An astronaut on-board the International Space Station (ISS) adjusted on the cameras just rightly to capture the mesmerizing ‘green veils and curtains’ of an aurora that billowed over the vast swathes sky above Quebec in Canada.
This image which was captured in the winter of 2012 (February) shows the beautiful Aurora-Borealis which is result of the reflection of light from the moon and stars which enter the atmosphere. On the lower right of the image a circle of ice laden reservoir that now occupies Manicouagan impact crater (70 kilometers in diameter) could be spotted.
City lights reveal small settlements, such as Labrador City (an iron-ore mining town) and the Royal Canadian Air Force base at Goose Bay on the Labrador Sea.
Image courtesy: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/
The ‘Aurora Borealis’ which is otherwise known as the northern lights is an unique glow on earth’s atmosphere when charged particles from the magnetosphere (the magnetic space around Earth) are accelerated by storms from the Sun. The particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere; the green and red colors, for instance, are caused by the release of photons by oxygen atoms.
The fainter arc of light that appears parallel to the horizon is known as airglow. Airglow is a manifestation of the interaction of the Earth’s atmosphere with radiation received from the Sun.
