Aurora australis light up Australia
Aurora chasers have been delighted recently by the unusually strong light shows seen across Australia, from Perth to Uluru.
The southern lights are typically only seen in the very south of the country, mostly in Tasmania. But a particularly large solar storm around 17 March.
Auroras occur when a stream of charged particles emitted from the Sun makes its way to Earth. During periods of high solar activity, sunspots form and produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These are like gusts of wind that can reach speeds of a few thousand kilometres per second and contain a massive amount of energy. These CMEs interact with atoms in Earth’s magnetic field to cause auroras.
Different atoms create different colours, the most common being red and green for oxygen, and green and blue for nitrogen.
You can sign up for alerts about auroras from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Milky Way + Aurora Australis + Ormiston Gorge = so much wow! Extremely rare pic @Matjoez #AliceSprings #NTaustralia⭐️ pic.twitter.com/E1U1ZJhjRB
— Northern Territory (@AusOutbackNT) March 20, 2015
10 best places to photograph the night sky in #Tassie via @traveltherenex http://t.co/Hp0uuE1zZt #auroraaustralis pic.twitter.com/mIjzIIO0Bm
— Discover Tasmania (@tasmania) March 23, 2015
Rendering 300 frames takes a while doesn’t it! Meanwhile, here’s another still from last night. #Dunedin #aurora pic.twitter.com/KWqHLnrEjA
— Ian Griffin (@iangriffin) March 17, 2015
If u went to bed last night, u missed this. 🙂 #AuroraAustralis from my backyard in #Kiama @EpicCosmos @TamithaSkov pic.twitter.com/VqwjVlmlaE
— Photography by Rudi (@rudiphoto) March 17, 2015
David Finlay captured this image of aurora from Goulburn NSW Australia. pic.twitter.com/ugDou8tnRh
— Con Stoitsis (@vivstoitsis) March 17, 2015
Have you seen the aurora australis? #Tasmania is a great viewing spot. #CradleMountain. Photo: Jason L. Stephens http://t.co/zsKkTJfUX2
— Down Under Answers (@DownUnderAnswer) March 22, 2015
