Iceland - Chasing the Aurora Borealis

October 17, 2016

The Aurora Borealis are the result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. The electrons are energized through acceleration processes in the downwind tail (night side) of the magnetosphere and at lower altitudes along auroral field lines. The accelerated electrons follow the magnetic field of Earth down to the Polar Regions where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere. In these collisions, the electrons transfer their energy to the atmosphere thus exciting the atoms and molecules to higher energy states. When they relax back down to lower energy states, they release their energy in the form of light

It was cloudy when we visited so we had to travel to a spot where we had a clear view of the sky.  Seen here is the big dipper and very faint beginning of the aurora.

In order to capture the light, I had to use a tripod because my exposure setting was around 10-13 seconds (varied it throughout the sequence).  This is why we can see more stars in the sky in this picture.

I love this shot because you can see the dipper outline, the lights and a shadow of a person in the fore ground.  The lights in the previous 2 shots were a static band of light.  But as seen here, the solar flares were particularly strong that night (how blessed am I???) and they became a dancing curtain of ever-changing color

I like the way this one folds, it gives you an idea of how they moved.  Shorter exposure.

A longer exposure ~ 15 seconds

Full curtain of light that was dancing across the sky - it was so amazing!  About a 10 second exposure here.  

And now it gets cool because we saw what some will chase for.... the reds and violets!! You see, typically, when the particles collide with oxygen, yellow and green are produced. But it is interactions with nitrogen that produce red, violet, and occasionally blue colors, which is more rare.

Yellows, greens and some red in this one.  Shorter exposure (note the brightness of the star) but at this time the lights were seriously bouncing about - thus all the color and movement seen.

Dancing curtain with reds - longer exposure.

I love this one.  It some how captures the movement of the auroras and the spectacular view of sky...and the pesky clouds on their way in to end our show!  See the crystal clear dots of light...proof that the camera didn't move - so all the movement you see in the sky is truly the lights!