Aurora over germany

Last night, I finally got to see my very first live aurora. Well, at least kind of.

I sadly didn’t witness it, but my allsky camery captured the event, which took place between 6:02pm and 6:34pm today, November 5th 2023. This is an animation of the 29x 60s subs (right side is pointing north):

While auroras are pretty common in the northern areas, seeing them over germany is a very rare event, specially over Chemnitz.

Why are they expanding further south? Well, the activity of our sun has a regular cycle of 9 to 14 years (usually around 11), where the current one will reach its peak between 2024 and 2026. During this time, the number of sunspots and the intensity of solar winds and protuberances will heavily increase. These solar winds emit ions, which collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere and heat them up. Our magnetic field pulls them to the poles, where they cause these glowing halos - auroras.

With the increasing intensity of solar winds, also central european areas are more likely to witness these beautiful events.