Aurora Blast
Posted by JAC on 2/16/2010, 6:50 am
On Feb. 15th, an intense wave of Northern Lights swept across Scandinavia.

"We had a fantastic blast of auroras here in Kvalya, Norway," reports Helge Mortensen.

"They were bright and very active.

What a view!"

He made this self-portrait using a Canon EOS 40D:





The display got started when the sun's magnetic field near Earth tipped south.

Red plot in figure below (Bz):






This opened a hole in Earth's magnetosphere.

Solar wind poured in and fueled the auroras.

The lights were so bright they reflected in water, cast shadows on snow, and descended as far south as Scotland and Northern Ireland.













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Aurora Blast - JAC, 2/16/2010, 6:50 am
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