Northern lights can fill a sky above a coastline or trace a luminous band around Earth's curved horizon. This collection brings together views associated with Norway, Alaska and space, making the observer's position part of the attraction. Mountains and shorelines give the ground scenes a familiar scale; from orbit, the planet itself becomes the foreground.
Why the northern lights have different colours
The light is produced in the atmosphere when energetic particles excite atoms and molecules, which then emit light. Different gases and transitions produce different colours. NOAA identifies atomic oxygen as the source of the common pale green aurora, while nitrogen contributes other colours. That is why the display is more than sunlight reflected off clouds or ice. [1]
Several recordings, not a single global display
The clips are separate recordings, not one simultaneous aurora seen from several places. The Fairbanks sequence is labelled January 22, 2012, while the other uploads have their own provenance. Exposure, playback speed and editing can change how bright or fast a display appears, so a vivid sequence should not be taken as a guarantee of what every observer will see unaided.
Explore more: aurora from an aircraft window; planning ground-based viewing without guarantees.
Videos: Coronal aurora over Fairbanks, Alaska (January 22, 2012) (published by subresidance); Northern Lights from space (published by Pure Gold).
Looking upward into a coronal aurora
The Fairbanks clip is described as a coronal aurora. From beneath an overhead display, the luminous structures appear to gather toward a point, producing a very different composition from a band near the horizon. Compare the direction your eye follows in those two views: outward across a landscape in one, and upward into the sky in the other.
Aurora along Earth's curved horizon
The space footage adds a third frame of reference. Earth's curvature shows the glow in relation to the atmosphere rather than a nearby mountain, and the dark ground makes its extent easier to appreciate. After watching, the linked viewing guide is a practical next step for a ground-based trip. Dark skies and a clear view matter, but no destination booking can promise that the aurora will appear on a particular night.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Aurora Borealis
- Norway
- Alaska
- Glass Igloos with Magnificent Northern Lights Views in Finland
- The Arctic Light, A Really Amazing Video
- The Best 10 Places to See the Magnificent Northern Lights!
- aurora from an aircraft window
- planning ground-based viewing without guarantees
- Coronal aurora over Fairbanks, Alaska (January 22, 2012)
- Northern Lights from space
Beauty
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