Stunning aurora lights up skies over Australia: ‘Brightest one I’ve ever seen’

‘I’ve been chasing auroras for years and this tops the cake’

Images of a bright, multicoloured aurora seen in southern Australia have flooded social media in what many are calling the best experience of the space weather phenomenon they have ever seen.

Auroras are caused by charged particles from the sun in the form of solar storms interacting with the Earth’s geomagnetic field.

In the northern hemisphere, they are called aurora borealis while in the south, they are referred to as aurora australis.

The charged particles from the sun may lead to geomagnetic storms, which are a temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and are classified in a range from 1 to 5.

Class 1 geomagnetic storms (G1) are weak disturbances that may lead to mild power grid fluctuations while G5 are extreme storms that may lead to widespread voltage control problems with damage to transformers and complete collapse of some power grid systems.

Space weather physicist Tamitha Skov tweeted that a “severe” geomagnetic storm (G4) impacted Earth early Monday, causing auroras all over the world.

Reports suggest the lights were visible to residents of Tasmania, the southern Australian state, from about 5:15am local time onwards.

The space weather phenomenon was also reported on Monday from the northern hemisphere, including from England and Cornwall in the UK, Kyiv in Ukraine and from several parts of the US.

“Thanks to the strong solarstorm core we just entered, aurora is been seen in Kentucky, USA. Expect views deep into mid-latitudes that continue to brighten over the next 6-8 hours and then possibly wane a bit as the field flips northward over the latter part of this storm!” Dr Skov said.

“Stunning aurora high in the skies above Pennsylvania, USA during this ongoing solarstorm. The magnetic field is continuing to stay sustained southward so views will likely continue for another 6+ hours at the least,” she said.

Several people from towns across the Tasmania took to Twitter to share photos of the aurora taken through their smartphones.

Space photographer Lisa Bromfield tweeted images and said the display was “the brightest Aurora” she had ever seen.

“I’ve never seen so much colour in the sky before. I’ve been chasing auroras for years and this tops the cake,” Carmel Gledhill from Midway Point near Tasmania told ABC.

“We will likely hit G4-levels putting us at the ‘severe’ storm level... But no worries, this intensity will subside,” Dr Skov said on Monday, adding that the ongoing solarstorm could last over 24 hours before “really calming down”.