When a geomagnetic storm hits Earth, the planet’s magnetic field lines are temporarily perturbed, and the process releases extremely high magnetic energy. The energy and heat are enough to ionize the oxygen in the upper atmosphere and turn it into the blue-green color of light we know as aurora. Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis in the North Pole and Southern Lights or Aurora Australis in the South Pole. Although auroras are usually green in color, they can sometimes appear pink or red.
Today’s NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is a stunning snapshot of auroras lighting up the sky over Saariselka in northern Finnish Lapland. It was the result of a powerful CME hitting Earth and according to NASA, auroras could be seen not only as far north as New Mexico. The bright aurora seen in yellow, green, red and purple auroral colors mesmerized sky watchers and tourists.
Sometimes, space weather interacting with Earth can cause the polar ices to move even further away from the poles. These mesmerizing lights are constantly changing shape and intensity, from dim and diffuse, to so bright they are visible for miles.
The photograph was taken by Juan Carlos Casado. The astrophotographer is associated with the TWAN initiative as well as Starry Earth. The World at Night (TWAN) is an international effort to present stunning night photographs and timelapse videos of world landmarks against celestial landmarks.
NASA photo description
Some nights Sky Town has the best shows. On this night, the sky was ruled by the aurora, and the geomagnetic storm that created this colorful sky show originated from the increasingly active Sun. Surprisingly, the solar CME that occurred the day before had missed Earth, so it was not expected that this storm would produce an aurora. In the foreground, two aurora hunters happily gaze at the wonderful and rapidly changing sky.
Despite the predictions, however, auroras were reported in Earth’s night sky not only in the far north, but as far south as New Mexico, USA. As captured in a wide-angle image over Saariselka in northern Finnish Lapland, a bright aurora was visible with an unusually high level of detail, range of colors and width across the sky. The vivid yellow, green, red and purple auroral colors are caused by the reaction of oxygen and nitrogen atoms in Earth’s atmosphere with incoming electrons.
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