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Credit & Copyright: Mia Stеlnacke
Explanation:
It appeared, momentarily, like a 50-km tall banded flag.
In mid-March, an energetic
Coronal Mass Ejection
directed toward a clear magnetic channel to Earth led to one of the more intense
geomagnetic storms of recent years.
A visual result was wide spread
auroras being seen over many countries near
Earth's magnetic poles.
Captured over Kiruna,
Sweden, the image features an unusually
straight
auroral curtain with the
green color emitted low in the
Earth's atmosphere, and red many kilometers higher up.
It is unclear where the rare
purple aurora originates,
but it might involve an unusual
blue aurora at an even lower altitude than the green,
seen superposed with a much higher red.
As the Sun continues near its
top level of
surface activity, colorful
nights
of
auroras over Earth are likely to continue.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: aurora - Sweden
Publications with words: aurora - Sweden
See also: