Dune-Shaped Auroral Emissions (IMAGE)

University of Helsinki

Dune-Shaped Auroral Emissions

Caption

Very rarely, a gravity wave rising up in the atmosphere can be filtered and bent to travel between the mesopause and an inversion layer intermittently formed below the mesopause. The mesopause and the inversion layer are colder than the other layers of the atmosphere. In the wave channel established between these two layers, gravity waves coming from below can travel long distances without subsiding. Dune-shaped auroral emissions are created when solar wind charges the oxygen atoms surging through the channel.

Credit

Graphic credit: Jani Närhi

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