All-sky aurora - 17.3.2015 at 19.35 - 18.3.2015 at 02.00 Helsinki Observation number 34790

Copyright © 2015 Samuli Vuorinen. All rights reserved.

Visibility V / V

Samuli Vuorinen, Kirkkonummen komeetta

In the early evening, all the northern lights forecasts were in red, and I left for nearby Patterimäki with the camera at about 19:35. As soon as I stepped out the ladder door, despite the glow of the street lights, I saw bright northern lights in the northern sky, even though the sky was still bright at dusk. I would run around to get to a slightly darker spot before the northern lights fade.

At the top of the hill I still had time to see a bright warp for a while and I even got a few pictures. Seeing the bright northern lights from the pale evening sky was an impressive experience. The occasional lights in the sky flashed visibly very quickly. The show brought to mind vividly the northern lights seen exactly two years earlier. At that time, however, there was a lot of frost and the sea was still icy. Now there was no information about snow or ice.

Gradually, the northern lights faded, but I waited. Other observers began to gather at the scene. The next time around 10 p.m., the northern lights became more active again and the bright forms of northern lights filled the sky. Soon the brightest section was over again, and the fires faded. I waited, but around 11:30 was forced to hand over and leave home.

At home, I took pictures from the camera and watched the northern lights forecasts and sky cameras on the internet. At about 1 a.m., the northern lights brightened to an incredibly bright pace and the images from the celestial cameras began to burn out. My home balcony only has a view to the south, but it didn’t bother me. There was a very bright northern lights belt in the southern sky for a while.

Finally by 2 o'clock the northern lights had faded and I sank into the night tree. An unforgettable evening!

This description has been automatically translated from Finnish. Click here to see the original text.

10 14

Additional information

Aurora brightness
- Very bright auroras
Colors with unaided eye and other features
- Streaming auroras
  
  Streaming. In streaming aurora fast irregular variations in brightness occur along the horizontal dimension of homogeneous shapes.
- Flickering auroras
  
  Flickering. This rare subclass refers to a situation where irregular variations in brightness occur in aurora, such as in fluttering flames.
- Flaming auroras
  
  Flaming. This rare subclass of aurora does not mean so much a single shape, but a large area in the sky. In the flaming aurora, bright waves that are sweeping upward towards the magnetic zenith emerge in the sky. Very rarely waves can wipe downwards. Bands are usually reported during flaming, less often spots.
- Pulsating auroras
  
  Pulsating aurora. The brightness of the pulsating aurora usually varies rhythmically over a period that can be only a fraction of a second at its fastest, but can also be several minutes. Pulsing usually only occurs in(strong auroral conditions) higher quality shows , especially towards the end of them. However, the pulsation may be followed by yet another eruption. Sometimes the variation in brightness is at the same stage in the whole form, whereby the whole form "turns on and off" at the same time. Pulsation is also found in arches and bands, but above all in spots..
- Blue auroras
  
  Clearly blue auroras can be seen only during the best aurora displays close to the maximum phase or soon after it. Sometimes blue auroras can be seen shortly after the sunset at the top part of the auroral shapes, specially rays. It is created by the mission of the ionized nitrogen molecules created by the suns radiation.
  
  Strongly colored blue auroras. Photo by Jorma Mäntylä.
  
  Blue top parts of the aurora. Image by Tom Eklund.
  
  Blue top parts of the aurora. Image by Jaakko Hatanpää.
  
  Partly blue corona. Photo by Tapio Koski.
  
  Faintly blue top parts of an aurora veil. Photo by Jaakko Hatanpää.
- Red coloration of the shapes top
  
  Auroras which have red top part that can be seen with naked eye are most often observed in the bands and long rays. In this case the lower parts are usually green. If the upper parts are in sunlight, red may be stronger than green. This shade of red is due to the discharge of the excitation state of the atomic oxygen.
  
  Aurora that shift to reddish towards the top. Photo by Karri Pasanen.
  
  Red top in a aurora band. Photo by Simo Aikioniemi.
  
  Red at the top of the aurora. Picture of Tom Eklund.
- Green auroras
  
  Green, seen with the naked eye, is one the most common colors of the aurora. The green color is derived from atomic oxygen.
  
  Green auroras. Lea Rahtu-Korpela.
  
  Green auroras. Photo by Juha Ojanperä.
- White auroras
  
  Paljain silmin valkoinen väri näkyy useimmiten himmeissä näytelmissä, kun silmä ei kykene erottamaan mitään varsinaista väriä. Harvoin kirkkaissa näytelmissä valkoinen väri voi myös syntyä sopivista vihreän, punaisen ja sinisen yhdistelmistä.

Observed aurora forms
- ;Veil;Rays;Band;Corona;Arc

Technical information

Canon EOS 60D, Samyang 8mm.

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