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AuroraMAX / Canadian Space Agency
The northern lights take on a weird, rippling shape in a super-wide-angle view captured Sunday night by the Canadian Space Agency's AuroraMAX webcam in Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories. There's more from AuroraMAX at the project's website and on Twitpic.
Is it "auroras" or "aurorae"? The dictionary prefers the former, but either way, there was a multiplicity of auroral awesomeness this weekend — thanks to a solar storm that swept past Earth's magnetic field over the weekend. During the past few days, we've shown off a few stunning images from Norway and Canada, and there's a new crop to share today.
First, a little explanation for what you're looking at:
Auroral lights arise when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with atoms and ions high up in Earth's atmosphere, 60 to 200 miles up. The interaction sets off emissions in wavelengths ranging from blue, to green (the most common color), to red. The colors depend on the energy of the particles in question. To get the full story on that, check out the explanations from the "Causes of Color" website and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
This weekend's auroras were particularly bright because of a strong solar outburst that occurred on Thursday. There's an interval between the outburst and the displays because the particles that are ejected from the sun travel at far less than the speed of light. But they're still pretty speedy — the velocity is on the order of a million miles an hour.
Solar outbursts, known more formally as coronal mass ejections or CMEs, have the potential to disrupt electrical grids or satellite communications. There could be radiation effects on astronauts in orbit or passengers on high-altitude, pole-traversing airplane flights. Thursday's outburst dealt Earth's magnetic field a glancing blow, and no significant negative impact has been reported. However, an even stronger CME is currently on its way toward Earth and may force the rerouting of polar flights. Once again, electric-grid managers and satellite operators will be on alert, as will aurora-watchers.
Observers in northern latitudes can look forward to enhanced auroras over the next couple of nights — and the rest of us can look forward to more images like these:
Bjorn Jorgensen
Bjorn Jorgensen's view of the aurora was captured on Sunday at Grotfjord, close to Tromso in north Norway. "This was amazing," he told SpaceWeather.com. "It was a wonderful experience to see these stunning auroras." The bird-of-prey picture was taken with a Nikon D3S camera equipped with a Nikkor 14-24mm lens. Exposure for the pictures in Jorgenson's set was ISO 2200 at five and six seconds. Check out SpaceWeather.com and ArcticPhoto.no for more views.
Chad Blakley / Lights Over Lapland
Chad Blakley said on Sunday that he had "an unbelievable night" at Sweden's Abisko National Park. "As soon as the sun went down I realized that we were about to experience something special," he told SpaceWeather.com. "The auroras have been dancing all night long and show no sign of stopping! I only came in because 32 gigabytes of memory cards were full and all three batteries were dead!" Click on over to Blakley's Vimeo page for a time-lapse video version of this imagery, and check out SpaceWeather.com for more from Abisko.
Chad Blakley / Lights Over Lapland
The auroral lights in Sweden were so bright that Chad Blakley could capture this view from the street. Blakley says his pictures were shot with a Nikon D7000 and a Tokina 11/16 lens at 2.8 with a 1600 ISO six-second exposure. For more of Blakley's images, check out the Lights Over Lapland website.
Adrian Jannetta and Emma Maddison
Adrian Jannetta took this picture of the auroral arc on Sunday night, about 2 miles west of Morpeth in the Northumberland region of England. "This is the first time I've photographed the aurora and the first time I've seen it since about 2004," he wrote on Flickr. The picture was taken using a Nikon D80 with 18mm lens, set for ISO 1250, f/3.5, 2x30sec exposures. For more auroral views from Jannetta, check his Flickr photostream.
Gregory Clarke
The green glow of the aurora is reflected in a rock pool on the Emerald Isle, in Ireland's County Donegal. "The photo was taken at the end of my shoot as a last grab before heading home," photographer Gregory Clarke said in an email. "I climbed over some rocks to get to a rock pool, took a few test shots and then was treated to what I photographed. The photo was taken at Malin Head, County Donegal, using a Canon EOS Mk3. For that shot I bumped up the ISO to 1600 at f4, shot in RAW, and it seems to be the settings that worked for that shot." You'll find many more shots in Clarke's Flickr photostream.
Jason Ahrns
The red and green auroral lights look like glowing curtains in Jason Ahrns' photo, captured near Fairbanks, Alaska, using a Nikon D5000 camera and an all-sky lens. You can see a time-lapse video that includes this still at Ahrns' Flickr gallery.
Marketa Stanczykova
Marketa Stanczykova said she used a Canon 5D camera with a 17-40mm lens to take this picture of the northern lights dancing over Chatanika in Alaska. "I recently moved to Fairbanks," she said in an email. "My friends, photographers Ronn Murray and Casey Thompson (aurora chasers) took me close to Chatanika. It was an amazing night." For more of her pictures, check out this SpaceWeather.com page and this gallery from 500px.
More great auroral views:
- Northern lights go way, way south
- Speed through Lapland's lights
- Beautiful blasts from solar storms
- Get a video view of Canada's aurora
- Slideshow: The best of the northern lights
- Cosmic Log's auroral archive
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your 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:
Super Cool!
indeed
1I wish I could be there to see this in person
And I wish we don't have that color on our sky for which it means we have ozone hole up there due to the pollution.
No, Billie, the auroras are not due to a lack of ozone. Although that may indeed be a problem, it is thankfully decreasing with regulation of the CFC's that destroy the ozone. As the article explained, this is something else:
No, the auroras have nothing to do with human activity or pollution. Here's the basic explanation of what causes them on my blog
- Auroral physicist and photographer of one of the photos above.
It didn't allow the link. copy/paste and remove spaces before musubk and before .com:
http:// musubk.blogspot .com/2011/09/what-is-aurora-part-1.html
musubk - nice article!
In an effort to combat spam, the ability to include direct links in your posts are not enabled until you have been a "probationary" member for a couple of months, added a couple of "friends", and posted a bit. You had little trouble getting around that limitation, tho.
Friend request sent.
Cheers! ~Michael (Astronomy.FM★Radio)
Billie, nightnight
sorry Billie but the aurora has nothing to do with the ozone
We've had some very good aurora displays in SE Michigan, though not in several years. We'll keep looking, though, and hope for some clear nights. There was one display maybe 20+ years ago, of blazing red lights, kind of a giant red blob in the sky, at a very early hour. State Police, local fire authorities, pollution hot line got tons of calls from citizens, some of whom could not be convinced that it was a very cool natural occurence.
Love the Emerald Green over the Emerald Isle!
This is why Tromso Norway is on my Bucket List...
WWII began a few months after strange Northern lights display. As a follower of history I believe that WWIII will begin in September 2012. "and there shall be plenty of food but none to eat".
Ok, and when is the next rapture coming? I don't want to be late.
Number one on my bucket list.
I'd seen photos before that had the green, pink or pink-red hues, but never one with violet-blue. Wow.
If only Al Gore were alive to see this.
Having lived in Anchorage and then in Nome Alaska for a total of 28 years it was always amazing watching the Northern Lights. We do miss not seeing them living in Oregon now.
Wow. Thanks for sharing what I will never have a chance to see.
I live in northern Alberta/Canada we see them all the time usually green but pink somtimes,if you have never witnessed them the curtain like waves flare out and fade like the flames of a fire crossing through the sky one end to the other.Looking at a static image like a photograph you may have the wrong impression,these curtains of colored light move and flare quickly as i was saying like flames.Commen belief or folk legend is the weather is going to turn colder soon after they appear
A person also has to be patient, you are not going to see the lights right away. You have to stand outside and let your eyes adjust. It takes several minutes until your eyes let you really see the show.
Such pictures look more impressive with a partial earth seting, like a couple of pictures here, rather than just the sky view
1. CREATION: We were made by him and for him. He has the right to rule over us:
“Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalms 100:3)
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." (Col 1:15)
2. FALL: Man rebelled. We wanted to throw off God's rule and live as if there is no creator God.
“..for all have sinned & fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good.” (Romans 3:10-12)
3. REDEMPTION: God's gracious response to our rebellion is to give his son Jesus Christ as the ransom for our rebellion. And through Jesus, God reconciles (deals with our rebellion and sin) people to himself.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
4. RESPONSE: We are commanded to respond to the gospel through repentance and faith. To repent is to recognise his Lordship over us (now as our creator and redeemer) by turning from our sin and rebellion and placing our trust in Christ as our Saviour and Lord.
“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”
No.
John 17:v3. states:- And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Almighty God (Jehovah) Psalm 83: v18. is the one who sent forth Jesus His only begotten son, the first born of his creation to provide the ransom sacrifice to enable man to be forgiven sins. And no one can come to his Father Jehovah except though Jesus His son. (John 14:v6.) So clearly the Father(Jehovah) is the "sender" and the Son (Jesus) is the one "sent" forth. So as the Father is greater than Jesus, as he himself said, (John 14:v28) it is the Father (Almighty God) that is to be worshiped in "spirit and truth" (John 4:v24)
yet another off-topic derail attempt to hijack the discussion; marked as "no value whatsoever"
And all of your rambling has what to do with a story about a solar flare event and the northern lights how again???
Sadly, I have never had the privilege in person, to see such Awe inspiring beauty. WOW!!!!!!
I saw them several times in Montana about 30 years ago. Uncolored rays like spotlights from a nowhere up above shining down on Butte, driving by the city in the middle of the night. Awoken and dragged out of bed in Missoula at 2:00AM to a below zero front yard: the "curtains" were directly overhead, looking like terminating rays ending in s-folds and swirls. They seemed to flicker and shut off, then subtly backfilling the blacked-out patterns as the light returned. Very ethereal. I seem to remember pinks and blues and some greens, but not such bright greens as in these photos. Wish I could see them where I live now, but if all they can see in Northumbria is a distant arc, no chance: not far enough north.
The "wonders" of the "northern lights " are to be credited the creator of the universe, so I feel my previous comment is well justified. What do you accept "Creation" or "Evolution"??
I accept the northern lights are caused by the charged particles streaming from the Sun and interacting with the Earths magnetosphere. Your attempt to side-track the topic towards a 'discussion' of creation or evolution is for another thread all together.
Thank you, GarrettB, for saving me the trouble of typing essentially the same thing. Can't we just enjoy a natural occurrence for what it is and appreciate the science behind it without some zealot trying to turn it into a theological debate?
Charged particles from a mighty solar belch. Looks pretty; smells awful.
You know what they say about belching. Better out than in. ;)
I was a comercial pilot in Alaska for about 15 years and when you see the Northern Lights at altitude, they're just all the more impressive. I remember one night in particular when Hale-Bopp was at its brightest and the Aurora was dancing all over the sky, what a combo.
I've been doing a lot of web wandering and wondering about this Solar Cycle 24 for the last five years and the odds may be in favor of many in more the southernly latitudes getting to experiance these fantastic displays. I am very worried more attention and preparation wasn't given to our North American Canadian electrical grid but hey, is what it is. I mean they did survive Solar Cycle 10 in 1859, although the telegraph was about as electrically invested as we were back then. I will be interesting to say the least.
The odds of this solar cycle leading to a Carrington event are LESS than usual for solar max.
This is a puny solar max.
The odds are not zero, but still there is no reason, other than 2012 BS and how the internet can amplify noise into something mimicking signal, to think that this solar max is special in any way (other than being somewhat LESS energetic than the norm).
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/</p>
Don't let the noise get you down, Nuda!
Cheers! ~Michael (Astronomy.FM★Radio)
Micheal,,, how do you know this will be a puny solar max.
Hiya FedUp!
My first area of study was solar physics, and as a post-doc I worked for a time at the National Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak. I've since moved on, now working on exoplanet detections, but I keep an eye on solar dynamics.
The Sun operates on a more-or-less 11-year cycle of activity (range: 8-15 years). (For the sticklers out there, it's really 22-ish years, but I don't want to get too far off track here.)
Our Sun is a very mildly variable star, varying its output by about 1.3% over the course of an 11-year cycle. It is thought that due to the Sun's differential rotation (slower at the poles than at the solar equator) the Sun's magnetic field becomes increasingly "twisted". At the peak of solar activity - solar maximum - the Sun's magnetic field lines are very tangled; localized north and south magnetic poles appear and are subsumed (creating sunspots), and when these field lines cross or collapse, coronal mass ejections, or full-blown solar flares, may occur.
Eventually the tangled field lines fully collapse, the Sun switches magnetic poles (but not the "geographic" pole of rotation), and the cycle begins again.
By tracking the magnetic polarity of the Sun's surface at a large number of points - something that we've been able to do since Hale built the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory ~1900, we can make "space weather" long-range forecasts of upcoming solar activity.
We are just now climbing out of the deepest solar minimum (the period between solar maximums) that we've seen in over a century; given current activity it's expected that this solar max will be somewhat more modest than what we've seen in the past 60 years. The consensus view (that I happen to disagree with) is that the NEXT solar max will also be somewhat diminished (I believe that still lack sufficient tools to make such a long-range prediction, and I've wagered colleagues that Solar Cycle #25 will have a sunspot count within 10% of the current cycle - I am the world's first "Solar Cooling Denier"™.)
This current solar max - the peak of Cycle #24 - was predicted to top out in November 2008; that date was incrementally pushed back to August 2012; now the current best guesstimate is May 2013.... This has been the most lack-luster solar cycle in my lifetime.
Now, the Sun may blast off a massive solar flare at ANY time, but it's much more likely to do so during solar max. A Carrington event is possible no matter where we are in the solar cycle, but we become more watchful when we see other activity increasing (which just makes sense).
Thanks Michael.
Any time, mano!
Amazing.
Does anyone happen to know of a live streaming site to watch the lights besides the AuroraMAXproject? I wasn't impressed with their little window with no color, unless I'm not accessing it correctly. It sure doesn't look like the pic taken at the top of this articl.! I've really enjoyed www.auroraskystation.com. It's not live streaming but their webcam updates on a regular basis and shows some beautiful displays.
I would love any other recommendations from others~*
Much appreciation!!!
One of my shots from Sunday evening on the North Slope near Prudhoe Bay, AK
Where can one find your shot of the North Slope near Prudhoe Bay, AK at? Do share~*