But Spaceweather.com sets me straight:
Researchers once thought that Southern Lights were exact counterparts of Northern Lights on the opposite side of Earth. Indeed, the physics is the same. Energetic particles rain down from space, causing the atmosphere to glow green, purple, and pink. Simultaneous observations of Earth’s poles from space, however, show that auroras dance differently at the two ends of our planet–an assymetry that researchers are only beginning to understand.
The upshot: Southern Lights may be present even when Northern Lights are not. Monitor the Amundsen-Scott camera for updates.
Keeping in mind that magnetic fields have polarity and that the Sun’s magnetic field flows out with the solar wind, I can see that the interactions will be different in different locations on the Earth magnetic field. The details escape me, though, as I did poorly in college physics.
And there’s a fascinating pic at the link above.
