Photo # 1 (Aug 2010)

ABOVE AURORA AUSTRALIS

I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time. 

- Emily Dickinson

Credit: ISS Expedition 23 Crew, ISAL, NASA

On May 29, looking southward from a vantage point about 350 kilometers above the southern Indian Ocean, astronauts onboard the International Space Station watched this enormous, green ribbon shimmering below. Known as aurora australis or southern lights, the shifting, luminous bands are commonly seen at high northern latitudes as well, there known as the aurora borealis or northern lights. North or south their cause is the same though, as energetic charged particles from the magnetosphere pile into the atmosphere near the Earth's poles. To produce the characteristic greenish glow, the energetic particles excite oxygen atoms at altitudes of 100 kilometers or more. The aurora on this day was likely triggered by the interaction of the magnetosphere with a coronal mass ejection erupting from the Sun on the previous day.

The aurora as seen from the earth's surface is often spectacularly beautiful. Seen from earth orbit it is just as spectacular, as different at it appears...

What a wonderful combination of factors enables us to enjoy this sight! To the charged particles normally present around our planet and the sun's energies we can add the miracles of our eyes and brains and minds that can perceive and appreciate this beauty...

What blessings we have!

                                                            Dan Benor, MD