From space this phenomenon looks much larger than from Earth.
To observers on Earth, the northern lights appear as multi-colored streaks or flashes of light hanging in the sky—usually a very beautiful sight. From space, says astronaut Jasmine Moghbeli, the northern lights look even more interesting.
Moghbeli, now working on the ISS, showed an image of the northern lights taken on February 15. The characteristic stripe caught in the camera lens looks more like a river: the intensity of the aurora is much higher than what is visible from Earth.
Unfortunately, Jasmine Moghbeli was unable to film the northern lights without foreign objects in the frame: here you can see the Canadarm2 manipulator and one of the ISS modules, which blocked the view of part of the Earth.
The northern lights can be recorded from space in another way. For example, they are clearly visible when photographed in the infrared range: here is an image taken by the Suomi NPP satellite.
There will be more and more northern lights in the coming year: the Sun is now approaching the maximum of its 11-year activity cycle. The peak of the current cycle falls in 2025; closer to 2030, the star’s activity will reach its minimum.
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