File:Southern Lights.jpg
Original file (4,256 × 2,832 pixels, file size: 1.87 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
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DescriptionSouthern Lights.jpg |
To download the full resolution and other files go to: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52287 And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame; Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came. It swept the sky like a giant scythe, it quivered back to a wedge; Argently bright, it cleft the night with a wavy golden edge. — “The Ballad of the Northern Lights” In describing auroras as he saw them in the far north in 1908, poet Robert Service captured the sense of fluid motion, the vivid color, and the fiery, flame-like qualities one sees from the ground. His description works just as well in the southern hemisphere and when looking down from above. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011. Solar panels and other sections of the ISS fill some of the upper right side of the photograph. Auroras are a spectacular sign that our planet is electrically and magnetically connected to the Sun. These light shows are provoked by energy from the Sun and fueled by electrically charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere. In this case, the space around Earth was stirred up by an explosion of hot, ionized gas from the Sun—a coronal mass ejection—that left the Sun on September 14, 2011. The pressure and magnetic energy of the solar plasma stretches and twists the magnetic field of Earth like rubber bands, particularly in the tail on the night side. This energizes the particles trapped in our magnetic field; that energy is released suddenly as the field lines snap the particles down the field lines toward the north and south magnetic poles. Fast-moving electrons collide with Earth’s upper atmosphere, transferring their energy to oxygen and nitrogen molecules and making them chemically “excited.” As the gases return to their normal state, they emit photons, small bursts of energy in the form of light. The color of light reflects the type of molecules releasing it; oxygen molecules and atoms tend to glow green, white or red, while nitrogen tends to be blue or purple. This ghostly light originates at altitudes of 100 to 400 kilometers (60 to 250 miles). For more movie views of the Earth from above, visit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Videos. Astronaut photographs ISS029-E-06020 and ISS029-E-06244 were acquired on September 17, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 24 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by the Expedition 29 crew. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Movie by Robert Simmon. Caption by Michael Carlowicz. |
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Source | Flickr: Southern Lights | |||||
Author | NASA's Earth Observatory | |||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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Items portrayed in this file
depicts
17 September 2011
File history
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Date/Time | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 21:05, 26 April 2013 | 4,256 × 2,832 (1.87 MB) | Ras67 | original |
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Metadata
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Camera manufacturer | NIKON CORPORATION |
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Camera model | NIKON D3S |
Exposure time | 13/10 sec (1.3) |
F Number | f/2.8 |
ISO speed rating | 12,800 |
Date and time of data generation | 17:30, 17 September 2011 |
Lens focal length | 24 mm |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 240 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 240 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows |
File change date and time | 13:09, 19 September 2011 |
Exposure Program | Manual |
Exif version | 2.21 |
Date and time of digitizing | 17:30, 17 September 2011 |
APEX shutter speed | -0.378512 |
APEX aperture | 2.970854 |
APEX exposure bias | 0 |
Maximum land aperture | 3 APEX (f/2.83) |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Light source | Unknown |
Flash | Flash did not fire |
User comments |
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DateTime subseconds | 00 |
DateTimeOriginal subseconds | 00 |
DateTimeDigitized subseconds | 00 |
Color space | sRGB |
Sensing method | One-chip color area sensor |
File source | Digital still camera |
Scene type | A directly photographed image |
Custom image processing | Normal process |
Exposure mode | Manual exposure |
White balance | Auto white balance |
Digital zoom ratio | 1 |
Focal length in 35 mm film | 24 mm |
Scene capture type | Standard |
Scene control | High gain up |
Contrast | Normal |
Saturation | Normal |
Sharpness | Normal |
Subject distance range | Unknown |
Subject distance | 4,294,967,295 meters |
Image width | 4,256 px |
Image height | 2,832 px |
Serial number of camera | 2008336 |
Lens used | 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8 |
Date metadata was last modified | 08:09, 19 September 2011 |
Rating (out of 5) | 0 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:4392DC7BEAE2E0118223F0CE1B7FB864 |
IIM version | 29,599 |