This left-hand image shows the northern auroral oval (the bright ring on the top of the silhouetted Earth) and the equatorial arcs (the red traces towards the center of the silhouetted Earth). The right image focuses on the northern polar auroral oval. The red glow in both of the images that surrounds the Earth is the alpha radiation emitted by the geocorona. Both images were taken by Dynamics Explorer 1. Also in both images, the Sun is eclipsed by the Earth. Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image by Dynamics Explorer courtesy of L. Frank

This page is obsolete. Please click here to go to our page about the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights).

This left-hand image shows the northern auroral oval (the bright ring on the top of the silhouetted Earth) and the equatorial arcs (the red traces towards the center of the silhouetted Earth). The right image focuses on the northern auroral oval. Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image provided by Dynamics Explorer courtesy of L. Frank

This page is no longer in use. Please click here to go to our page about the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights).

This image shows the ring where most of the aurora occur in the northern hemisphere. Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image by Dynamics Explorer courtesy of L. Frank

This page is no longer in use. Please click here to go to our page about the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights).