What is the unique phenomenon of the Northern Lights in the Arctic?

Scientists are working around the clock in a remote village in Alaska. It is the research center of Polk Follette research base, including the rocket launching base 30 miles north of fairbanks. Polk Follette is one of the earliest centers in the world to study the Northern Lights. This beautiful electromagnetic light illuminates the Arctic sky almost every night.

Since 1950s, scientists have begun to understand and study the phenomenon of Northern Lights and Southern Lights, but they still can't dispel the mystery of Northern Lights. For example, no one knows what makes the Northern Lights take on different forms, thus forming the most spectacular and beautiful sight on earth. More importantly, experts cannot accurately predict when the aurora will appear.

This mystery brings a small problem. Although the variability of the northern lights seems unimportant, laser is a key indicator of the interaction between the sun and the earth, which is also called space climate. The space climate, like the climate close to land, may be accompanied by harmful storms, destroying human communication and other space equipment. Therefore, although the Northern Lights are extremely beautiful, they represent a surprising destructive power in today's increasingly dependent on satellites. It is urgent for scientists to find a way to predict space storms.

"The Northern Lights shake the silver veil under the sky: yellow for a while, green for a while, red for a while, stretching and contracting, and endless changes; Then it's Zhang Kaicheng's silver pleated wave belt, shining with waves, and then the brilliance completely disappeared. Soon, a glimmer of light can be seen on the zenith, like several flames swaying, and then a golden light rises from the horizon and gradually melts into the moonlight. At this time, people seem to hear the sigh of a departing ghost, leaving a few erratic bands of light in the sky, as elusive as ominous signs ... "100 years ago, the famous Norwegian Arctic explorer Nansen described the Northern Lights in his diary.

Aurora research is a very old topic. In ancient western legends, people believe that the aurora is the soul of a dead girl, and that the aurora is the reflection of the moonlight on the fish scales or the fur of the Arctic fox. Galileo, a famous scientist in southern Europe, mistakenly compared the aurora to the morning light because he could only see the red aurora, so the aurora in English is the name of the mythical "goddess of dawn". "This is an unscientific scientific term." Yang Huigen commented.

With the advent of the scientific era, people have a new understanding of aurora. The charged particle stream thrown by the solar storm is most likely to enter the atmosphere from the north and south poles of the earth, and the aurora phenomenon appears after the interaction. The arrival of solar storms often interferes with the communication between the North and South poles and spacecraft. "We can study the impact of solar storms on the earth's space by studying the aurora phenomenon, and then understand the space weather and even make space weather forecasts. Aurora research is not only a worldwide scientific problem, but also the best window to study solar storms. "

Among the countries that study aurora, Norway, Sweden and other countries are very strong. "The University of Oslo in Norway has a strong research force." Professor Bertrand, the "father of aurora", is impressively printed on Norwegian krone 200 yuan paper money, with aurora and aurora analog generators as the background.

Although China is not an Arctic country, the aurora, an important natural phenomenon, has attracted people's attention in China. After 12 years, the aurora research in China has developed from scratch to today, and has become a discipline with characteristics and advantages in polar research. It not only formed a team, but also made some achievements.

Yang Huigen said that people engaged in aurora research have a characteristic, that is, "the darker the better, the black and white are reversed." The best time to observe the aurora is winter, and at this time, most of the expedition members have withdrawn to the motherland. Sleeping in winter and working at night are "harder than ordinary polar people."

"Looking at the aurora is a typical' sitting in the well and watching the sky'." Yang Huigen said that aurora observation is the most distinctive project in this Arctic expedition. Three aurora all-sky CCD imaging observation devices are aimed at the sky together, and the aurora can be observed and captured at 180 degrees. "In other words, everything on the horizon can enter the field of vision."

It is the solid foundation of aurora research and the good cooperative relationship between China scientists that makes Japanese scientists willing to carry out aurora observation and research with China scientists in the Arctic. As the head of the Sino-Japanese cooperation project, Yang Huigen will take the lead in integrating scientists from Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Northeastern University, Institute of Geophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University to jointly study the aurora phenomenon.

"It is worth mentioning that a Japanese professor gave us a new Olson's cosmic noise receiver and all the observation data since 199 1 for free because of his retirement, with a value of more than1million yuan." Yang Huigen said that this will undoubtedly further strengthen China's position in the study of Aurora, especially the Northern Lights. "We have added a weapon, and of course we will give him future data."

What is the relationship between the earth's magnetic field and solar storms? How to make better space weather forecast? "It is simply nonsense to talk about space weather away from the polar regions." Yang Huigen said that the polar regions are the best places to study aurora, solar storms and space weather. Now China has unique conditions for aurora observation, because the aurora observation systems at the Yellow River Station and Zhongshan Station are all on the same magnetic field line, and the conjugate relationship is very good. "In theory, Southern Lights and Northern Lights should be consistent, but in fact they are often inconsistent. In this way, we can analyze why it is different and explore the secret of aurora. "