Rare northern lights turned the night sky red

On Sunday, the sky shone with red light over the fields in Voltendorf (St. Pölten district), and the same picture was seen in large parts of Lower Austria in the evening. A clear view to the north and as dark an environment as possible made observations easier. Some were lucky and saw the reddish glow in the sky.

Typically, the northern lights, or northern lights, can only be admired as far north as Norway and Finland. But a special constellation or solar storm made the landscape visible as far as the Alps. Good visibility conditions and currently very dry air have contributed to improved visibility.

The northern lights are caused by high-energy solar wind particles that are thrown into space at high speeds by explosions on the Sun’s surface and eventually strike the Earth’s magnetic field. The more particles there are in the atmosphere, the brighter they are.

The sun shows an active phase

The red color means that the lights originated at an altitude of about 200 kilometers above Earth. The familiar northern lights, which glow green, originate deeper. The phenomenon of light over the Alps can also be clearly seen in Salzburg – more on this in The northern lights again over Salzburg (salzburg.ORF.at; November 6, 2023).

According to GeoSphere Austria, the Sun is currently in a very active phase and is expected to reach its peak in 2025. Until then, the frequency of geomagnetic storms and the northern lights will continue to increase. The northern lights were last seen in western Austria around the night of September 25 – more on that in Northern lights over western Austria (oesterreich.ORF.at; September 25, 2023).