by A bright red streak of light appeared in the sky above parts of Scandinavia last week after a surprise solar storm smashed into Earth and triggered stunning auroras across the planet.
But the bright red band was not an aurora — it was something much rarer.
The streak, which appeared as a river of hazy red light that stretched all the way across the night sky, was most prominently visible above Denmark.
Astrophotographer Ruslan Merzlyakov snapped a spectacular shot of the peculiar light show on March 23 above Møns Klint, a set of limestone cliffs on the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea.
The unusual phenomenon is known as a stable auroral red arc (SAR), but despite the name, it is not an aurora or particularly stable, according to Spaceweather.com.
Instead, the light is emitted by oxygen molecules in the upper atmosphere that have become superheated by Earth's ring current system, a massive loop of electric current that surrounds our planet.
Source
But the bright red band was not an aurora — it was something much rarer.
The streak, which appeared as a river of hazy red light that stretched all the way across the night sky, was most prominently visible above Denmark.
Astrophotographer Ruslan Merzlyakov snapped a spectacular shot of the peculiar light show on March 23 above Møns Klint, a set of limestone cliffs on the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea.
The unusual phenomenon is known as a stable auroral red arc (SAR), but despite the name, it is not an aurora or particularly stable, according to Spaceweather.com.
Instead, the light is emitted by oxygen molecules in the upper atmosphere that have become superheated by Earth's ring current system, a massive loop of electric current that surrounds our planet.
Source
