Imaggeo on Mondays: Sky-high dancing lights

This photo, taken in early 2011 at Murphy Dome, a mountain in Fairbanks North Star Borough in the US state of Alaska, shows a beautiful natural phenomena known as aurora.Auroras, also called northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere, are stunning light displays visible mainly at high latitudes. There, it is easier for energetic particles from the Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind to follow the planet’s magnetic field lines and collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere. These interactions release photons of different colours, depending on the gas the energetic particles interact with. The result? Awe-inspiring colourful curtains of light dancing in the skies.

The photographer, Taro Nakai, is a micrometeorologist at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He took this shot for a beautiful time-lapse movie, available from his YouTube channel.

“Murphy Dome has an elevation of 776 meters, and since it is located in a cold subarctic area, the top of this mountain is so-called alpine tundra. Therefore, there are no tall trees and we can see the unobstructed view of the spectacular northern lights,” said Nakai.