The Northern Lights and Other Beautiful Atmospheric Sights
The interaction of energetic charged particles from the Sun with Earth's upper atmosphere can produce beautiful auroras — the northern and southern lights. As a result of increasing solar activity, these were seen in May 2024 in Berkeley and even farther south, and they may become visible again within a year. Also, the interplay of light with the atmosphere can create beautiful rainbows, solar and lunar halos, the green flash, sun dogs, and other stunning effects. Come learn about these phenomena and what causes them!
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Speaker:
One of the world's most highly cited astrophysicists, Alex Filippenko was the only person to be on both teams that simultaneously discovered the Nobel-worthy accelerating expansion of the universe. Voted UC Berkeley's "Best Professor" a record nine times, he appears frequently on TV documentaries and is addicted to observing total solar eclipses (20 so far).