Göttingen/Offenbach (dpa) – Over the weekend, people in many regions of Germany had a rare opportunity to enjoy the colorful northern lights in the sky. A huge solar storm ensured that this natural phenomenon could be seen from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria on Saturday night and partly also the following night.
From the pink Alps to the purple wind turbines in Brandenburg to the dramatically illuminated Brocken in the Harz Mountains – the Northern Lights provided an impressive sight, as many photos on social media showed. The celestial spectacle was especially impressive from Friday to Saturday. The next night, it was actually necessary to be in a very dark place or use a camera to spot colored lights.
Auroras occur when coronal mass ejections (CME) or solar storms affect the Earth’s magnetic field. There they do not produce the northern lights directly, but rather compress our planet’s magnetic field “like a drop,” explains astronomer Volker Böttmer from the University of Göttingen. Simply put, the particles then collide with components of the Earth’s atmosphere, causing them to glow.
First of all, no more northern lights should be observed
According to Butmer, there are currently many sunspots: an expression of an eleven-year cycle, the maximum of which will last for another two years, during which there are always phases in which the sun pulsates. “Since the middle of last week we have had an area consisting of several points and a lot of energy has been released,” Butmer told the German news agency.
Severe storms will depend not only on the Sun, but on several factors: These factors include, among others, the direction in which the storms move, how the Earth passes through the plasma cloud emanating from the Sun, and at what time of year.
Both the US National Weather Service (NOAA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect solar activity to remain at a high level until Monday. However, astronomer Butmer estimates that the probability of more northern lights appearing over Germany is low: “I don’t see anything in our satellite data at the moment. When the spur comes, it shouldn’t be that strong because the active region in the sun rotates outside the line.” fire.
According to the German Meteorological Service (DWD), the conditions for observing the phenomenon in parts of Germany are not ideal in any case: in the far west and southwest, dense clouds will gather on Monday evening. In the rest of the country, DWD expects the weather to be somewhat cloudy at night.
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