A Colorful Aurora

Explanation: A solar storm overtook the Earth on August 26th. The Earth survived unscathed, as usual, although many northerners reported an impressive display of aurora . Many of these auroras changed rapidly, with patterns appearing and disappearing sometimes in less than a second. Out away from city lights, observers also reported an unusually spectacular array of colors. Some of these colors were captured in the photograph above . Solar particles that strike oxygen high in Earth's atmosphere cause rare, red auroras , while oxygen lower to the ground will glow a more familiar green. Ionized nitrogen glows blue or red.