Category: Colour - Ascension Now

AURORAS IN STRANGE PLACES:

13/5/2024

The historic geomagnetic storm of May 10-11, 2024, produced auroras across Europe, Asia, Mexico, and all 50 US stetes--even Hawaii. Hundreds of millions of people saw the colored lights for the first time in their lives, with photographers catching shots they couldn't have previously imagined. For instance, here is Opuntia chlorotica surrounded by the red glow of a CME:

Kyle Nulla Cognomen sends this picture from Las Vegas, Nevada. "What a gorgeous view of the desert sky illuminated by aurora," he says. "I could see the reds and greens with my naked eye!"
Our photo gallery is filled with unusual images like this one--auroras in strange places, illuminating cactii, palm trees, pyramids, and Carribean beaches. There's no way to pick a favorite. Or is there? Browse the gallery to explore the extraordinary global display.
https://spaceweather.com/

AURORAS--AND SOMETHING ELSE--OVER CHINA:

30/4/2023

Chinese astrophotographer Jeff Dai has long dreamed of seeing auroras over his home country. "On April 24th, my dream came true," he says. A severe geomagnetic storm was underway when he drive to the countryside outside Karamay, Xinjiang, China, and photographed a sky full of Northern Lights:

"I could see them with my naked eye," he says. "It was truly spectacular!"
But there's more to the story. Only a fraction of the lights he saw were actual auroras. Note the red arc at the top of his photo. That's something else--an "SAR."
SARs are red arcs of light that ripple across the sky during some geomagnetic storms. They were discovered in 1956 at the beginning of the Space Age. Researchers didn’t know what they were and unwittingly gave them a misleading name: "Stable Auroral Red arcs" or SARs.
In fact, SARs are neither stable nor auroras. Auroras appear when charged particles rain down from space, hitting the atmosphere and causing it to glow like the picture tube of an old color TV. SARs form differently. They are a sign of heat energy leaking into the upper atmosphere from Earth’s ring current system--a donut-shaped circuit of plasma carrying millions of amps around our planet.

Above: SARs photographed by the Dynamics Explorer-1 satellite in 1982. More

SARs are among the reddest things in the sky, with a monochromatic glow at 6300 Å that comes from atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere. The human eye is relatively insensitive to light at this wavelength, but cameras record the color easily. Pro tip for photographers: Use a 6300 Å filter.
"Seeing auroras from China is very difficult," says Dai. "It happens maybe 1-2 times every 11 years." Seeing an SAR is even more rare. It was a dreamy night, indeed.
www.spaceweather.com

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE STRATOSPHERE?

31/1/2023

Around the North Pole, the stratosphere has suddenly become very, very cold. NASA satellites are registering temperatures less than -85 C, the threshold for formation of rare polar stratospheric clouds (PSC). In the past few days, colorful PSCs have spilled outside the Arctic Circle, spreading as far south as Scotland. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for these clouds as the outbreak continues.
www.spaceweather.com

Conversation with Jason Shurka about EE Healing Technology

29/12/2022

14 Dec 2022 Jason Shurka - founder of Unifyd.com & Unifyd.tv, speaks about the future of healing, a power humanitarian initiative and the power of the Energy Enhancement System technology. Find and support a UNIFYD Healing location near you here: https://unifydhealing.com/
Learn more about the EE-System and research about the technology here: https://eesystem.com Watch "THE REVOLUTION OF HEALING" w/ Jason Shurka and Dr. Sandra Rose Michael here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bcYs...

PINK PULSATING AURORAS:

4/10/2022

Pink auroras are rare. Pulsating auroras are rare, too. Last night in Abisko, Sweden, sky watchers witnessed both rarities at the same time. Hit PLAY to make the sky pulse:

"My guides who photographed the display couldn't believe their eyes," says Chad Blakley, the owner of Lights over Lapland. "They are all saying things like 'I have never seen anything like this before!' and one of them described it as 'a glitch in the Matrix.'"
Pulsating auroras are Blakley's favorite: "The best way to describe a pulsating aurora is to imagine the sky as a large checker board," he says. "As the pulsating begins, black squares on the board would illuminate as a green aurora. Then, in an instant, all the black squares lose their illumination and the red squares on the imaginary checkerboard immediately glow green."
In this case, however, the green was pink. Pink auroras appear when solar wind particles penetrate unusually deep in Earth's atmosphere, striking nitrogen molecules less than 100 km above our planet's surface. A crack in Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 3rd let the particles reach that level.
Pulsating auroras are so mysterious, NASA keeps launching rockets into them to learn what makes them tick. In 2018, researchers led by S. Kasahara of the University of Tokyo conclusively linked pulsating auroras to "chorus waves" in Earth's magnetosphere. Their findings explain everything -- except the shape of the 'squares' and why they blink so quickly. Keep launching rockets, NASA.
www.spaceweather.com

Spectacular cloud formation observed over Mansalay, Philippines

16/4/2021

Jay Nelz, Philippine News, Thu, 15 Apr 2021

The mysterious cloud formation spotted in Oriental Mindoro garnered various speculations from the online community.

The Facebook page "Youth for Mindoro" has shared the amazing photos of a strange cloud formation in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro. The phenomenon happened last Wednesday afternoon (April 14, 2021).

According to the witnesses, the mysterious light has been formed above the clouds. The weird light looks like a crown roaring above the cloudy, which garnered various reactions from the social media users.

The unique cloud formation has been already spotted in different parts of the world such as Costa Rica and America. The optical phenomenon usually appears when a ray of sunshine hits the ice crystal inside the clouds. The process results to formation of various colors within the clouds, which is called rainbow-effect. The refraction is also known as "cloud iridescence".

Here is the full post.
www.spaceweather.com

SIRIUS IS PULSING WITH COLOR:

30/1/2021

There's something strange about Sirius. The brightest star in the sky is pulsing with color. To the naked eye, Sirius looks pale blue, almost white. But if you photograph it with a camera, using very short exposure times, Sirius reveals its true colors. Lots of them. Photographer Arne Recke of Broager, Denmark, just did the experiment, and this is what he found:

"Here are 16 pictures of Sirius," says Recke. "The uppermost picture was taken with 1/2 sec. shutter speed (ISO 6400). The other 15 pictures were taken much faster with a 1/500 sec.shutter speed (also ISO 6400). The short exposures are incredibly colorful."
Astronomers call this phenomenon "scintillation." It is caused by thermal irregularities in Earth's atmosphere. Packets of relatively warm and cool air act like prisms, spreading starlight into rainbow colors. When these packets drift in front of Sirius--voilá.
The reason Recke's first exposure looks white is because 1/2 sec. is long enough to average many colors together. Multiple packets of air drift by during that time. The shorter snapshots, however, capture individual packets; they look like tiny supernova explosions.
All stars scintillate, but Sirius does so most flamboyantly because of its extreme brightness. See for yourself. Step outside this evening an hour or so after sunset and look east for Sirius near the feet of Orion. The lower it is, the more it scintillates. You may be able to see the colors--no camera required.
www.spaceweather.com

POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS:

9/1/2020

The finest outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) in decades is still going strong. "We witnessed a wonderful display this evening (Jan. 8th)," reports Alex Conu, who photographed the clouds drawing a crowd in Oslo, Norway:

"The cloud's bright pastel colors looked fabulous alongside Venus in the evening sky," he says.
Polar stratospheric clouds are rare. Normally, the stratosphere has no clouds at all. A few times each winter, however, icy clouds form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops below -85C. Such staggeringly-low temperatures are required to help sparse water molecules stick together. This winter, the clouds have been appearing daily since late December, a sign of unusually cold conditions in the stratosphere.
Stratospheric clouds are widely regarded as the most beautiful clouds on Earth. Because of their intense colors (caused by high-altitude sunlight hitting tiny ice crystals), novice sky watchers sometimes mistake the clouds for auroras. This picture from P-M Hedén of Tänndalen, Sweden, shows why:

"On Jan. 4th, the colors got so strong that the snow turned red," marvels Hedén. "I have been seeing these crazy displays at both sunrise and sunset from my cabin in the Swedish mountains."
Stay tuned for updates as the outbreak continues.
www.spaceweather.com

RARE RED NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS:

24/6/2019

Noctilucent clouds are supposed to be electric blue, yet during the extreme NLC outbreak of June 1st, some observers in Europe saw a different color: red. "It happened around midnight," reports Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland. "The top of the clouds developed a reddish-purple canopy." It didn't last long, but he was able to photograph the amber crown before it faded away:

Above: Red and blue noctilucent clouds over Szubin, Poland. Credit: Marek Nikodem

"What creates this color?" The answer is ozone--or rather, lack thereof.

Research in the 1970s revealed that much of the sunlight hitting noctilucent clouds first passes through Earth's ozone layer. Ozone absorbs red light, while allowing blue to pass--hence the usual color of the clouds. When the sun is hanging very low, however, reddened sunlight refracted through the dense troposphere can paint the tops of NLCs red, overwhelming the usual "ozone blue."

Above: Mostly red noctilucent clouds over Piwnice, Poland. Credit: Piotr Majewski

PS: Ozone isn't the only reason noctilucent clouds are blue. The clouds consist of tiny ice crystals about the size of particles in cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke looks blue, too, and for the same reason. Tiny particles scatter blue light better than other colors.
www.spaceweather.com

Astronaut captures image of orange light enveloping Earth during rare airglow

8/11/2018

Laura Geggel; Live Science; Wed, 07 Nov 2018 09:34 UTC

© NASA
Astronaut aboard the International Space Station captures image of orange airglow enveloping Earth

An eerie, marmalade-colored light show made Earth look like a gigantic orange lollipop, prompting an astronaut aboard the International Space Station to snap a photo of it on Oct. 7. And yesterday, NASA shared the glorious shot with Earthlings down below.

The enveloping orange hue is known as airglow - a mesmerizing luminescence caused by chemical reactions high in Earth's atmosphere, NASA reported. This ghostly glow usually happens when ultraviolet radiation from sunlight energizes molecules of nitrogen, oxygen, sodium and ozone in the atmosphere. These energized molecules then bump into each other and lose energy as they collide, resulting in a faint but spectacular afterglow, NASA said.

Airglow is best seen at night, as it's 1 billion times fainter than sunlight, NASA said. This particular photo was taken at an altitude of more than 250 miles (about 400 kilometers) above Australia.

The radiating blush, also known as chemiluminescence, is comparable to glowing chemical reactions here on Earth, including those seen in children's toys such as glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark silly putty, NASA added.

But airglow is more than an entrancing light attraction. It can also teach scientists about the workings of the upper atmosphere. For instance, it can shed light on how particles near the interface of Earth and space move, including how space weather and Earth weather are connected, NASA said.

Researchers are already using satellites - such as NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) - to study this dynamic zone.

Although this airglow emanated orange, the phenomenon isn't always the color of the snack food Doritos. In 2016, a photographer in the Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean took a photo of a rainbow-colored airglow, according to Space.com, a sister site of Live Science.

INTERPLANETARY SHOCK WAVE:

21/4/2018

An interplanetary shock wave hit Earth's magnetic field on April 19th around 23:50 UT. When the disturbance arrived, the density of solar wind flowing around our planet abruptly quadrupled and a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field. The resulting G2-class geomagnetic storm sparked unusual "electric blue" auroras.

"I've been flying airplanes for 20 years and photographing aurora for 10 years, but I've never seen anything like this before" reports pilot Matt Melnyk, who photographed the display from 39,000 feet. "Electric blue auroras!" he says. "This was while on a red eye flight from Edmonton to Toronto around 4 am over northern Manitoba. Unbelievable sky. I was able to grab some hasty shots with a cell phone."

Auroras are usually green--a sign of oxygen. Rare blue auroras are caused by nitrogen molecules. Energetic particles striking N2+ at the upper limits of Earth's atmosphere can produce an azure glow during intense geomagnetic storms.

What is an interplanetary shock wave? It is a supersonic disturbance in the gaseous material of the solar wind. These waves are usually delivered by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Indeed, this one might have been a minor CME that left the sun unrecognized earlier this week.

Alternately, it might have been an unusually sharp co-rotating interaction region (CIR). CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving streams of solar wind. They contain plasma density gradients and magnetic fields that often do a good job sparking auroras.
www.spaceweather.com

See also: 'Strong New Moon, Solar Activity and Gateways Ahead' by Sandra Walter, Wayshower, Ascension Guide and Gatekeeper

PILEUS CLOUDS:

11/1/2017

On Jan. 6th, Peter Lowenstein observed a rainbow-colored saucer over Mutare, Zimbabwe--but it wasn't a UFO. "This is a classic example of a pileus cloud," he says.

Pileus clouds form on sunny afternoons when the heat of the summer sun causes cumulus clouds to boil upwards. Roiling toward the sky, cumulus clouds push layers of moist air above them where they cool and condense to form droplet-rich cloud caps or 'pileus' (Latin for cap).
Sometimes, as in Mutare on Jan. 6th, pileus clouds form very quickly. In such cases their water droplets tend to be all the same size--the perfect condition for iridescent colors.

Lowenstein took four pictures over a period of just three minutes. "They show the cloud appearing, then changing shape and color," he says. "One minute later it had disappeared behind the summit of the growing cumulonimbus cloud."
www.spaceweather.com

POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS:

1/1/2017

Earth's stratosphere is normally free of clouds. Not this weekend, though. Observers around the Arctic Circle are reporting an outbreak of brilliantly-colored icy clouds in the typically dry and transparent layer of our planet's atmosphere. Eric Fokke photographed the display on New Years Eve from the Lofoten Islands of Norway:

These icy clouds are a sign of very cold temperatures. For ice crystals to form in the arid stratosphere, temperatures must drop to around -85º C. High-altitude sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors.Once thought to be mere curiosities, some polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone. Indeed, an ozone hole formed over the UK in Feb. 2016 following an outbreak of ozone-destroying Type 1 PSCs.

These clouds really are as amazing as they look in Fokke's photo. They have much more vivid colors than ordinary iridescent clouds, which form closer to Earth in the troposphere. Once seen, a stratospheric cloud is never forgotten.
www.spaceweather.com

CRAZY PINK AURORAS:

29/10/2016

During this week's solar wind event, observers around the Arctic Circle reported auroras of an unusual color. "Crazy pink," says Frank Meissner, who photographed the phenomenon on Oct. 26th from Tromsø, Norway:

"It was awesome," he says. "Flash-like bursts were zooming all over the sky."

Watching from Tromsø on the same night, veteran observer Terence Murtagh says "even with many hundreds of aurora sightings under my belt, I've never witnessed such distinct pink colors clearly visible and bright to the naked eye. They were almost too bright to photograph properly."

The pink color is probably a sign of nitrogen. Most auroras are green--a verdant glow caused by energetic particles from space hitting oxygen atoms 100 km to 300 km above Earth's surface. Seldom-seen pink appears when the energetic particles descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below. More examples may be found in the realtime photo gallery: Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
www.spaceweather.com

Strange skies: Beautiful iridescent clouds appear over Santiago, Chile

28/7/2016

Strange Sounds : 21 Jul 2016

This eerie iridescent cloud appeared over Santiago de Chile at sunset on July 15, 2016. This is one of the most unbelievable rainbow clouds I have ever seen in my life!

Cloud iridescence is a fairly uncommon phenomenon, when colors appear in a cloud, most often altocumulus, cirrocumulus, lenticular clouds and cirrus clouds.

© Roberto Antezana

Iridescent clouds are a diffraction phenomenon caused by small water droplets or small ice crystals individually scattering light. The colors are usually pastel, but, as in these pictures, they can be very vivid. Newly forming clouds produce the brightest and most colorful iridescence.

© Roberto Antezana

Iridescence is generally produced near where the sun appears in the sky, with the sun's glare masking it, so it is more easily seen by hiding the sun behind a tree or building. In our case, it was hidden by the Andes. Other aids are dark glasses, or observing the sky reflected in a convex mirror or in a pool of water. Or one can simply block the sun (but not the cloud) with the palm of one's hand.

A few days before, this blood red sunset sky engulfed the smoggy sky of Santiago de Chile.

© Roberto Antezana

These pictures are almost scary! as if we were playing with our atmosphere, with the clouds in the sky.

https://www.sott.net/article/323004-Strange-skies-Beautiful-iridescent-clouds-appear-over-Santiago-Chile