March 20 aurora over Longyearbyen   (SV-20)

Here are the magical streamers of lights in the sky, seen from the far north, that we know as aurora borealis. Galileo poetically named them the dawn north wind after Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas, the Greek name for the north wind. These are all from one fantastic night of aurora borealis viewing in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. In fact, one fantastic hour as the aurora rose from the horizon, spreading wide past our peripheral vision, shooting straight overhead and engulfing the Big Dipper, which is seen high in the sky from this latitude. Just 12 hours after the total solar eclipse we were treated to this display of the solar wind interacting with the earth’s atmosphere.

The scene at Camp Barentz outside of Longyearbyen   (SV-21)

Sunlight reflects off an Iridium satellite near Jupiter to the right   (SV-22)

A ‘curtain’ shape  (SV-23)

Another ‘curtain’  (SV-24)

One of the more impressive shapes  (SV-25)

Directly overhead, 12:14:56 am, these five happen in the span of one minute   (SV-26)

12:15:08 am  (SV-27)

12:15:20 am  (SV-28)

12:15:38 am  (SV-29)

12:15:53 am  (SV-30)