A Spiral Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright:
Davide Necchi
What's happened to the sky?
Aurora!
Captured in 2015,
this aurora was noted by
Icelanders for its great brightness and quick development.
The aurora resulted from a solar storm,
with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a
crack in Earth's protective
magnetosphere
a few days later.
Although a
spiral pattern can be discerned, creative
humans
might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric
apparition of any number
of
common
icons.
In the foreground of the featured image is the
Ölfusá River
while the lights illuminate a bridge in
Selfoss City.
Just beyond the low clouds is a nearly full Moon.
The liveliness of the Sun -- and likely the
resulting auroras on Earth -- is slowly
increasing as the Sun emerges from a
Solar minimum,
a historically quiet period in its 11-year cycle.