Trees, Stars, Aurora!
			
		
		
			Christian Mülhauser; Music: Elemental by Pulse Faction; Path of Stars by Jonathan Geer 
		
		 Have you ever seen an aurora?  
Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency.
With the Sun being 
unusually dormant over the past four years, the amount of Sun-induced auroras has been unusually low.
More recently, however, 
our Sun has become increasingly active and 
exhibiting a greater abundance of 
sunspots, 
flares, and 
coronal mass ejections.
Solar activity 
like this 
typically expels charged particles into the Solar System, some of which may trigger 
Earthly auroras.
Two weeks ago, beyond trees and before stars, a solar storm precipitated the 
above timelapse displays 
of picturesque auroras above Ravnastua, Skoganvarre and 
Lakselv, 
Norway.
Curtains of auroral light, typically green, 
flow, 
shimmer and 
dance as 
energetic particles fall toward the Earth and 
excite 
air molecules high up in the Earth's atmosphere.
With solar maximum still in the future, there may be even better opportunities to see spectacular 
auroras personally over the next few years.