Spaceweather.com Time Machine - February 21st, 2021

PINK AURORAS OVER ICELAND: “I’ve never seen the sky so pink before,” says Jónína Óskarsdóttir, who witnessed an outbreak of nitrogeneous auroras over Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland.

“It was great, though it didn’t last for long time because of the cloud cover,” says Óskarsdóttir.

Pink auroras are a sign of nitrogen. Most auroras are green–the color of oxygen atoms being struck by energetic particles 100 km to 300 km above Earth’s surface. Pink appears when energetic particles from space descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below.

The energetic particles, in this case, came from a hole in the sun’s atmosphere spewing solar wind faster than 600 km/s. Cracks in Earth’s magnetic field allowed the wind in, deep enough for pink.