what is solar wind?
What does solar wind have to do with it?
Solar wind is the starting point for the Aurora.
According to NASA:
The solar wind is created by the outward expansion of plasma (a collection of charged particles) from the Sun's corona (outermost atmosphere). This plasma is continually heated to the point that the Sun's gravity can't hold it down. It then travels along the Sun's magnetic field lines that extend radially outward."The discovery of the magnetosphere led in 1959 to the discovery of the solar plasma, also called solar wind," states Falck-Yter, "This was shown to be a stream of particles independent of the many known types of solar radiation... ."
These charged particles then travel to the Earth over a period of a few days and eventually hit Earth's geomagnetic field. According to Marian Mateling on Morgrige.org, "When the solar wind of electrons reaches the planet, they first encounter Earth’s magnetic field, referred to as the geomagnetic field. This magnetic field will deflect the electrons. With this deflection, the electrons move around the planet and hit near the polar regions where the magnetic field is weakest." The movement of these charged particles towards the poles is what creates these light shows.
photo cred: www.madoc.mobi/kindred%20/kindred/geomagnetic_files/solar-winds-3.jpg
Thus, Solar Winds have everything to do with the Aurora. In fact, Solar Wind IS the aurora... kinda. The movement of these particles creates the aurora because as it moves, it hits the gases in our atmosphere. Interestingly enough, each gas in our atmosphere has a different color omitted if it collides with some of the sun's plasma. Find out the most common color of the Aurora and why here.