Daily Current Affairs Quiz – 11th Dec. 2020

Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, are usually witnessed far up in the polar regions or the high latitude regions of Europe, like in Norway. But, they could be visible in regions that are more to the south, such as in the northern parts of Illinois and Pennsylvania in the US.

This is happening due to a solar flare, which emerged from a Sunspot. The flare is accompanied by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) — a large bubble of radiation and particles emitted by the Sun that explodes into space at high speed.

What causes an aurora?

Auroras occur when charged particles ejected from the Sun’s surface — called the solar wind — enter the Earth’s atmosphere. While flowing toward Earth, the fast-moving solar wind carries with it the Sun’s magnetic field, which disrupts the magnetosphere — the region of space around Earth in which the magnetic field of our planet is dominant.

When the Sun’s magnetic field approaches Earth, the protective magnetic field radiating from our planet’s poles deflects the former, thus shielding life on Earth. However, as this happens, the protective fields couple together to form funnels, through which charged solar wind particles are able to stream down to the poles.

At the north and south poles, the charged particles interact with different gases in the atmosphere, causing a display of light in the sky. This display, known as an aurora, is seen from the Earth’s high latitude regions (called the auroral oval), and is active all year round.

Generally, the auroral oval is confined to the polar regions. But occasionally, the oval expands, and the lights become visible at lower latitudes. This happens during periods of high solar activity, such as the arrival of solar storms.

Solar activities include solar flares, solar energetic particles, high-speed solar wind and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). These influence the space weather which originates from the Sun.

Solar flares can typically affect space-dependent operations like Global Positioning Systems (GPS), radio and satellite communications, besides hampering flight operations, power grids and space exploration programmes.

• Israeli authorities are set to unveil previously off-limits structures within King Herod’s palace-fortress Herodium
• Herod’s Palace at Jerusalem was built by Herod I the Great, King of Judea

• Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary- Kerala
• Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary- Assam
• Sipahijola Wildlife Sanctuary- Tripura

1. Statement 1: It is a NGO, not a bureau under UNEP. So, 1 is wrong.
2. TRAFFIC is governed by the TRAFFIC Committee, a steering group composed of members of TRAFFIC’s partner organizations, WWF and IUCN.
3. Statement 2: It is working globally on Wildlife trade monitoring network.
4. It specializes in investigating and analysing wildlife trade trends, patterns, impacts and drivers to provide the leading knowledge base on trade in wild animals and plants.