A magnificent light display was visible in certain areas of Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday night local time, due to a rare geomagnetic storm which also causes the Northern Lights to be seen in areas far from its home in the Arctic.
Its southern counterpart, known as the Southern Lights or the Aurora Australis, was captured in clear skies across both countries. While the Northern Lights, known officially as Aurora Borealis, have been witnessed in Northern Europe and across the northern tier of the U.S. If the G4 solar storm remains at a high intensity, the vivid sights are expected to continue from Alaska across Canada and much of Eurasia as night falls.
The geomagnetic storm, which is just one notch below the highest category of solar storm, began at about 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Centre. The geomagnetic storm is the result of a pair of coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, that left the Sun on March 15 and are now interacting with Earth's atmosphere and geomagnetic field.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, NOAA scientists said the two CMEs may have unexpectedly combined as they sped toward Earth, which could explain why the geomagnetic storm has been so strong.
Spectators in Australia shared their images of the beautiful sight on Twitter into the very early hours of Wednesday morning.
Went to bed early last night?You missed one heck of a lightshow! Pic taken at 10:40pm #Dunedin #astronomy #aurora pic.twitter.com/rmMKgRuXrp— Ian Griffin (@iangriffin) March 17, 2015
Aurora Australis from Perth Metro @Destination_WA @CanonAustralia @WS_Weekly @TheWAWG @tweetperth @WestAustralia pic.twitter.com/Is6yTPusHD— Jacqui (@JacquiImages) March 17, 2015
Fisheye lens shot of tonight’s aurora. Look how much of the sky it covered. And the colour! #wow #aurora #Dunedin pic.twitter.com/9xmU6HApSb— Ian Griffin (@iangriffin) March 17, 2015
A photo posted by Kyle Mijlof (@mijlof) on Mar 17, 2015 at 2:47am PDT
David Finlay captured this image of aurora from Goulburn NSW Australia. pic.twitter.com/ugDou8tnRh— Con Stoitsis (@vivstoitsis) March 17, 2015
Missed the best of it, but our good friend Aurora Australis made a return to Wgtn last night pic.twitter.com/EsnGSXaR8P— Danny Rood (@De_Rood) March 17, 2015
A photo posted by Reuben (@reubo69) on Mar 17, 2015 at 4:53am PDT
Wanaka, New Zealand looking amazing under the Southern Lights tonight! @lonelyplanet #lp @PureNewZealand pic.twitter.com/3UlH5PYdEY— Liz Carlson (@YoungAdventures) March 17, 2015
One more, a panorama. Aurora Australis, Red Rocks, Wellington 17/03/2015 10:12PM #WhyWellington @lyallbaynz @DomPost pic.twitter.com/JhMEaOHEil— Brendon Doran (@bsd1) March 18, 2015
The aurora australis was stunning last night,WGTN NZ south coast #whywellington @ObservingSpace @DomPost @lyallbaynz pic.twitter.com/pVTpxDFoRV— Brendon Doran (@bsd1) March 17, 2015