They’ll have to be pretty good to outdo what he witnessed last night though.
The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, are caused by collisions of gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the Sun.
The colours can vary depending on which particles are most prevalent in the atmosphere – it’s usually green or occasionally a pinky-red, both of which are caused by oxygen.
The aurora captured by Scott is a lot more red than you’d typically expect though, and its colour is caused by high-altitude oxygen and excited nitrogen.
Red auroras are also more common when there are solar storms, and yesterday Nasa reported that the Sun had emitted a mid-level solar flare – essentially a powerful burst of radiation. So it seems that a few different conditions could have combined to wow Scott, and the deep red of the second picture he posted was just as stunning as the first.
