Light spectacle – Very rare – Northern lights visible even over the plains – Meteo




Light spectacle – Very rare – Northern Lights visible even over the plains – Meteo – SRF























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After a few major solar flares, the chances were good; northern lights could be expected. But the fact that they were even visible to the naked eye from the lowlands is surprising.

It was already clear on Friday morning that some larger coronal mass ejections (CME) had taken place.

The background

During solar storms, particles are thrown away from the sun and reach space as the so-called solar wind. When the solar wind hits the Earth, the particles are deflected to the poles by the Earth’s magnetic field. The charged particles from the sun stimulate the molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. These then emit colored light, which we see as northern lights. Northern lights are called Aurora borealis in the north and Aurora australis in the south. Here they are only very rarely observed.

How are the different colors created?

Different gas molecules are responsible. Our atmosphere consists primarily of oxygen and nitrogen. Radical oxygen emits red light, usually at an altitude of 200 km. Further down in the atmosphere, at an altitude of around 100 km, the excited oxygen molecules increasingly meet other particles: the light turns green.


Weather, SRF Musikwelle, May 10th, 5:40 p.m


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