Aurora explained!

After the events of the last few months and also because we are now at solar maximum, i have taken this opportunity to explain a bit about the phenomenon that as many of you will know as the northern lights or the aurora.
Now a few weeks ago there was a large M class flare that had a a glancing blow off us, despite this we calculated that in some places KP indexes of 7-8 which is huge numbers, i will explain in more depth what KP is later on so just stick with me for a while, so i can explain the basics.

Firstly how is the aurora caused? Well it is caused by the sun is the simply answer, that big ball of hydrogen and helium gas that burns tonnes of matter every second. The complex answer is this, the sun, much like the earth has magnetic properties ans has a magnetic field, now as the hot matter and gas boils and bubbles away these magnetic field lines hold it in place. However if you imagine an elastic band, the magnetic field can only hold so much pressure until they snap back into position much like and elastic band, and when this happens all that hot matter and gas flies off into space. this is known as a CME or coronal mass ejection.
Now if this CME is fired towards us then we have a show in store. The matter will collide with out val-Allen belts part of our magnetic field, the majority of it will be filtered around however there is a gap at the northern and southern poles where they flow into the earth. The matter can be filtered in through here now this is where things get interesting as the matter collides with particles in the atmosphere it excites them and causes the glow and colors that we know as the aurora borealis or aurora australis.

The stronger the blast the higher the KP index is, this is a way of measuring how far the aurora will be visible, you can view this on websites such as www.spaceweather.com (don't let your boss catch you) or get apps for your mobile device. Now depending on where you live will depend on the KP index level before you can see it. You don't even need to live in a dark place it can be seen as long as you are away from direct sources of light pollution, from a park of some description perhaps. An interesting fact that we have no idea why is that the aurora is at its most active at about 11pm so if you have a dog this is an excellent opportunity to take it for its last walk...and glance north or even just up!