Auroral Display of March 1, 2013

April 15, 2013

Teepee-aurora

Photographer: Natalia Robba; Natalia's Web site
Summary Author: Natalia Robba; Jim Foster

As shown above, a startling auroral display was witnessed by appreciative guests at the Abisko Mountain Lodge in Sweden, on the night of March 1, 2013. Fortunately, the sky was clear with only a few wispy cirrus clouds visible. Just as soon as the stars started to appear in the early evening the northern lights began to shine. Though they could be easily seen all night long, their opening act was particularly attention getting. This very active display was triggered by a coronal mass ejection -- high-speed particles ejected from the Sun reached Earth on February 28. The resulting geomagnetic storms were reported from polar latitudes for the first few nights of March.

Photo details: Nikon D700 camera;, Nikon 14-24mm lens - at 14mm; ISO 1600; 5 second exposure.