Flowing Auroras Over Norway
Tor Even Mathisen; Music: Per Wollen; Vocals: Silje Beate Nilssen
Have you ever seen an aurora?
Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency.
With the Sun peaking at its
eleven year maximum in aurora-triggering activity, it is 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 impact Earth's magnetosphere and trigger
Earthly auroras.
In late 2010, the
above timelapse displays
of picturesque auroras were
captured above
Tromsø,
Norway.
Curtains of auroral light, usually green,
flow,
shimmer and
dance as
energetic particles fall toward the Earth and
excite atoms of air high up in the Earth's atmosphere.
There may even be
opportunities to see
auroras tonight, as
recent solar explosions
have triggered numerous
aurora sightings over the past few days.