Starship Asterisk*

A Flag Shaped Aurora over Sweden

Explanation: It appeared, momentarily, like a 50-km tall banded flag. In mid-March of 2015, an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection directed toward a clear magnetic channel to Earth led to one of the more intense geomagnetic storms of recent years. A visual result was wide spread auroras being seen over many countries near Earth's magnetic poles. Captured over Kiruna, Sweden, the image features an unusually straight auroral curtain with the green color emitted low in the Earth's atmosphere, and red many kilometers higher up. It is unclear where the rare purple aurora originates, but it might involve an unusual blue aurora at an even lower altitude than the green, seen superposed with a much higher red. Now past Solar Minimum, colorful nights of auroras over Earth are likely to increase.

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Is this near where you live Ann?

Very nice. I think everybody should get to see an aurora in real time at least once in their life. I seen it once and it is gobsmacking. What is also amazing is how the photographer managed to pose the trees to point to the centre of the aurora. The trees on the right are pointed left, and the trees on the left are pointed right. I've never seen that before. Usually trees on average are influenced by the prevailing wind.

See the flag of Azerbaijan:

https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/w ... 897185.htm

Note the single star in the flag. What is the single star in the aurora's name?

De58te, Lie down in the middle of the road and take a picture of the skyscrapers and you will have the answer

XgeoX wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:38 am Is this near where you live Ann?

It's at the absolute opposite end of the country from Ann. 1000 km farther north.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:53 pm

XgeoX wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:38 am
Is this near where you live Ann?

It's at the absolute opposite end of the country from Ann. 1000 km farther north.

Ann practices Kiruna social distancing and (as I recall) she claims to have never observed an aurora.

On top of the it all! Please don't jump!


It's god's gift!

Sa Ji Tario wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:09 pm
De58te, Lie down in the middle of the road and take a picture of the skyscrapers and you will have the answer

• Note: The Starship Asterisk* does not recommend (or generally condone)
  lying down in the middle of the road in order to take pictures of skyscrapers

They say the blue stripe is N₂ 8-100 km high, a faint glow where O atoms are colliding with N₂ too frequently to produce their green or red.
So the snapsot must be misleading and confusing when suggests to place the blue stripe atop of red and green ones.
In fact the blue stripe must be extremely low, just above the clouds.

Compare the flag of Azerbaijan. (Low probability of getting a thin crescent moon in the right place, though.)