PIXIE at T055798 (11 May 1999 22:55)
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Credit
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Polar: PIXIE at T055798 on May 11, 1999 at 22:55
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Sun's corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earth's magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earth's North Pole.
An x-ray image of the South Pole on May 11, 1999 taken by the PIXIE instrument on Polar, indicating enegetic electron fluxes striking the upper atmosphere