or solar flare (same thing). The particles take about 2 or 3 days to reach Earth and when some of them are accelerated by the magnetic field near the poles they interact with the atoms of our upper atmosphere and we see the lights. ________________________________________________ The aurora borealis (the "northern lights') is caused by the interaction of high energy charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth's magnetic field in the ionosphere. But it is difficult to predict exactly where or when the aurora will be visible, indicating that there are probably other factors of which we remain ignorant. Auroras are not permanently visible because the ionosphere itself is not perfectly uniform, and the flux of charged particles from the Sun is quite variable.