冰岛瀑布上空的极光

2023年7月4日

Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
Image Credit & Copyright: Cari Letelier

Explanation: It seemed like the sky exploded. The original idea was to photograph an aurora over a waterfall. After waiting for hours under opaque clouds, though, hope was running out. Others left. Then, unexpectedly, the clouds moved away. Suddenly, particles from a large solar magnetic storm were visible impacting the Earth’s upper atmosphere with full effect. The night sky filled with colors and motion in a thrilling auroral display. Struggling to steady the camera from high Earthly winds, the 34 exposures that compose the featured image were taken. The resulting featured composite image shows the photogenic Godafoss (Goðafoss) waterfall in northern Iceland in front of a very active aurora in late February. The solar surface explosion that expelled the energetic particles occurred a few days before. Our Sun is showing an impressive amount of surface activity as it approaches solar maximum, indicating that more impressive auroras are likely to appear in Earth’s northern and southern sky over the next few years.

Tomorrow’s picture: very large map

冰岛瀑布上空的极光
影像提供与版权: Cari Letelier

说明: 这片天空仿佛炸了开来。摄影者初始的想法是要拍摄瀑布上空的极光。然而，在黝黑的云层下等了数个小时之后，希望已然渺茫，而其他人也都离开了。然后，出乎意料的，乌云离开了。突然之间，来自大型太阳磁暴的粒子全力冲撞地球的高层大气，产生了肉眼可见的效应。转瞬间，夜空满是色彩缤纷的灵动极光。于是在尽力稳定地表强风中的相机后，拍下了合成这幅主题影像的的34张照片。所得的组合影像，呈现了2月下旬冰岛北部非常活跃的极光及其前方美丽的戈达福斯瀑布（Goðafoss）。而释出这群高能粒子的太阳表面爆发事件，则是发生在数天之前。随着太阳逐渐往活动极大期接近，它已出现了大量的表面活动，显示在接下来的数年之中，极可能会为地球的北方与南方天空带来更为精采的极光。