¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 March 14 [2]An aurora over Sweden with three parallel bands that looks like a flag. A Flag Shaped Aurora over Sweden Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Mia Stålnacke Explanation: It appeared, momentarily, like a 50-km tall banded flag. In mid-March of 2015, an energetic [4]Coronal Mass Ejection directed toward a clear magnetic channel to Earth led to one of the more intense [5]geomagnetic storms of recent years. A [6]visual result was wide spread [7]auroras being seen over many countries near [8]Earth's magnetic poles. Captured over [9]Kiruna, [10]Sweden, the [11]image features an unusually straight [12]auroral curtain with the [13]green color emitted low in the [14]Earth's atmosphere, and red many kilometers higher up. It is unclear where the rare [15]purple aurora originates, but it might involve an unusual [16]blue aurora at an even lower altitude than the green, seen superposed with a much higher red. Now past [17]Solar Minimum, colorful [18]nights [19]of [20]auroras over Earth are likely to increase. Follow APOD: [21]Through the Free NASA App Tomorrow's picture: meteor heard __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [39]ASD at [40]NASA / [41]GSFC & [42]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/AuroraFlag_Stalnacke_6677.jpg 3. https://www.instagram.com/angrytheinch/ 4. http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/CMEs.shtml 5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/storms-on-sun.html 6. http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=18&month=03&year=2015 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150319.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040919.html 9. https://youtu.be/b3vaaNE1XyM 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden 11. https://www.instagram.com/p/BTmEEF5AtOR/ 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960619.html 13. http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/4D.html 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#/media/File:Earth%27s_atmosphere.svg 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141014.html 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora#Visual_forms_and_colors 17. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarmin-max.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141103.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140714.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110517.html 21. https://www.nasa.gov/nasaapp 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210313.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210314 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210315.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 42. http://www.mtu.edu/