                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2022 March 22

                  A Whale of an Aurora over Swedish Forest
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand

   Explanation: What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass
   ejection occurred on our Sun earlier this month, throwing a cloud of
   fast-moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Part of this
   cloud impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and, bolstered by a sudden
   gap, resulted in spectacular auroras being seen at some high northern
   latitudes. Featured here is a particularly photogenic auroral corona
   captured above a forest in Sweden from a scenic perch overlooking the
   city of Östersund. To some, this shimmering green glow of recombining
   atmospheric oxygen might appear like a large whale, but feel free to
   share what it looks like to you. The unusually quiet Sun of the past
   few years has now passed. As our Sun now approaches a solar maximum in
   its 11-year solar magnetic cycle, dramatic auroras like this are sure
   to continue.

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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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