Rare phenomenon: Ukrainian polar explorers again record the aurora borealis near Vernadsky

Rare phenomenon: Ukrainian polar explorers again record the aurora borealis near Vernadsky

Kyiv  •  UNN

September 17 2024, 09:46 AM  •  106727 views

The rare aurora borealis was again observed near the Akademik Vernadsky station. This is the second time in a year, the previous one was in August, and the phenomenon had not been seen for about 10 years.

The Southern Aurora Borealis was again observed near the Akademik Vernadsky station! This is the second time in a year that Ukrainian polar explorers have managed to record such a rare phenomenon: the previous time was in mid-August. This was reported by UNN with reference to the National Antarctic Research Center.

Before that, the aurora had not been seen here for about 10 years. This is due to the fact that the Vernadsky area is located quite far from the south magnetic pole, and it is also constantly cloudy,

- the polar explorers noted.

Details

According to them , in order to see the aurora borealis, a number of conditions must come together: strong perturbations of the Earth's magnetic field, a sky that is not cloudy, and the presence of darkness (because during the Antarctic summer it is almost always light near the station).

That night, the geomagnetic observatory at Vernadsky recorded a magnetic storm of K-7 on the Barthels index. So our polar explorers immediately went to the place where they managed to capture the aurora a month ago. Although there were bands of thin clouds in the sky and the full moon was brightly illuminating the space, the researchers observed a unique phenomenon for about 15 minutes,

- said the National Antarctic Research Center.

Unlike the last time, when the glow was mostly visible in photos, this time the winterers saw it with the naked eye. 

Recall

In August of this year, Ukrainian polar explorers recorded a rare glow in the sky, which they managed to see with a camera.