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Auroras
Detailed Learning Objectives


Learning goals of lesson segments

What do auroras look like?

    students should be able to:

  • Recognize and describe the appearance of auroras from the ground.
    • luminous
    • colors
    • appears to move
    • duration

What do auroras look like from space?

    students should be able to:

  • Recognize and describe the appearance of auroras from space.
    • rings around both magnetic poles
    • day side/night side
    • altitude
    • size range of auroral rings

What makes them happen?

    students should be able to:

  • Describe qualitatively what causes auroras.
    • arrangement of Earth's dipole magnetic field
    • Sudden events eject large amounts of particles
    • Charged particles trapped and accelerated
    • Collisions with atmospheric molecules create light
    • Charged particles come from solar wind

Where can you see them?

    students should be able to:

  • Describe how aurora locations are related to solar activity and the Earth's magnetic field.
  • Describe why auroras are different colors.
  • Use the WWW to find information on auroral phenomena and research.

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