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Sylvain Serre
Sylvain Serre took this picture of the northern lights on Sept. 3 from the village of Ivujivik in Quebec.
Our planet has managed to dodge the potential ill effects from a string of solar storms over the past couple of weeks ... while still enjoying the wonders.
The region on the sun's disk known as sunspot 1283 has been spouting off with one flare after another, earning it the title of "Old Faithful" among solar physicists. Old Faithful has thrown off several coronal mass ejections, which are outbursts of solar particles that stream through the solar system at speeds of a million miles per hour. If a powerful outburst hits Earth's magnetic field were to hit just wrong, that could cause problems for satellite operations, communication links and electrical grids.
One of the most famous disruptions in recent times was the Hydro-Quebec blackout of 1989, caused by a huge disturbance in space weather. Back in 1859, an even bigger solar storm flashed through daylight skies and set telegraph wires sizzling. Some observers say such an event would blow out civilization's fuses if it happened today, but experts downplay the chances of seeing a solar doomsday anytime soon.
Solar activity is definitely on the upswing toward an expected maximum in 2013, but so far, we haven't seen any direct hits on the magnetosphere. Instead, we're seeing a series of glancing blows that have set off beautiful auroral displays in the upper atmosphere, like the show that photographer Sylvain Serre captured from northern Quebec on Sept. 3.
"For the first time of the season, there was a clear sky in the northern village of Ivujivik (the highest point in Quebec)," Serre wrote in a note to SpaceWeather.com. "So I went outside with a friend to take a little walk and to get more familiar with the landscape around here. Fortunately, the northern lights were very bright, dense and colorful."
For the camera buffs out there, Serre used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 16-35mm lens set at f/2.8 and 4000 ISO, at exposures ranging from 10 to 25 seconds. Check out the SpaceWeather gallery or Serre's website for still more thrilling views of the northern lights.
Ron Garan / NASA via Twitpic
NASA astronaut snapped this picture of an auroral display from the International Space Station and sent it down to Earth via his Twitpic account on Monday.
For a completely different perspective on the aurora, feast your eyes on this view of the southern lights, as seen by NASA astronaut Ron Garan from the International Space Station over the weekend. The space station's Italian-built Leonardo storage module is visible in the foreground.
Garan has had the good fortune to see a wide range of glorious phenomena during his time in orbit — including the Perseid meteor shower, as viewed from above, and an astronaut's-eye view of Atlantis' historic descent to the last-ever space shuttle landing. He's been sharing these and other visual treats via his Twitpic account as well as his Fragile Oasis website.
Garan promises that better pictures of the aurora are "coming soon." But those pictures might have to wait until after he lands back on Earth on Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. "I have thousands of pictures for Twitter when back from space," he wrote on Monday. "You've seen just the tip of the iceberg."
As a parting shot, here's the final installment of Garan's "Cupola Corner" video series with fellow NASA astronaut Mike Fossum:
With the sun rising outside their window, NASA astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum reflect on their 100 shared days on the International Space Station.
More views of auroras and space sights:
- Northern lights caught on video
- From U.S. to Paris with the northern lights
- Familiar sights from alien heights
- Space station takes center stage
- Month in Space: Still more beautiful blasts
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Auroras are amazingly beautiful. It's hard to describe how brilliant an aurora can be.
Preppers Road March was a good fiction bok about surving after a solar storm took out the grid
Article is slightly incorrect...the statement "the northern village of Ivujivik (the highest point in Quebec)" is wrong on two counts. The "highest point" is hundreds of miles away on the border with Newfoundland & Labrador. The "most northerly point" (which is what I assume they mean) is actually Cape Wolstenholme and is about 17 mi. from the village of Ivujivik.
This is what Sylvain said in his note, but in the interest of accuracy I'll remove his parenthetical comment and add an ellipsis. Probably just a little Ivujivik pride talking.
The beautiful the solar storm is, the bigger the ozone hole.
Ozone has nothing to do with it.
I hope I can see a solar storm someday, in real life. I always hear about them after the fact. /whine>
to Billie
Solar storms affect the magnetic field around earth. Has nothing to do with the Ozone layer.
to Billie
Solar storms affect the magnetic field around earth. Has nothing to do with the Ozone layer.
We see it every night in Alberta
That's not true..I have lived in AB for 30 years and I am a backyard observer. Maybe people in the northern part of AB might see this more often but only a few times a month on average. If that. You can get a daily report of where the auroral oval will be right here.
OH Canada !
The next time some one of the idiot persuaision tries to tell you that we can't do Science and Math as well as the rest of the world, remind them that the Hubbel Telescope was built by hand by Americans in an American factory, by Real Americans who did not work for minimum wage! We are the Children of the Universe and we've been given our dirver's license by God herself and want's all humanity to learn to appreciate the cosmos into which we were flung and are the heirs. No go figure out how to monitize the Universe and let's get on with exploration.
uh, interesting opinion, but what's THAT got to do w/photos of the aurora?
Yeah, i don't see any connection.
Anyhoooow, I would just love to see the northern lights. I want to know what they look like in real time, not the time lapse videos i always see.
Appreciating the cosmos is our duty to understanding our place in it. Recent political efforts to drive American's away from doing groundbreaking Math and Science and downgrading the efforts at NASA, lead me to comment on more than the pretty picture. Get it? We live in a wonderous universe, we are wonderous, our work to apprehend it's and our significance is the work we are to be about.
Beautiful!!!
Beautiful!!!
"outbursts of solar particles that stream through the solar system at speeds of a million miles per hour."
As far as I knew or thought that nothing could exceed the speed of light which is 186,000 mph or so, we can only speed particles upt to 99.999% the speed of light in colliders, but it seems more like reporters spouting off sensationalism at or near the speed of light.
Eric, Light travels at 186,000 PER SECOND. You do the math, 186,000 x 60 sec. x 60 min. = a lot more than a few million miles a hour.
Darn those pesky units!!!
Mitchell
Yep, or 669,600,000 miles an hour, 670 millon miles per hour, to be semi-exact - some reporters are actually well versed in science :-) . Now I'm not commenting on them being well versed in unbiased reporting! :-)
Why do we have a pic of the Aurora with some dude standing in it? I think it detracts from the aurora. Is the purpose self promotion, or just bad photography?
Is this another one of those doomsdays scares? How do these space storms knock out our power grids? Cellular I can understand, it doesn't take much to block that signal.
When the Earth's geomagnetic field is disturbed due to increase solar wind particle flux, long power lines generate more current. Basic electricity and magnetism: an electric field generates a magnetic field, a magnetic field generates a current in wires. Google "Space weather". There are other effects on technological systems from solar flares; spacecraft charging, increased satellite drag, disturbed HF radio communications, etc.
However these things are made, they are just awesome to look at.
nice
I think in the Shetlands they're referred to as the "Merry Dancers". Thanks for the photo, I'd always heard of them but was in Skagway, Alaska in "quiet" time 1980, and the "dust devils" were dancing on the upper Great Plains from Mt. St. Helens. The Russian cruise ship "Odessa" though stopped in Skagway and gave a free show at lunch hour with their balalaika dancers! I was working on its historical archeology for the National Park Service.
beautiful
The aroras are indeed impressive and beautiful. occasionally they are visible pretty far south. I think it was in 1958 that I saw the red type all the way down in southern California.
I think you're right, and that the red type are more common as you go south. I spent quite a bit of time in northern Minnesota and the blues and greens were more prevalent.
Once, in the middle of South Dakota I was traveling very early in the morning. I got out to use the country man's restroom, and the whole northern half of the sky was a significant red (all 180 degrees) and straight up was a full moon. I would have LOVED to have had a camera and the knowledge to use it to capture that scene. It was a one in a million experience. I can admit I had a 'religious pause' at that time it was so much the strangest thing I'd ever seen. This was back in the late 80's.
LOL @ the logo's.....advertisement in space...who knew?
As the Aurora shows its light show in places that are not common to this event and further from the pole, it gives cause for concern and suggest magnetic anomalies may be present and are indicators of a upcoming pole shift. If that is what our future holds by all means, please take the time to enjoy the show