Northern Lights Over Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

May 21, 2018

Lucy_auroraimage

Photographer: Lucy Hunter
Summary Authors: Lucy Hunter; Jim Foster

This gorgeous aurora was captured over the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore of northern Michigan, earlier this spring. The camera is facing north. The feeble light produced by the purple-colored curtains and the horizon-hugging greenish glow was sufficient to cast shadows on the lake in the foreground. Auroras' colors vary because the Earth's atmosphere is composed of many compounds, particularly nitrogen and oxygen, which when excited by charged particles streaming from the Sun, give off light. Silhouettes of worn out trees nicely accent this scene. Photo taken on May 5, 2018.