One might be convinced this scene presages the ghosts due on Halloween. But for Alaska resident Ulrike Haug, it’s a fairly common site anytime the sky is dark.
Haug photographed these auroras, also called Northern Lights, on the night of Oct. 16-17. The colorful ripples and swirls are caused by charged particles that ride a solar wind all the way from the Sun to Earth’s magnetic field, whose lines emanate from polar regions. There, the charged particles excite oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, turning on the lights [More].
That’s the science. But it’s the resulting natural art that is most wonderful.
“Some people see auroras in my images, others see more than that,” Haug said in an e-mail interview. “As the aurora dances in the sky, resembling a graceful ballet, it takes on many forms and shapes. At times the aurora paints a fleeting glimpse of realistic or surrealistic figures in the sky. Paired with a vivid imagination the viewer sees more than the green lights, as in this case perhaps a dragonfly or alien winged insect. This fascinates and motivates me to capture the lights in their uniqueness. Each display is different and only the solar wind knows what will happen next.”
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