Space Weather and Earths Aurora

Aurora are colorful lights in the night time sky primarily appearing in Earth s polar regions. But what causes them The culprit behind aurora is our own Sun and the solar plasma that is ejected during a magnetic event like a flare or a coronal mass ejection. This plasma travels outward along with the solar wind and when it encounters Earth s magnetic field, it travels down the field lines that connect at the poles. Atoms in the plasma interacts with atoms in Earth s upper atmosphere. This reaction produces the colorful lights we call aurora.