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Subscribe to RSSNASA videos show January's northern lights from high above. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Colorful videos prove that the astronauts on the International Space Station had the best seats in the house during last month's flare-up of auroral activity.
NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth is offering a whole new batch of time-lapse videos from the Jan. 25-30 period, when an active region on the sun was blasting out a healthy dose of electrically charged particles and lighting up Earth's upper atmosphere.
Time-lapse video from the International Space Station on Jan. 29. These sequences of frames were taken at the rate of one frame per second, which is closer than usual to the station's true speed.
These latest videos are notable because they're assembled from still pictures that were taken at a rate of one frame per second, rather than the usual frame every three seconds. As a result, the pace of the videos is more leisurely and a somewhat closer match to the true speed of the space station.
The video above documents a minute of flight heading east from the Pacific over the Canadian West Coast, heading toward southern Alberta near Calgary. I love watching the ripples and flashes of the green aurora over Canada — seasoned with a dash of red from the atomic oxygen that exists at higher altitudes. Why is there red as well as green in the aurora? We've addressed that question before, but this Aurora FAQ from the University of Alaska provides a quick explanation.
Here are a couple more videos, tracking the space station's flight over the U.S. East Coast as well as central North America. But you don't have to stop here. Visit NASA's Gateway, which offers still photos from the space station in addition to the videos, and check out the YouTube channel for NASA Crew Earth Observations. My favorite places for space imagery also include the Fragile Oasis Facebook page, NASA astronaut Ron Garan's Google+ page and Jason Major's Lights in the Dark blog.
This video was taken from the International Space Station on Jan. 29 during a pass from just southwest of Mexico to the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Newfoundland. As the space station travels northeast over the Gulf of Mexico, you can see New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville and Atlanta. Continuing up the East Coast, the cities of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City stand out brightly. The northern lights shine in the background as the pass finishes near Newfoundland.
This video was taken from the International Space Station on Jan. 26 during a pass from North Dakota to central Quebec. The northern lights can be seen near the space station, with small patches of the green auroral light dancing around.
If auroras, atmospheric phenomena and solar activity are your thing, you can't do much better than SpaceWeather.com, which is keeping track of lovely aurora pictures like this one from Chad Blakley at Abisko National Park in Sweden. Be sure to check out Blakley's Lights Over Lapland website while you're at it.
Chad Blakley / Lights Over Lapland
Photographer Chad Blakley captured this view of the northern lights over Sweden's Abisko National Park on Feb. 6. "The lights started around 6:00 p.m. and continued into the very early hours of the morning," Blakley told SpaceWeather.com. Check out Blakley's gallery on SpaceWeather.com for still more stunning views.
AuroraMAX / CSA
The rippling northern lights share the skies with a nearly full moon over Yellowknife in Canada's Northern Territories early today, as seen by the Canadian Space Agency's AuroraMAX wide-angle camera. To keep on top of northern Canada's aurora extravaganza, check the AuroraMAX website and Twitpic account.
Update for 3:25 p.m. ET Feb. 8: I originally wrote that the pace of the latest videos from the space station was nearly a true match to the station's orbital speed, but after double-checking with the folks at Johnson Space Center, I'd say it's more accurate to call them a "truer" match than usual. The videos were assembled from still photographs that were captured by a digital camera at the rate of one frame per second, rather than the usual frame every three seconds. That makes for a slower-paced video, but not a real-time speed, because the Web video plays at a rate that's more than one frame per second.
M ore auroral glories:
- Planet looks back at northern lights
- Auroras spark awe across the north
- Northern lights go way, way south
- Speed through Lapland's lights
- Beautiful blasts from solar storms
- Get a video view of Canada's aurora
- Slideshow: The best of the northern lights
- Cosmic Log's auroral archive
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
amazing.
Our world is constantly amazing. It's sad that we only have a brief life span of 80 years or so to enjoy the splendors of our planet and universe.
This is never came about by chance. It god's amazing work.
No, it didn't come about by chance. It came about through order.
Pie in the sky fairy tale tyrants had nothing to do with it.
:D
Really...GOD...are you stupid...solar flares, if as in a direct hit (not just the lights), will destroy satellites and take out your electricity...I have really had it with stupid...I bet cavemen thought the lights were spirits and then they evolved to many gods and then ONE...and then you get evolved stupid people
Adam,
I believe you are right, God speaks to us through the phenomena of Nature. I also believe that the physics we are gradually deriving is, indeed, He's own DNA. The sooner we, including the scientific society, accept that premise the sooner we will find Him, the Theory of God (Everything).
I will let one of the masters explain:
Great Documentary of Mahler's 3rd Symphony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bArhdP88dGE
"The missing link does not lie buried in the sands of time but rather is alive with full of fire in the heavens above."
LOL
Which God/Gods or Goddess/Goddesses are you guys referring to? I lost track with so many religions that claim their gods are the true gods.
Give
Over
Dollars
@Adam. Shhh people here are going to get offended. Look at that, they already collapsed your comment and will directly argue your statement...lol. And it's not even a hateful comment. I think it's a nice comment regardless if it's true or not.
@rx7turbo - not really. This is a science form, which means we believe you talk about science. There's been way way way too much religious trolling lately and you can't test religion or make empirical measurements on it, therefore, I mark it as 'no value', not because I'm offended, but because it's out of place.
Mitchell
@mitchell...I could care less if someone's comments on an OPEN FORUM get collapsed or not The irony of it is collapsed comments are probably the ones the mass public find most interesting and controversial! So if you think you're achieving anything by marking something as "no value" other than boiling it to the top of the list you're not as bright as you may think you are. and BTW...relevant comments..science forum..how pompous can you get! The top of this page recommends a story about a purple squirrel. Hop on over to that story and find your relevant science forum. What a crock!
I think it is truly a shame when one cannot express his opinions and beliefs without someone calling him out on it. Whether you personally believe it or not, I think that our Creator by whatever name organized all of this wonderful world (space too) for us all.
It didn't just happen by accident!
The amount of man made light that comes off America is pretty cool especially New York. Would of liked to of seen the full sun rise and transition to day light as well. Will have to check out the link.
Would have liked to see....... Capis? :) Not would of :))
Man-made lights? You need a few more science classes.
Annie, are you okay?
LOL
VeniVidiVici was referring to the city lights (of New York). I'm pretty sure that those are still man made.
We've honored people of many ages, races, cultures, etc. by sending them into space. A 15-year-old stoner should get to smoke a joint there. Before you knock the demographic, who would appreciate this more?
I know many people won't post on this because you can't blame it on Obama or the republicans...But If you understand how things work...the cause of these "northern lights" can bite the hand that sees them
Just believe...if you must...god has many ways to help Darwin...selectivity will take you away(and not the rapture)
Normal video is about one frame per 1/30 of a second. One frame per second is a speed-up of 30 times. A time-lapse of a 90 minute orbit runs for 3 minutes. How is this a "near match" for the true speed of the space station?
Perhaps what the author meant to say something like "In time-lapse, the viewer gets a sense that the space station is truly orbiting the planet, something that isn't obvious at the space station travels at its actual speed in a 90-minute orbit of our planet."
Yes, that sounds better. Johnson Space Center's Gateway says it is a near match for the true speed, but after talking with a "committee" of public affairs officers there, we agreed that it's better to say merely that the videos give you more of a sense of the true motion than you get from the super-fast time-lapse effect of previous videos. The still frames were recorded at the rate of 1 frame per second rather than the usual frame every three seconds. The NASA version of the video plays at 12 frames per second (which may be converted during the YouTube ingest process). So my best guess is that the speed you see here is still around 12 times real speed. I could be wrong about that, though, depending on how the still frames were originally processed to produce NASA's 12fps version. I've amended the item to talk my way around that question.
I am not sure if I am missing something here. The article above states that "These latest videos are notable because they're assembled from still pictures that were taken at a rate of one frame per second. As a result, the pace of the videos is a near match for the true speed of the space station as it makes its 90-minute orbit around our planet." How can the videos ba a match for the speed of the ISS. If the pictures were taken once every second, and the video's frame rate was playing them back, once per second, wouldn't there be one second gaps in the "movement" in the video. These videos seam to be a continuous flow pictures at a much faster rate than one frame per second, which makes me thnk that they represent the ISS traveling at a much faster speed that it actually does.
If the video is played at 30 frames/sec and the data is put together at 1 frame/sec, then we, the viewers are travelling 30 times faster than ISS.
I assume it is 30 f/sec since that is the norm for videos, but it could be different. In any case we are travelling the video's scanning rate faster than ISS's real velocity.
It would nice if NASA does a cascade of photos so that we can see the entire orbit at one-to-one speed, real time. I wonder if they have taken a real time video? Any links?
I've done some investigation of the matter and have changed a few things as a result. The reply to the comment above pretty much summarizes what I found out.
I doubt that, need to check on hahaped
To the right of the first video it looks like a lightning flash at the 8 second mark. Wish I was up there.
Amazing video... You really get a sense of how thin and fragile our atmosphere is.. And seeing the Aurora shimmer across its surface, illustrates nicely how it shields us from deadly solar radiation. Among many other hazards. Really brings home how precious and unique our little life sustaining orb really is.. Beautiful Blue Marble, you got that right!
Thanks for bringing this to us NASA and company. Its a vision most of us mere mortals would never see otherwise.
Current physics is based of the belief of the "MAGIC PARTICLE FAIRY". This magic particle fairy creates electrons and positrons out of absolutely nothing, it is magic. The magic particle fairy is also producing these particles all over the universe at the same time.
Observation and the rate of measure changes a particle to a wave. Look up "flying rods" to see what the capture rate of a camera does to particles. Our current physics also only works from one single perspective, there is a preferred one. That should tell you something is not right, is messed up, and needs to be fixed.
Do not be so quick to dismiss God or to make fun of people that do. I feel sorry for people that do not know God, and do not try to make fun of them, I think they are ignorant. My first paper is on how the universe works and was one of the reasons I made this account in the first place.
People make fun of 'god' because it is extremely ignorant to claim that the universe could not exist without a creator. There isn't anything about the universe that either points to or requires a creator, and the entirety of the claim lies in your belief. That's it. Never mind the absurdity of the claim that a complex universe requires a creator, but that even more complex creator does not require a creator of its own. You can't get more hypocritical.
I believe that people can choose who or what to believe in. I, for one, believe in the Native American version of a 'spirit world', but I respect the opinion of Greek gods, or a supreme God, too. I suppose there is enough room in the Universe for God and Zeus and Ra and glowing animal spirits to live together.
Tired,
Which definition of the "particle" are you implying with this premise?
What is mass?
What is a boson?
Clue: If the equal sign indicates direction then how can the process be reversed without violating the conservation laws?
ooooooooooh! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
I wonder if the astronauts can sue NASA?
It's interesting how Hollywood makes movies like the 7th Seal and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then when something happens in real life, they wonder, IS THERE A GOD? It seems this Culture knows how to say it but does not know what to do with the Miracle of Belief. Interesant, non?
Non.
Wonder how long it will take before the pig human race annihilates the paper thin atmosphere we have. As for those bashing the poster commenting about God..., let him/her alone. Don't spew your venom at him/her because of your childish concepts.
It's okay greenbeagle,,they may not believe in God,,but God believes in them,,,,,,
If there is a God, why does He keep hoaxing the scientists into believing in global warming by sending false readings to their thermometers? He must be a jerky little punk.
Adam,
I believe you are right, God speaks to us through the phenomena of Nature. I also believe that the physics we are gradually deriving is, indeed, He's own DNA. The sooner we, including the scientific society, accept that premise the sooner we will find Him, the Theory of God (Everything).
I will let one of the masters explain:
Great Documentary of Mahler's 3rd Symphony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bArhdP88dGE
"The missing link does not lie buried in the sands of time but rather is alive with full of fire in the heavens above."
Wonderful examples of God's handiwork.
How come the Aurora is below the Space Station?
I always was under the impression that this was high into space.
No, the aurora occurs in the zone from roughly 60 to 200 miles up. The space station orbits at an altitude of about 225 miles.
Here's the science behind the MAGIC PARTICLE FAIRY, Solar wind from the sun is sent down hitting the magnetosphere (the magnetic shield that surrounds earth's atmosphere protecting us from the sun's radiation) it excites the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, stirring it up, thus creating the Aurora Borealis.
To think this is only a taste,my only regret in life is I won't be around for the first meal!Meeting extraterrestrial life form's.
I find it interesting that everyone has to dissect the comments about God and then the science behind what's happening and then how the photos were taken and converted into the video.
Can't you just appreciate the wonder and beauty of it all? (A little Rodney King, there) ;-p Sheese
Doug-950479 et. al.
The consequence of being deceived by too little knowledge is the belief that we have the answers. Thus, we seek to make pronouncements on things that we cannot irrefutably prove. I believe that there is much wisdom in recognising one’s own lacking for it is then that our perspectives would cause us to hold our tongue on certain matters.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but I don't believe in God. I do believe that I know what God is, as a projection of human desire and imagination, therefore when people publish pronouncements about God as an external entity, especially in response to articles about natural phenomena, I take the liberty of making wisecracks showing my disdain for their belief. It's a weakness of mine, agreed - but no more so than theirs, in my opinion.
Y'll need to just let it go. Enjoy the light show.
Lucky bastards. Too beautiful! And I don't care if it's 1 frame a second, it's still so beautiful.