The northern lights are very beautiful, but you can enjoy them not only from the earth, but also from space.
The Sun has been in a period of great activity lately. Constant magnetic storms, emissions and other manifestations of this activity lead to the fact that the number of northern lights has increased on Earth. This phenomenon is simply mesmerizing and does not leave indifferent any of those who have seen it at least once in their lives. But if you think that beautiful photos of different shades of greenish-blue glow look very beautiful, then from space it looks just amazing. Of course, this happened before, but now we have another video of this phenomenon, which is simply impossible not to share, because it is very beautiful.
Can you see the northern lights from space?
Last days of February were marked by those very bright flashes in the sky of high latitudes. Many people tried to see this phenomenon live, but we are all used to seeing it only in photographs taken from the bottom up. But the International Space Station is constantly in Earth’s orbit, which we often talk about on our website. Its crew flies around our entire planet several times a day. They showed what the northern lights look like from space. For the sake of such beauty, you might even want to become an astronaut.
Pictures and videos provided NASA astronaut Joshua Kassada and a representative of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aboard the International Space Station Koichi Wasada. The video shows the aurora shimmering green against the natural golden glow of Earth’s night sky. In order to see the maximum colors, either be patient and watch the entire video, or rewind it towards the end to see all the beauty at once. But the beginning of the video, where there are no northern lights yet, fascinates with its beauty.
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Why does the sky glow at night
earthly the sky is never completely dark, even at night, when the planet is turned to the Sun by the other side. It is thanks to the Sun that we can see this soft glow. It occurs when molecules split by solar radiation during the day recombine, releasing their excess energy in the form of photons.
How the northern lights appear
Aurora, on the other hand, is more situational. It happens, when solar wind particles collide with the earth’s magnetic field and are carried away. They accelerate along magnetic field lines at high latitudes close to the north or south poles. There, they interact with atmospheric particles, which in turn creates dancing green lights that flicker in the sky.
Northern Lights from space – a special kind of pleasure
The sun is always emitting streams of charged particles, but their flow is usually insufficient to create a truly large-scale northern lights. However, when the activity of the sun is very high and the number of particles emitted by them increases dramatically, this interaction becomes enough to produce visible light shows. Moreover, the stronger the solar wind, the larger the glow area will be. In some cases, when activity is at its highest, aurora borealis can be seen down to mid-latitudes.
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Solar Activity Forecast
Being especially active in the last year or two, the Sun has thrown out a large number of powerful flares as it approaches the peak of its normal 11-year activity cycle. February was several very powerful class M and X flares. This is the designation for flares that correspond to the most powerful categories of solar radiation.
Such beauty is possible only due to the radiation of the Sun.
Although the current cycle is significantly stronger than previously predicted, the activity of the Sun is still in a relatively normal range, so there is nothing particularly alarming about its behavior. At the same time, the most powerful outbreak, when it occurs, can cause a geomagnetic storm that can disrupt satellite and radio communications. She may even damage electrical networks. This has already happened in history, although since then the systems have become much more fault-tolerant, because their importance has increased significantly, and you should not worry about this in the near future.
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However, it looks like we’re in for an absolutely incredible aurora season. Those on the hunt for this phenomenon can find forecasts from a variety of sources, including NOAA’s Space Weather Forecast Center and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s Aurora Forecast Center. The first offers data relevant to the northern hemisphere, and the second to the southern.
