Incredibly powerful Northern Lights this week
Wednesday night is looking particularly promising for Northern Lights viewing. This image is from the Northern Lights on Sunday Night over Reykjavik. Screenshot/ Sævar Helgi Bragason
Conditions for viewing the Northern Lights have been exceptional in the last couple of days. Sævar Helgi Bragason at astronomy website stjörnufræðuvefurinn says that the next couple of nights also look promising, with this upcoming Wednesday night looking particularly good.
On Saturday night, the Northern Lights were even visible above Laugavegur, the main shopping street and midnight revellers and tourists could be seen stopping in their tracks and gazing at the sky.
Bragason and Snorri Þór Tryggvason captured this video on Sunday night from The Pearl in Reykjavik, and if you watch the video until the end you can see the phenomenon known as a crown of Northern Lights (aurora corona).
"We're passing through a stream of solar wind which will generate good Northern Lights for the rest of this week. The solar wind streams from a large hole in the sun's crown. The autumn is the best time of the year to see the Northern Lights," explains Bragason.
The green lights are caused by oxygen which is at an altitude of 100 kilometres, the purple lights from nitrate which is at a slightly lower altitude then the oxygen and the white light which occur when all the colours merge together.
"The show on Wednesday night will be even more powerful, hopefully the weather will remain clear so that everyone can see it."
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