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Goran Strand
Göran Strand of Östersund, Sweden, took a panoramic photo of Tuesday night's sights and wrapped it into a 360-degree composition titled "Planet Aurora."
The skies are settling down after this week's big solar storm, leaving behind a gallery of green-glowing pictures as a lasting legacy.
For a time on Tuesday, the solar radiation levels registered as the highest in more than eight years, but the most significant impact came in the form of shifts in airline routes to avoid polar disruptions in communications. Strong solar storms have the potential to disrupt electrical grids and satellite operations, but no big problems were reported on those fronts this week.
"Conditions are now beginning to trend back toward quiet levels," the experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center reported today. By Thursday, geomagnetic activity is expected to be back down to background levels.
The bright northern lights associated with the storm wowed observers in Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland, but the show "petered out almost completely by the time it reached North America," SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips reported. Oh, well. At least we have the photographs captured by those who did get in on all the fireworks.
One of the most unorthodox views comes from Göran Strand of Östersund, Sweden, who took a panoramic photo of the northern lights and wrapped the sights into a 360-degree composition titled "Planet Aurora." The picture shows a photographer standing on a snowy circle, with trees bristling around the edge and ripples of red and green light glowing in the surrounding sky.
"Me and a friend went out to capture the beauty, and what a show it was," Strand told SpaceWeather.com. "I made two panoramas of my friend while he was taking pictures." Check out this page to see how the wide-screen panorama compares with the 360-degree planet view. While you're at it, visit Strand's AstroFotografen website, and don't miss the other images in SpaceWeather.com's aurora gallery.
Here are a few videos featuring views of the northern lights:
The northern lights shine in photos from Fairbanks, Alaska. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports on the spectacular light show over northern Europe.
Photographer Chad Blakley shot this video over the course of three hours in Sweden's Abisko National Park. It shows eight photographers participating in the "Lights Over Lapland" aurora photo expedition. "We had a fantastic night!" Blakley writes. Lights Over Lapland Photo Expedition video of CME impact on 1-24-2012 from Lights Over Lapland on Vimeo.
Norway's Orjan Bertelsen says this time-lapse video draws upon 1,600 still images. Auroras 22.01.12 Birtavarre Norway from Orjan Bertelsen on Vimeo.
More auroral glories:
- Auroras spark awe across the north
- 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:
It's a small world afterall. Seriously, cool picture.
Wonderful shot...wonderful mind to conceive and accomplish it.
Alas.... I'm pretty sure I'll never see this in Hawaii.
I don't think I'm going to feel too bad for you, Hawaii Charles ;-)
You never know. I thought the same thing, living in Central New Mexico-- but lo and behold, there it was one night when I was in high school. I thought I was hallucinating until I got confirmation-- saw some photographers taking pictures on the side of the road and news crew. It was in all the papers the next day.
In any case, don't you guys have that nifty green flash at sunset out in Hawaii? Pretty cool if you ask me...
Beautiful.
Nice...thank you
nice photos ...but the ones that cant be taken for your eyes only beautiful skys week
Inspirational! Marvelous! Thank you!
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" Psalm 8: 3-4
I yearn for the day when humans take their eyes off their petty grievances and set their sights on the fantastic creation all around them...and begin to comprehend their place in it.