This page describes an image Northern light dragon over Ersfjordbotn/Norway
Image caption:
Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Aurorae (still images)
Aurorae often display waving curtain-like patterns where arcs or bands form moving curls, folds, or even spirals. These irregular shapes mirror the small-scale structure of Earth's magnetic field interacting with charged particle flows. Although the full Moon illuminates both the landscape and the night sky, the auroa is easily visible, which demonstrates that it can be a very bright and colourful phenomenon.
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Image credit:
Rainer Sparenberg/IAU OAE
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5278430
Related glossary terms:
Aurora
, Geomagnetic Storm
, Ionization
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
Image license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Captions in Different Languages:
Image caption: Secondo posto al concorso di astrofotografia IAU OAE 2021, categoria Aurore (immagini fisse).
Le aurore mostrano spesso modelli simili a tende ondeggianti in cui archi o bande formano riccioli, pieghe o persino spirali in movimento. Queste forme irregolari rispecchiano la struttura su piccola scala del campo magnetico terrestre che interagisce con flussi di particelle cariche. Anche se la Luna piena illumina il paesaggio e il cielo notturno, l'aurora è facilmente visibile, il che dimostra che può essere un fenomeno molto luminoso e colorato.
Image credit: Rainer Sparenberg/IAU OAE
Related glossary terms: Aurora , Ionizzazione , Tempesta Geomagnetica Caption translation status: Approved by a reviewer
Caption translators: Giuliana Giobbi, Francesco Salvestrini
Caption reviewers: Rosa Valiante, Rodolfo Canestrari
