Then the article completely and utterly fails to tell us or show us why. What 8 year old wrote this?
Here is why northern and southern lights are different..
Northern lights are seen in the north and southern lights re seen in the south. Glad to clear that up!
Can you name a liquid that doesn’t freeze?
A: Hot water
Do you know why a Vee formation of geese has one line longer than another?
A: The longer line has more geese in it!
Sorry. Saw the article, posted it and ran, assuming it would have provided the answers. Was on a public PC and was close to timing out. I'll look at it more closely now.
They do seem to explain, but in a very convoluted way. A diagram or other visual would certainly have helped.
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"it made sense to assume the atmospheric displays in each hemisphere would mirror each other. Advances in Earth imaging technology overturned this way of thinking in 2009, when scientists observed simultaneous aurorae drifting across the poles in patterns that didn’t match up.
The study examined images of 10 asymmetric aurorae taken simultaneously from both poles and related changes in the aurorae to changes in Earth’s magnetotail, a windsocklike extension of Earth’s magnetic field.
The researchers found that when solar wind approaches Earth from an east-west direction, it creates uneven pressure on Earth’s magnetotail and tilts it toward the side of the planet shrouded in darkness. That tilt causes the idiosyncrasies of shape and location of the northern and southern lights"