APOD: 2023 April 19 Б Auroral Storm over Lapland
Explanation:
On some nights the sky is the best show in town.
On this night,
auroras ruled the sky, and the
geomagnetic storm that created this
colorful sky show originated from an
increasingly
active Sun.
Surprisingly, since the approaching
solar CME the day before had missed the Earth,
it was not expected that this storm would create auroras.
In the foreground, two happily surprised
aurora hunters contemplate the amazing and rapidly changing sky.
Regardless of forecasts, though,
auroras were reported in the night skies of Earth not only in the far north,
but as far south as
New Mexico,
USA.
As captured in a wide-angle image above
Saariselkц in northern
Finnish
Lapland,
a bright aurora was visible with an unusually high degree of detail, range of colors,
and breadth across the sky.
The vivid yellow, green, red and purple
auroral colors are caused by
oxygen and
nitrogen atoms high in
Earth's atmosphere reacting to incoming
electrons.
Open Science:
Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
