February 2008
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Summary: A solar wind stream hit Earth on Jan. 31st, sparking three nights of fitful auroras over Scandinavia, Iceland and Canada. See also January 2008.

 
  Photographer, Location Images Comments


The crew of the International Space Station, Earth orbit
Feb. 1, 2008
#1, #2, #3, #4

Astronauts took these pictures during a mild geomagnetic storm on Feb. 1st. At the time, the ISS was orbiting over the Bay of St. Lawrence and the camera (a Nikon D2Xs) pointing north with a view of Quebec and Newfoundland.


Sauli Koski,
Kittilä Finland
Feb. 3, 2008
#1, #2, #3, more

Misty weather -20 degrees, quickly moving lights not so good to take photos Fuji S5Pro Sigma 24-70macro 20sec f2,8 ASA 250


Hanneke Luijting,
Tromsø, Norway
Feb. 1, 2008
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

Very nice active display, photographed from my own balcony! Some red was visible sometimes.

Photo details: Canon EOS 350D, ISO 400, 10-13s exposures at f/5.6


Fredrik Holm,
Reykjavik, Icreland
Feb. 1, 2008
#1, more

Quite a nice day starting with beautiful nacreous clouds over the eastern horizon, and ending with the best display of northern lights we have seen in a while.

Photo details: Canon EOS 30D, EF-S 1-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, ISO 320, f 3.5, 37sec

Panu Lahtinen,
Ivalo, Finland
Jan. 31, 2008
#1, #2, #3, more

We were playing cards at the table when we noticed the first green bands crossing the sky. It didn't take long before I was firing up the snowmobile to get us up on the top of the nearby fjeld. That first trip didn't give other than simple green bands and a non-responding camera. Fortunately it was only a dead battery. An hour later brighter green bands interfered our card playing again, and this time the display was beautiful; some color and a very lively corona!

Photo details: Canon 350D, 8 mm Peleng fisheye at f/4, 10 s - 30 s exposures, ISO 1600.


Patrick Collins,
Central Labrador, Canada
Feb. 1, 2008
#1, #2

Major geomagnetic storm! Rapid, millisecond changes in colour, flowing like blowing snow through a forest, or river eddies. I've never seen anything like it - flickering pulses coming over >75% of the sky like sheets! Unreal!


Tero Raita,
Kilpisjärvi, Lapland, Finland
Jan. 31, 2008
#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, more

Our scientific teams from SGO and SPG of University of Oulu, Finland had NEMI photometers in HotPay2 sounding rocket. The rocket was launched successfully on 31 Jan 2008 (21:14UT) from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway (www.rocketrange.no). The solar wind stream from the coronal hole hit perfectly to our launch window and also the weather conditions were good. We got nice aurora arc to the trajectory of the rocket. Later on we got beautiful display in Kilpisjärvi were we have optical instruments to support rocket observations.

Photo details: Nikon D70, ISO800, f3.5, various exp times.


Niels Giroud,
Seltjarnarnes, Iceland
Feb. 1, 2008
#1, #2, more

Good to see some beautiful northern lights above Iceland again! Very active evening.

Photo details: Nikon D200, Sigma 10-20 lens, 400 iso, f/4, 30s exposure.


Thomas Steffen,
Aekaeslompolo, Finland
Jan. 31, 2008
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

It was my last day on my holidays. I was very happy to see a beautiful aurora between 11 and 12 pm. I could see the aurora for a hole hour. Optio digital camera, 400 ASA, 15s exposure

more images: from Fredrik Broms of Tromsø, Norway; from Marja Wallin of Ivalo, Lapland, Finland; from Aizat Sabri Bin Ilias of Murmansk, Russia; from Gilles Boutin of Kuujjuaq Nunavik Canada;