Auroras over Alberta

Auroras over Alberta

Astrophotographer Jessica Fridrich: "Here are some more bread crumbs from the still elevated speed from last night. It only took about an hour of slightly negative Bz. Once Bz dropped, the substorm unleashed almost immediately. A gorgeous dance of greens and columns reaching high into the sky at 54N."

Notes: "Bz is the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) carried by the solar wind. When Bz turns southward (negative), it triggers aurora activity—this is the single most important real-time indicator."

Known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras.

Learn more about auroras: 
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/auroras/

Alberta is a province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, the Northwest Territories to its north, and the U.S. state of Montana to its south.

Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the second-largest country by total area with the longest coastline of any country. Its border with the United States is the longest international land border.

Image Credit: Jessica Fridrich
Location: Edmonton, Alberta

Photographer's website: https://www.flickr.com/photos/186268707@N07/
Date: Oct. 12, 2026

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