A view of the lava flowing from the volcano with the Northern Lights in the background, near the city … [+]
New photos and footage have emerged of the northern lights putting on a show in the background as a volcano erupts in the foreground.
The images, shot on March 23 and 24, come from Iceland, where the Sundhnúkur eruptions are underway near Grindavik on the Reykjanes peninsula.
The image above was taken by Marco Di Marcoan Italian photographer who runs the Volcano hunter Website. He was taking photos and videos on assignment for the Associated Press, which allowed him to access the site. The area around the volcano is closed to the public, so there is no way to reproduce any of these photos.
A view of the lava flowing from the volcano with the Northern Lights in the background, near the city … [+]
Exploding sky
He posted on his Instagram account a series of images of the aurora and the erupting volcano. “I’ve been trying to do a similar shot for years,” he wrote. The sky exploded just a few minutes after we arrived, so we sent in the drones to get a decent composition.” He added that it is very complicated to expose a photo that can capture the different light intensities, with the lava much brighter than the aurora.
The aurora is caused by the solar wind, charged particles from the sun, which are accelerated along the field lines of the Earth’s magnetic field. Green lights are caused by charged particles colliding with oxygen molecules, while nitrogen molecules cause the other colors. They appear in the Earth’s ionosphere hundreds of miles up.
Award winning Belgian Icelandic photographer Jeroen Van Nieuwenhovealso on assignment to Sundhnúksgígar, took this picture of erupting volcano with aurora background.
View of the eruption area with the northern lights dancing in the sky near the town of Grindavik, … [+]
Time-lapse video
However, perhaps the highlight is Di Marco’s timelapse video of the event, taken on March 24, that captured the aurora caused by the massive solar flare unleashed by the sun on March 23 and the resulting coronal mass ejection. A CME is a cloud of magnetic fields and charged particles from the sun that flows through space at speeds of up to 3,000 kilometers per second.
It was “a little too early to show great aurora at the right time in Europe,” Marco wrote. “We are witnessing just the end of the geomagnetic storm just after twilight.
Another photographer, Ingibergur Thortook this picture of the eruption and aurora with Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon in the foreground.
The sun is currently approaching the peak of Solar Cycle 25, which is proving to be much stronger than the previous one. A solar cycle lasts about 11 years.
A similar image of the Bardarbunga aurora and eruption at Holuhraun in Iceland in 2014.
Aurora season
The impressive photos are unlikely to be repeated because the “aurora era” is coming to an end. This is because we have now passed the equinox, so the length of the day in very northern latitudes – such as Iceland – is rapidly lengthening. So, although the northern lights are regularly present, they will not be seen as easily. By June, there will be midnight sun in Iceland and other locations in the Arctic Circle or the Arctic Circle.
The Aurora usually appears in an oval around the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. However, during periods of high magnetic activity – such as right now – the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) can be seen as far south as the US Midwest, Scotland and Wales in the UK and Japan, and the Southern Lights (aurora australis) in New Zealand, Tasmania and southern Australia.
I wish you clear skies and open eyes.
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