Solar Storm Sparks Stunning Aurora

By Nancy Atkinson - January 23, 2012 12:01 AM UTC | Solar Astronomy

The Earth-directed solar storm

we alerted readers to this week

has hit, with reports of auroral activity in Russia, Denmark, Scotland, England, and Norway. Helge Mortensen from Tromvik, Norway captured this stunning video. According to

Spaceweather.com

, the coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd.

There's also a live aurora webcam you can watch via this link

Check out the likelihood of seeing aurorae where you live at the

NOAA Auroral Activity webpage, which includes maps for both northern and southern hemispheres.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com