Very rare images in our latitudes, which have made photographers happy. These last two nights, part of the French territory has been the scene of the appearance of the northern lights. From the north to Poitou and over part of Burgundy, the sky is adorned with its most beautiful pink, gold and purple attributes.
Caused by solar flares, the aurora borealis is rarer at lower latitudes, especially in France, where it can be observed about every ten years and provided the solar flare is strong enough and pointed in the right direction. Countries in the Far North record up to several hundred per year.
“Usually they are visible near the poles, because it interacts with the magnetic field, but there was a very large eruption there, so we were able to see it at lower latitudes and see it at Poitou in central France,” he said. . , to BFMTV, Éric Lagadec, president of the French Society for Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Light from the Sun takes just eight minutes to reach Earth, but the flow of ionized particles associated with an eruption takes two days to travel the 150 million km. The solar flare that occurred on Friday caused the auroras seen on Sunday night. Another eruption, which occurred on Saturday, caused the auroras observed during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Unlike the northern lights observed near the Arctic Circle, which are usually green, the warmer colors of the phenomena are a consequence of their altitude. Here, the phenomenon appeared at an altitude of one hundred kilometers while further north, it occurs between 100 and 300 kilometers.
If the phenomenon remains rare, it could still happen again in the next few years, thanks to the solar cycle that lasts about ten years. “With a bit of luck, we will be able to see others in 2025”, concludes Éric Lagadec.
Source: BFM TV
