NASA - Aurorae seen from Space

This movie is a combination of various Northern and Southern Light sightings by the crew of the International Space Station.

One beautiful sign of the space weather at the Earth is the aurora. When the CMEs from the sun interact with the Earth's own protective magnetic shield, its magnetosphere, the magnetosphere becomes disturbed. This ultimately causes charged particles to flow down along magnetic field lines into the polar regions where they hit the atmosphere and create the bright aurora. If viewed from high above Earth, these regions appear as ovals. Images taken by astronauts on the International Space Station show the depth of aurora. Other impacts from space weather include short-circuiting power grids that cause blackouts, disrupting communications, damaging satellites, and endangering astronauts with radiation.

Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
The sequence of shots was taken October 18, 2011 from 07:09:06 to 07:27:42 GMT, on a pass from just south of Alaska to eastern Cuba.

Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
The sequence of shots was taken October 16, 2011 from 09:07:37 to 09:24:10 GMT, on a pass beginning just south of the Gulf of Alaska in the eastern Pacific Ocean to Central America near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. The Aurora Borealis is shown near the beginning of the video over Canada as the ISS continues the pass southeast into North America. The first lights seen on the coast of the western United States are those of southern British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and Washington state. The pass continues through the Rocky Mountains, where Denver, Colorado can be easily spotted as a bright cluster of lights amongst many strings of smaller cities. Finally, the pass follows down the central part of the United States, showing the bright cities of Dallas, Texas and Houston, Texas. The lights of oil platforms just south of Louisiana can be spotted as smaller lights in the Gulf of Mexico. The pass ends over the Caribbean Sea.

Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
This video of the United States at night and the Aurora Borealis was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 29, 2011 from 07:58:04 to 08:09:47 GMT, on an ascending pass from southwestern United States up to southeastern Quebec. The outline of the Michigan peninsula can be clearly seen approximately halfway through the video, with well-known cities like Chicago standing out well (click here to read our article featuring a still image from this video). The haze seen over the bright lights on the surface are likely night time clouds over the area. Near the end of the video, the Aurora Borealis over eastern Canada can be seen until the sunrise in the east slowly comes out.

Aurora Australis 2
Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 18, 2011 from 11:54:56 to 12:18:33 GMT, on an ascending pass from south of Australia in the Southern Pacific Ocean to the Northern Pacific Ocean, west of Central America. Moving lights can be seen several times throughout the video, and the most likely explanation is that these are satellites illuminated by the sun. The Milky Way can be clearly seen rotating slowly through the frames. The glow from the computer screens inside of the cabin is seen throughout the video near the solar panels.

Aurora Australis 1
Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 17, 2011 from 17:22:27 to 17:37:21 GMT, on an ascending pass from south of Madagascar to just southwest of Australia over the Indian Ocean.

Aurora Australis south of Australia
Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 28 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 11, 2011 from 13:45:06 to 14:01:51 GMT, from a descending pass near eastern Australia, rounding about to an ascending pass to the east of New Zealand.

Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 28 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 7, 2011 from 17:38:03 to 17:49:15 GMT, from the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the South Indian Ocean to southern Australia.

Credit: NASA / Videos courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

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• SDO
• Solar
• Dynamics
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• Northern
• Southern
• Light
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• Weather
• Spaceweather
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• ISS
• International
• Station
• borealis
• australis
• expedition
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• astronomy
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[giftsoftheuniverse]

what amazing visions behold our eyes ( or minds)

[tengilla]

Soö many stars...

[55painterman]

COOOOOOL MON"...

[illcities]

that's awesome

[jbruinin]

Magnificent!!

[Myaucat]

going too fast...

[violine777]

Superbe Merci !

[StapledFish]

That is amazing!