Gusting solar winds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and blasts [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of charged particles from the Sun made the early days of October rewarding ones for those anticipating auroras [ http://www.explorat…auroras/ ]. While out enjoying the stormy space weather [ http://www.spacewea…] from Toemmeraas, Norway, Trygve Lindersen recorded this picturesque apparition [ http://science.nasa…gallery_01oct02_c.ht ml ] of the northern lights with a digital camera on October 6. From this perspective, the curtains of green light formed a ring which seemed to hover, wraithlike [ http://www.pantheon…], just above the foreground trees. But the ring of light was actually 100 kilometers or more above the trees [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and the greenish glow produced by oxygen molecules interacting with energetic electrons and fluorescing near the edge of space. After days of enchanting auroral displays [ http://science.nasa…gallery_01oct02.html ] on planet Earth, the solar activity which triggered October's geomagnetic storms [ http://spacescience…apr_2m.htm ] seems to have subsided ... for now.
