Drop everything and watch this breathtaking video of the Northern Lights from the space station

Stunning video of the space station shows shimmering northern lights from above

By Saima S. Iqbal

A severe but harmless solar storm collided with Earth over the weekend, creating shimmering auroras centered at the North and South Poles. In the Northern Hemisphere, the dancing blue, green and pink auroras could be seen as far away as Texas and Mississippi – and an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured the scene from above in a mesmerizing time-lapse video that also includes the moon and sunrise.

The storm has subsided, but people in Canada and some other northern regions can still see flashes of color in the night sky. A large group of sunspots could come into Earth’s view this weekend, creating solar flares that could sustain auroral activity.

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This latest wave of auroras was created by a spate of five solar outbursts called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These are naturally occurring eruptions of magnetized plasma that sometimes hurtle toward Earth and disrupt our planet’s magnetic field. When that happens, the resulting solar storm creates charged particles that collide with elements in Earth’s atmosphere, creating auroras. Reactions with atomic oxygen, for example, produce red or green lights.

Solar storms don’t just produce auroras, though—they can also snarl satellites, short out internet cables, and overload the power grid. The most recent storm peaked at G4, or “severe.” That’s one level below a storm in May that, while manageable, hampered satellite operators’ work and messed up some GPS-guided farm equipment. The scale by which space weather experts rate solar storms ranges from G1 (mild) to G5 (extreme), and both G4 and G5 events are rare. For both the May storm and this one, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned major power grid operators and air traffic controllers of potential technical impacts, allowing them to implement protective measures such as radiation shields and backup systems. As a result, critical infrastructure appears to have safely weathered this recent storm.

“Most space weather events, even the most extreme ones, can be successfully mitigated,” says Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. People “can watch the auroras, enjoy the beautiful display, and focus on the spectacular rather than the consequences.”

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick secured his view by pointing a camera out the window of the space station’s cupola. In the video he captured, bright pink and pale green auroras billow over the Earth’s surface. The moon appears in the background, and later the sun rises, illuminating a Soyuz spacecraft with blue light. In a phone call from the ISS, Dominick said: Scientific American that he has been working on the technology to capture time-lapse videos for some time and is excited to show people how stunning the Northern Lights look from space. “It was intense,” Said Dominick. “I am up here with a few veterans who have spent more than a year of their lives in space, on missions, and all have unanimously declared that they‘I have never seen anything like this before.”

Those who want to experience the lights for themselves – albeit from the ground – should check the Space Weather Prediction Center’s 30-minute aurora forecast and watch late at night from a location outside city limits to avoid light pollution, which can obscure the display. The best viewing spots are those closer to Earth’s poles, and auroras typically appear brightest one to two hours after midnight (between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time). Digital cameras can also capture faint forms of light that are invisible to the naked eye, Dahl adds.

Those who miss this week’s aurora will likely have a chance to see auroras in the future. Scientists predict that several powerful solar storms will batter the planet over the next two years as the sun goes through the “maximum” of its 11-year magnetic cycle. At the peak of the cycle, solar flares such as coronal mass ejections occur up to two or three times per day. The increased activity increases the likelihood of solar storms and their byproducts: majestic auroras and potential technological disruption.

Additional reporting by Kelso Harper.