Northern lights, like never seen before

Terje Sorgjerd

After staying up all night for a week, Norwegian photographer Terje Sorgjerd captured the aurora borealis in a way few have ever seen before.

He endured forbiddingly frigid temperatures of -15 degrees Fahrenheit while shooting 22,000 pictures of the skies near Kirkenes and Pas National Park in Norway, near the Russian border. A testament to his patience and passion, he referred to the expedition as "good fun." The results are stunning.

Terje Sorgjerd

For years Sorgjerd planned, waiting for precisely the right conditions, then packed 90 pounds of gear and headed into the wilderness. Using a motion control dolly in conjunction with professional SLR lenses, he created the time lapse video from 1.3 terabytes of pictures.

Terje Sorgjerd

The Aurora Borealis is caused by radiation from the sun, or "solar wind," interacting with Earth's magnetic field. According to Lorne McKee, a space weather forecaster for Natural Resources Canada, more solar storms are expected, since the sun recently moved from a quiet period in its 11-year solar cycle to a more active phase.

Check out excerpts of his video in our interview with Sorgjerd talking about his work.

The original video can be seen on Vimeo here.

Discuss this post

These are awesome, Jon, thanks for sharing. When we lived in Alaska when I was a kid, the Aurora Borealis was always something to see, so full of color and it was as if the sky were dancing. We still see "some" in the Midwest, but it's almost always just white and faint. Thanks for bringing back beautiful memories!

    Reply#1 - Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:19 PM EDT

    this one is far better - "In The Land Of The Northern Lights"

    by Ole Christian Salomonsen

      Reply#2 - Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:48 AM EDT

      Jon.... ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!! Thank you for doing this and for sharing it with the world! You are awesome and so is your work!

        Reply#3 - Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:55 AM EDT

        If you liked that video, then check this out!

        Vimeo, search for "In The Land of The Northern Lights" by Ole Salomonsen

        THIS is how it should be done! 50000 stills and 6months of work!!!!

        REALTIME speed of the northern lights!

          Reply#4 - Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:13 PM EDT

          check it out !!

          It is also on the forum pages of NASA now! (APOD)

            Reply#5 - Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:16 PM EDT

            Outstanding!!!

              Reply#6 - Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:11 AM EDT

              Outstanding!!!

                Reply#7 - Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:15 AM EDT

                I adore you for your fantastic art of photography - your Nothern Lights are really breathtaking and I've shown it to my friends as it makes people happy! (vimeo.com). Go on with your outstanding work as it is an 'homage' to our beautiful Planet Earth!!! It shows what beauty could teach being transmitted to humans' inner reality and it may support people's willpower to preserve our unique planet wheneven there is a minority of humans who intentionally try to exploit, torture and destroy our earth as if it were their personal property! In any respect your work is highly valuable and I thank you for it!!!!!

                  Reply#8 - Wed Apr 6, 2011 7:17 AM EDT
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