Contains:  Northern lights
Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley, Nikita Misiura

Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley

Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley, Nikita Misiura

Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley

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Just was lucky to be in the Death Valley NP during a recent magnetic storm. Although there were no "northern lights" per se, we were greeted with this red arc that was hanging out in the sky for a good fraction of the night.

SARs accompany strong geomagnetic storms and are visible in the mid-latitude regions of earth. It's a pretty poorly studied phenomenon, whose origin is still not totally clear. They are always red and practically monochromatic (emit 630 nm light) because they are caused by excitation of Oxygen.

There is actually a second rare phenomenon in the image - the ephemeral lake in the Badwater basin in the Death Valley. It only forms from time to time after strong precipitation in the Death Valley. This time the lake formed after Hurricane Hilary dropped two inches of rain in one day, destroying many roads and other infrastructure in the park.

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    Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley, Nikita Misiura
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    Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley, Nikita Misiura
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Stable Auroral Red arc (SAR) over the ephemeral lake in Death Valley, Nikita Misiura