Weekend Aurora Gives Time for 'Reflection'

By Nancy Atkinson - October 15, 2012 at 12:57 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

The Northern Lights over Kilmany, Scotland reflect in a body of water. Credit:

Wow, what a gorgeous view of the aurora in Scotland over the weekend, taken by astrophotographer Corine Mills! This image garnered dozens of rave reviews on

Flickr

, and rightly so. A solar wind stream struck Earth's magnetic field over the weekend, igniting a G1-class geomagnetic storm that lasted more than 15 hours, according to

SpaceWeather.com

. Auroras with rare pulsations and vibrant colors were sighted in the northern latitudes. Below is an almost psychedelic "purple haze" aurora as seen over Saskatchewan, Canada.

A purple-haze aurora seen over Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Credit:

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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