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Climate and Weather

Air Phenomena

How often does an aurora appear?

Because it depends on solar winds (electrical particles generated by the sun) and sunspot activity, the frequency of an aurora cannot be determined. Auroras usually appear two days after a solar flare (a violent eruption of particles on the sun’s surface) and reach their peak two years into the eleven-year sunspot cycle. The auroras, occurring in the polar regions, are broad displays of usually colored light at night. The northern polar aurora is called Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights and the southern polar aurora is called the Aurora Australis.



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