These are some magnificiant pictures and videos of auroras that was taken due to the event of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, that hit our planet earlier this week. A CME is a cloud of superheated gas and charged particles hurled off the sun. The experts said that a strong solar flare had erupted from an active region on the sun triggered the strongest solar storm experienced since October 2003.

When a CME hits Earth, the charged solar particles can interact with gases in our atmosphere to produce the northern and southern lights [National Geographic].

Facts : Airplanes had to change routes, and the power grid and satellites were affected.

Photograph by Ole C. Salomonsen, www.arcticlightphoto.no
Taken in Lyngan Alps near Tromsø, Norway, on January 24.

Photograph by Thilo Bubek, www.bubek-fotodesign.com
Northern lights flow over the snow-dusted mountains near Tromsø, Norway, on January 21.

Photograph by Thilo Bubek, www.bubek-fotodesign.com
Bright green auroras light up the night sky near Tromsø, Norway, on January 21.

Photograph by Bjørn Jørgensen
Bright auroras seem to spread like wings over the mountains outside of Tromsø, Norway, on January 22.

More pictures and information on National Geographic..

Videos


Time-lapse movie of the coronal aurora appeared over Fairbanks, Alaska. Red aurora was also captured. (1:44 - 2:11am AKST, January 22, 2012).


Northern Lights 24.1.2012 (Solar Storm) Ylläs-Äkäslompolo, Lapland Finland.


www.northernlightsphotography.no


Amazing view of the aurora borealis in Sweden on January 24th, 2012. Chad Blakley, www.lightsoverlapland.com


[via National Geographic]



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