Science
Types of Auroral Phenomena
15rows
6columns
16views
0downloads
Source:Community curated
Updated:4/9/2026
15/15
Type↕ | Hemisphere↕ | Altitude (km)↕ | Typical Color↕ | Cause↕ | Notes↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aurora Borealis | Northern | 100 | Green, pink, purple | Charged solar wind particles exciting oxygen and nitrogen | Best seen near magnetic poles; Norway, Iceland, Alaska, Canada |
Aurora Australis | Southern | 100 | Green, red, purple | Same as borealis, around south magnetic pole | Visible from Tasmania, southern New Zealand, Antarctica |
STEVE | Northern and Southern | 450 | Purple and mauve ribbon | Sub-Auroral Ion Drift heating; hot gas flowing at 6 km/s | Discovered by amateurs in 2016; not a classic aurora |
Picket Fence | Northern and Southern | 110 | Green vertical bars | Wavelike particle precipitation; often accompanies STEVE | Looks like a glowing picket fence beside STEVE ribbon |
Diffuse Aurora | Both | 100 | Faint green glow | Low-energy electron rain over wide areas | Often unnoticed; covers much of polar sky |
Discrete Aurora (Arcs) | Both | 110 | Bright green arcs | Focused electron beams from magnetotail | Sharp bright bands stretching across sky |
Rayed Aurora | Both | 120 | Green with red tops | Magnetic field lines channeling particles | Vertical rays or curtains that ripple like fabric |
Coronal Aurora | Both | 120 | Radiating green and red | Rays seen in perspective straight overhead | Looks like light radiating from a single zenith point |
Pulsating Aurora | Both | 100 | Green patches | Electron precipitation with 5-15 second period | Patches blink on and off across the sky |
Proton Aurora | Both | 120 | Faint red/ultraviolet | Energetic protons instead of electrons | Mostly invisible to naked eye; detected in UV |
Red Aurora | Both | 300 | Deep red | High-altitude oxygen emissions during strong storms | Rare; seen during major geomagnetic storms at lower latitudes |
Blue/Purple Aurora | Both | 90 | Blue-purple | Nitrogen molecule emissions below 100 km | Usually at the base of very active auroras |
Black Aurora | Both | 100 | Dark gaps in aurora | Regions where electrons are deflected upward | Voids within a glowing aurora curtain |
Aurora on Jupiter | Both (Jovian) | 500 | Ultraviolet/blue | Particles from Io's plasma torus in Jupiter's magnetosphere | Powered by planet's rotation, not solar wind; seen by Hubble |
Aurora on Mars | Both (Martian) | 120 | Ultraviolet green | Solar wind hitting residual crustal magnetic fields | Detected by MAVEN and ExoMars TGO |
Free to explore · No signup needed
Related Datasets
More in Science
Famous Comets
Halley, Hale-Bopp, Shoemaker-Levy 9 or NEOWISE - which icy wanderer left the most spectacular streak across history?
17 rows2 shared tags
Planets of the Solar System
All 8 planets of our solar system with type, distance from the Sun, diameter, moon count, and orbital period in Earth years.
8 rows2 shared tags
Types of Astronomical Spectral Class Star
O-type blue giants, G-type stars like our Sun, M-type red dwarfs — which stellar spectral class is the most fascinating?
15 rows2 shared tags
Types of Supernovae
Type Ia, Type II, hypernova or kilonova - which stellar explosion is the most catastrophic cosmic event?
16 rows2 shared tags
Greatest Telescopes & Observatories
Hubble, JWST, ALMA, VLT — the eyes humanity built to see the universe, and what they found.
13 rows2 shared tags
Planets & Moons of Our Solar System
Earth, Mars, Europa, Titan — the worlds in our cosmic backyard, ranked by the people living on the boring one.
15 rows2 shared tags