Striking display of the northern lights and airglow

Striking display of the northern lights and airglow Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features a rare display of the northern lights interacting with airglow.

The remarkable view of these two atmospheric phenomena was captured south of the Alaskan Peninsula just before dawn by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The green lights of aurora borealis appear to converge with the red-yellow band of airglow. At the same time, the rising Sun adds a deep blue color to the horizon. Striking display of the northern lights and airglow

Experts at the NASA Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit recently used machine learning to identify all of the images of auroras taken by astronauts over the past few decades. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emit light of varying color and complexity. The form of the aurora, occurring within bands around both polar regions, is also dependent on the amount of acceleration imparted to the precipitating particles. Precipitating protons generally produce optical emissions as incident hydrogen atoms after gaining electrons from the atmosphere. Proton auroras are usually observed at lower

Search “aurora” in the Gateway to Astronaut Photograph of Earth database to find more than 270,000 photographs.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer