Just in time for Halloween, a cosmic event painted the night sky over Canada a pumpkin-orange color that provided revelers with a mesmerizing colorful show for a phenomenon that supposedly shouldn't even exist. We used ChatGPT to explain this rare phenomenon.
The color orange, as mentioned, should not be in the Northern Lights color repertoire at all. In fact, it was a combination of red and green glamour—a rare sight, the last time it was seen in this way was some twenty years ago. Harlan Thomas, a Northern Lights photographer who photographed the phenomenon above a pond near the city of Calgary in Alberta, described it as "sublime" and "stunning," noting that the stunning hues were observed for more than 20 minutes on the morning of October 19.
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The color show was created by the emission of coronal mass (CME) from the sun that occurred three days before the photograph. The Northern Lights and Southern Lights are caused when particles with higher energy than CME or solar wind pass across Earth's magnetic protective layer (magnetosphere) and hot gas molecules in the upper atmosphere. The molecules release their tremendous energy in the form of light, and the color of the glow depends on the element they react with.
The most common luminous colors are red and green, both of which are emitted by oxygen molecules at different heights. Typically, red glows occur at higher altitudes than their green counterparts. Occasionally, as solar particles penetrate deeper into Earth's atmosphere, they can stimulate nitrogen molecules, giving rise to a rare pink glow.
In theory, both oxygen molecules and nitrogen molecules can produce orange wavelengths under certain conditions. However, it is very difficult to see these wavelengths (colors) due to the dominant presence of the other colors emitted by the surrounding molecules. In this case, according to Schlemar Oxvik, a space climate scientist and expert on the Northern and Southern Lights at the University of Bergen in Norway, the orange hue was created by mixing red and green.
As already mentioned, the appearance of an orange glow is extremely rare. The last time such vibrant, pumpkin-like hues adorned the sky was during the 2003 Halloween, which marked the strongest solar storm since measurements began. This event illuminated the night sky across North America and Northern Europe with mesmerizing orange lights, leaving stargazers in awe.
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