Blood Aurora

[intrepidphotos]

A rare 'blood' Aurora fills the sky across the Northern Rockies. Red or ‘blood' aurora’s are created by oxygen atoms at an altitude of between 200–500 km (120-300miles) colliding in a high energy state and emitting red light at 630 nm. In contrast the more common green aurora are oxygen atoms at a lower altitude of 70-200km (40-120 miles) and lower energy state emitting light at 557.7 nm. In most cases to see a red aurora you need an extremely dark sky and to be looking from a lower latitude across the top layers of a distant high latitude aurora. When the aurora is closer or overhead, the subtle high altitude red fringe is drowned out by the intensity of the lower altitude green aurora. In this shot the green aurora is also visible spilling over the mountains however it has taken a more yellow hue as it’s mixed with the light of the red aurora from behind it. If you look at the high resolution version of this shot you can see 7 shooting stars in the time it took for this 20 second exposure, although 6 of them are quite faint. The shot was taken at a latitude of 55 North looking across the rugged Hart Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains which form part of the Pine Le Moray Provincial Park. British Columbia, Canada

If you would like to learn a little bit more about my background in photography you can read the interview @photofeed did with me here

Robert Downie
Love Life, Love Photography

_{All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com}

Comments

[anthonywong]

nice, upvoted

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[aerialpegasus]

Excellent! Love rare sightings - nice capture with beautiful colors! The sky doesn't look like a sky at all, it looks like a gelatinous mass with particles suspended homogeneously, or snow falling from a cloudless night sky. I appreciate your information to explain and add interest as well.

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks ! Beautiful description.

[isaiahphoto]

Wow... this is insane!!! I've seen the northern lights a couple of times but it's always been really green. Thank you so much for sharing! I'd be thrilled if you checked out my work :).

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[visualcontent]

Truly astounding shot! I hope I get a chance to see something even half as amazing as this some day. Kudos!

[intrepidphotos]

Cheers

[gabrielatravels]

Wow, I never seen this before! It literally gets right into your heart :)

[intrepidphotos]

It does ;-)

[weberh8]

wow that sky ! Love it

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks mate ! Hope your well.

[asgarth]

Wow, this is so red!!!

[intrepidphotos]

It is !

[alex.alhouri]

this sky is on fire ! amazing photo :D

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[tiempoyesp]

It is magic

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[loneranger]

That is so interesting, I worked up north for many years. Admittedly I normally went south shortly after the snow flew, but I did spend a couple of winters working in the Yukon. I saw my share of green and sometimes with pink swirling northern lights, however I never saw or even heard of red ones. Thanks for sharing that, very enlightening.

[intrepidphotos]

The red ones are rare and very faint.

[derekkind]

Astonishing!!!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks mate ! Do you get many Auroras out where you are?

[derekkind]

I'm at a significantly lower latitude, so we can only see the really good ones, KP 6 or 7+. Maybe once or twice a year, but less in actuality because it's almost always clouded on nights when there's aurora. :p

[intrepidphotos]

I take it you mean latitude ;-). You are a lot further east however which in Canada being east is almost as good as being North due to the offset nature of the magnetic pole.

[derekkind]

Bahahaha, yes. You'd think I was at an extremely high altitude making a mistake like that. :p

Oh...really? Interesting...never thought of it that way. Where is Magnetic North these days anyway, near King William Island?

EDIT: apparently I'm about 100 years behind.

[vtravels]

Wow this is amazing, you don't often see the colours like this!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[blastik]

Have never seen aurora with these colors, amazing view!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[positiveninja]

Beautiful photo. And thanks for the explanation!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[ladybug146]

Whoa! what an amazing shot! I never seen the aura that color before.

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[sinochip]

This is so much more stunning than the normal green ones I saw in Finland a few years ago!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks. The red ones are quite faint compared to the green.

[kieranstone]

Amazing sight to see. Hooray for the Earth's magnetic field!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks mate ! Yes it keeps us alive every day .

[artizm]

exceptional! in one word

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[martinsandersuk]

What a great photograph bro!! Good informative write up with it as usual too. Thanks 😉

[intrepidphotos]

Cheers mate ! Hope your well.

[countrygirl]

You even captured some shooting stars.....a very intense and beautiful sky. You are very fortunate to have experienced it!

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks ! Yes I was very lucky.

[mnallica]

it has extraordinary, excellent colors. Congratulations Rob.

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks

[tiloupsa]

so.... colors depends on energy ? how magic... I guess that's how our aura are colored, with our own energy. Thanks Rob for this wonderful photo and those explanations !

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks. Glad you like it ;-)

[justinmullet]

This is incredible. I witnessed a blood aurora last spring in Idaho! Beautiful event.

[intrepidphotos]

Thanks. Glad you could see one. Was it Red to the naked eye?

[justinmullet]

Unfortunately no. It wasn't until I saw it after a 20 second exposure. We have a harder time this far south getting to experience bright aurora.

[intrepidphotos]

Yes the Camera can often see them from very low latitudes. That's why most shots from Australia and NZ of the Aurora Australias have a lot of pink/red in them as they are taken from a long way North to the Aurora. In the case above the mountains blocked the green so the red was more visible from a closer distance.

[riverflows]

Yes my uncles photos of the one on the Surfcoast was reds and yellows.

[jarvie]

DUDE!! I haven't even done an aurora shots yet and here you're off doing "RARE AURORAS"!! hahaha

[intrepidphotos]

You need to get out there and shoot some ! ;-)

[riverflows]

One of my favourite memories is seeing the southern aurora from Jan Juc with Dad in the 80s. Spectacular. Actually could have been early 90s..