It was the weekend when much of the country got to experience a phenomenon usually seen only in southern latitudes – the Aurora Australis. Or as we call it around here, Tahu-nui-ā-Rangi. The light show
was the result of the most powerful solar storm in two decades. The coronal mass ejection (CME) from a sunspot 15 times the diameter of Earth shot plasma into space, causing the planet’s magnetic field to wobble a bit while making atmospheric gas atoms paint the night sky in vivid colours.
In this shot, looking across Lake Ellesmere in Canterbury, the red colours suggest very high-altitude oxygen interacting with solar particles; the yellow is also oxygen; and the pink is characteristic of nitrogen, the most prevalent gas in our atmosphere.
With more solar storms predicted throughout the year, who knows if we’ll be lucky enough to see it again this weekend?
