Norilsk and Taimyr residents have already seen first flashes of the northern lights this autumn. The citizens post the photos of a magical natural phenomenon in social networks.
“It’s the beginning of autumn on the calendar, and our subscribers catch the natural phenomen in their lenses”, writes @hatanga72, an Instagram user.
“Did you manage to see the northern lights yesterday?” – @zhitvnorilske is interested.
Some Norilsk residents lament that they didn’t see northern lights. Others answer enthusiastically: “We saw it!”.
“Do you know that the brightest and most colorful northern lights that I have seen from Norway to Chukotka occurred on Taimyr? Only Taimyr auroras flood the entire celestial sphere in a panoramic manner and occur at lightning speed. At such moments, you just lie down on snow and watch this unimaginable play of atmosphere, colors and light”, blogger and traveler Denis Zabelin wrote on his Instagram under the nickname @d1als.
Denis came to Taimyr in spring and shared on his page pictures and impressions of the North: “Taimyr spoiled us this time. The Arctic showed us the northern lights every clear starry night, and this vivid yellow-green splendor continued almost until the last days of March. And then polar day came swiftly”.
Auroras arise from interaction of charged solar particles – the solar wind – and the Earth’s magnetic field. The aurora in northern latitudes is called Aurora Borealis, after the Roman goddess of morning dawn Aurora and the Greek god of the north wind Boreas.
The color of auroras depends on the molecules of the gases in the atmosphere. The green glow can most often be observed in the sky over Taimyr. It’s caused by the emission of oxygen atoms at altitudes below 400 kilometers.
Traditional season of the northern lights in our latitude is a period between autumn and spring equinox: from September 21 to March 21. In northern latitudes it gets dark very early at this time. From 21.00 to midnight there are the highest chances of catching the glow.
Text: Marina Horoshevskaya, Olga Polyanskaya, Photo: Vitas Beneta, Denis Zabelin
