Photographer snaps extremely rare 'aurora curls' after magnetic wave rings Earth's atmosphere 'like a bell

[admin]

Ethereal green "aurora curls" were photographed in the night sky over Iceland after a gust of solar wind vibrated Earth's magnetic shield like a plucked guitar string. The phenomenon is extremely rare.

Photographer snaps extremely rare 'aurora curls' after magnetic wave rings Earth's atmosphere 'like a bell : Read more

 

[haraldfrey]

I disagree that curls are extremely rare, I think they are just rarely documented. To see curls the observer and curls have to be properly aligned along the magnetic field. Also, the camera needs a good spatial resolution of 100m or better at the aurora altitude of ~110 km. An all-sky camera cannot do that.

Almost exactly 20 years ago (December 1994) we recorded a video of the dynamic evolution of curls and published a paper later at

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/1999JA900148

Harald