Aurora Borealis - Polar Lights

Following is the photo reporting from Moscow, Russia on the night of September, 15th 2005. By Nikodemus (nikodemus@list.ru)

An aurora is an optical phenomenon characterised by colourful displays of light in the night sky. Solar radiation acts with various gases in an atmosphere of the Earth, giving rise to polar light. Nitrogen gives a lilac shade, oxygen - red or green, sodium - yellow and the results are surprising - a curtain, a crown, a tape, a spiral, an arch. The shapes created are very beautiful and unusual.

This week marks the start of big solar activity. Scientists from all world agreed that it is the biggest phenomenon in history. In all the newspapers it has been written that on the night of September 15th, there will be beautiful polar light in Moscow - the phenomenon is very rare and occurs only on the Far North.

As soon as night fell, my friends and I gathered together. Having taken a videocamera, the still camera we rushed off on a train. We went to the surburbs of the city - where it is not so cloudy. In a forest park the real fairy tale began - In our lifes we have not seen anything like this!
There we took photographs 2 hours on end, but time drew short, and we decided to return to city.

Aurores Boreales View from City.
By then the clouds had disappeared, also we already tried to take photographs in the city. At last we have called up our friends from the astronomical institute. They had just processed the pictures received from space.

Saturn Aurora
On Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, aurorae are caused by the interaction of solar wind particles with the planet's magnetic field, and are therefore most prominent in higher latitudes near the magnetic poles. For this reason, the aurora occurring in Earth's Northern Hemisphere is called the aurora borealis, or northern lights; and in the Southern Hemisphere the aurora australis.

Space Aurora ISS.
Above is a picture taken from the International Space Station (ISS) of the phenomenon

Photos by Nikodemus Koniwzski and Alex Markoff
Aurora Borealis as seen from space - (Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA)