The brightly colored aurora borealis shows … will it ever be seen in the Arab world? | Germany

With the advent of the autumn season, from the day of the equinox, which fell on September 22, and the start of the sun’s rays gradually moving away from the edges of the northern hemisphere, night begins to come back to areas that will lose sunlight for long days, maybe even 6 months in polar areas.

In the absence of sun, the night becomes longer and longer, and the manifestations of winter begin to emerge little by little, the weather cools very quickly, the rains fall, and the earth is covered with a costume. white that lasts for weeks and months.

With this long night, people in far northern countries such as Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Canada and northern Russia are returning to receive these brightly colored celestial displays known as aurora borealis or aurora borealis.

Almost every night, they attend some of these shows, the brightness and duration of which vary according to the cycle of solar activity which repeats every 11 years.

The sun … the source of all light

The reason for daylight, twilight, twilight, moon, planets and comets illumination is due to sunlight, all of which are illuminated by direct sunlight.

But the light of the Northern Lights differs from all of this, as it is a trace of solar energy interacting with the Earth’s upper atmosphere in the form of charged particles that ionize and release the abundant oxygen and nitrogen atoms. colors that vary according to the diversity of the ionized atom, including yellow, blue, green, red, pink and purple.

Climatologists expect the current solar cycle of 25, which began in 2020, to be a rest cycle (Alan Friedman-NASA)

The Arab history books have recorded many events for the appearance of the Northern Lights in Arab regions, reaching Yemen at latitude 15 north of the equator, which means that the Northern Lights were not limited to this time at this insect located between latitudes. 60-80 degrees north, as it is if twilight appears in its normal days.

The Northern Lights also appeared over Germany on January 1, 1203 AD, and were seen in France in March 1204 AD, and in both observations, large pillars appeared punctuated with blazing fires, and the sky was red in color.

As for the Arabic guide published by the Iraqi astronomer Dr. Wafiq Shakir Rida, the observation of the Northern Lights came from the history of Yemen, where the Yemeni historian Yahya bin Al-Hussein, author of the book “Ghayat al-Amani fi Akhbar al-Yamani ”mentions the following:

And at this year’s Safar 600 AH (around October 3, 1203 AD), one of the brilliant ayatollahs appeared, and it was a redness that occurred after sunset, and its light prevailed in morning light, and it was in the mountains and eastern parts of Yemen, and in Tihama severe darkness that lasted for 3 days. And jurist Ahmed bin Muhammad Al-Muhalla, a teacher in Dhi Marmar, related under the authority of a man of Zabid that this darkness occurred on the night of Wednesday, after the moon rose it filled the land and continued until Friday, then it cleared .

Likewise, in Japan, history books have recorded the appearance of the Northern Lights in AD 671, red, which filled the sky with redness.

A drawing of the Northern Lights seen in Japan about 1,400 years ago (Seconday Journal of Culture and Social Studies)

The current cycle of solar activity

As is known, the sun passes every 11 years in a cycle of activity determined by the sunspots appearing on its surface.With the increase in the number of these spots, the cycle is active and sometimes dangerous, and also causes the sunspots to appear on its surface. The repeated and uninterrupted appearance of the aurora is displayed.

Modern history (for the last 200 years) has not recorded the sighting of the Northern Lights from mid-latitudes, nor of course low.

Climatologists expect the current 25 solar cycle – which just started in 2020 – to be one of the calm cycles that could play a role in climate change, in terms of its impact on the greenhouse effect and melting ice caps, then rising water levels for coastal towns.

Diagram of the 25th solar cycle scientists expect with fewer sunspots (Hani Al-Dhalea)

And because it is still in its infancy, it is not possible to be certain of its calm or activity except by extrapolation based on the shape of previous solar cycles.

And if the cycle shows anything unusual, it will reflect directly in the sky, so some people will be able to see the spectacular shows of the Northern Lights.

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