Due to solar flares, large areas of Russia and Ukraine were covered with some of the most intense crimson and green “northern lights” seen in years on Monday, as seen in images shared on social media and by Russian media.
Overnight, the “aurora borealis” caused large areas of Siberia, the Urals, southern Russia, and Ukraine to be covered in shades of green, crimson, and purple.
Images shared on social media showed Russia’s night sky glowing green and crimson.
The sun’s charged particle streams cause the lights to appear. They enter the earth’s atmosphere, hit with gas molecules, and produce light particles called photons.
A spike in solar activity is predicted to make this year’s northern lights the strongest in at least ten years, according to a September editorial in the journal New Scientist.