The polar auroras (whether boreal or southern) are one of those extraordinary phenomena that are difficult to see but that fascinate photographers for their incredible beauty. Apart from the necessary technique (which is not particularly complicated either), capturing one requires traveling in the middle of winter to the coldest places on Earth and waiting for the phenomenon to occur. Of course, they can also be seen from another side: From space.
Recently ISS astronauts (International Space Station) were able to enjoy a southern aurora (it is still winter in the southern hemisphere) from their privileged location. The person in charge of immortalizing the phenomenon was the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, who besides being an astronaut he is also a photographer and share your images on your social networks:
In their accounts we can see from the night lights of the cities to the shape of the seas and continents seen from space, but also phenomena like this southern aurora that, as they have in Petapixel, was quite extraordinary. And is that those turquoise blue hues are something you rarely see and it only occurs under very precise geomagnetic conditions.
As we say, a polar aurora occurs when particles from the sun collide with air molecules in our atmosphere and excite them by producing their own light. In this case, it was also the circumstance that the moon lit up the southern hemisphere, which could influence the final color.
Thomas also comments on his Facebook account that, although he had hardly seen similar phenomena since he was on the ISS, in those days they were able to enjoy a similar phenomenon for several days without really knowing why. In addition, as a curiosity for photographers, he anticipates that no, that the color balance of his camera did not change from the previous days and, therefore, the blue was not caused by an incorrect setting white balance.
Cover photo | Thomas Pesquet, ESA