Aurora is one of the most beautiful phenomena on this planet. Usually, in order to witness this phenomenon, you’d have to travel all the way to Scandinavian or Nordic countries. However, this time, the aurora came to us in Ladakh! An Indian Institute of Astrophysics or the IIA Bengaluru, observatory managed to capture the unique phenomenon on camera! According to the IIA, this rare occurrence was due to a geomagnetic storm that hit the earth recently.
Ladakh Aurora: Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth And Dazzles Skies
#Aurora from #Ladakh!
This is a time-lapse of the sky taken by a 360 deg camera at from #Hanle on 22/23 April night. You can see the aurora lights due to an intense geomagnetic storm that hit the Earth. It is extremely rare to see aurora at such a low latitude! @dstindia (1/n) pic.twitter.com/gGbrw86vsb— IIAstrophysics (@IIABengaluru) April 29, 2023
According to the IIA Bengaluru, the ethereal aurora in Ladakh is a result of a geomagnetic storm that hit the earth in the past week. Auroras usually occur at extremely high latitudes so it was very unusual that it was spotted in Ladakh where the latitude is relatively low.
Luckily for us, this phenomenon, which is the first of its kind, was captured by the IIA Bengaluru observatory. They took to their Twitter account and shared a time-lapse of the nightsky where the aurora happened and it is simply breathtaking!
“It is extremely rare to see aurora at such low latitude!” the IIA Bengaluru’s Twitter account wrote. In the tweet thread, the institute further explained the science and reasoning behind this phantasmagorical phenomenon.
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Science Behind The Mystifying Occurrence
This geoeffective CME led to an excellent night for auroral activity. The aurora came to lower-than-usual latitudes overnight leading to rare sightings of from Europe, China & Ladakh in India. Such a severe geomagnetic storm last occurred in 2015 says @wageeshmishra (3/n)
— IIAstrophysics (@IIABengaluru) April 29, 2023
The IIA Bengaluru explained that on the 21st of April, the sun launched a coronal mass ejection or CME towards the earth. CMEs are magnetic field ejections from the sun along with its plasma mass. The CME collides with the earth’s atmosphere and causes a disturbance in the earth’s magnetic field.
This disturbance is termed as a geomagnetic storm. The CME ejection from the sun on the 21st of April reached the earth on the 23rd of April at 10 PM. Following this, the night was filled with awe-inspiring auroral activity. According to the tweet thread, such an occurrence took place back in the year 2015 in China.
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Have you ever witnessed an aurora in person? If not, would you like to? Let us know about it in the comments below.
Cover Image Credits: Canva Images (For representational purposes only)