How long do auroras last? How many different colors can auroras be?
Dear Writer, That’s a good, practical question. A very faint aurora might only be visible for a few seconds perhaps, whereas aurora caused by a major solar storm might last off and on for several days, though it would not be visible during the day. The typical aurora display seems to last perhaps an hour or two. Sometimes they fade away but reappear minutes or hours laters. But if you ever see one, you will never forget it! As for colors, green is the most common, followed by blues and reds and yellows. Sometimes one color is about all you see; other times, one dominates with a little bit of the others; and finally sometimes there are all the colors about evenly distributed.
