In this absolutely incredible image by Jónína Óskarsdóttir, we see an aurora spotted on March 8, 2012, shimmering over snow-covered mountains in Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland. Geomagnetic storms due to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) earlier in the week have increased in strength, and are now rated a G3 on a scale from G1 to G5.
This space weather is due to the March 7 activity from the sun that caused rapid changes to the shape of Earth’s magnetosphere – the bubble of protective magnetic fields surrounding the planet — resulting in a geomagnetic storm. As of March 8, the storm was fairly mild since the magnetic fields from the CMEs were partially aligned with Earth’s own and thus slid around the magnetosphere.
However, the geomagnetic storm has increased because the magnetic fields of the CMEs have now changed direction such that they can more easily deposit magnetic energy and radiation into Earth’s environment. To read more about the recent geomagnetic storm, check out this post on NASA.
And if you’re loving this magical photograph as much as the Sifter is, you can find the high resolution image here. What a sight!
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Yeah, the sceptics will blame Global warming.
LOL The Aurora has been around longer than Global Warming…. 😉 Beautiful picture!
This winter we even saw the Aurora in southern Ontario very well which is rare, the best I saw it was in the fall traveling along the Saint Lawrence seaway in eastern Quebec its all ways cool to see this awesome light show.
one thing about traveling in Alaska in the summer…no sundown to see the lights
Once when I was flying in northern Canada I was accompanied by the most wonderful light show. It persisted throughout the flight, the landing, the drive home. All the way up to setting up the tripod. Then, like a light switch, it was turned off.
Oh well
that must have been an incredible flight!