Two Indian sky-cameras at Ladakh capture aurora caused by most powerful solar storm in two decades

New Delhi: In a rare occurrence, two Indian astronomical cameras at Ladakh have captured the aurora caused by the most powerful solar storm that hit the earth in the last two decades, astronomers said on Saturday.

An all sky camera at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics’s high altitude observatory at Hanle and a similar camera at Merak, on the banks of Pangong Tso, which is the proposed site of the National Large Solar Telescope, picked up the celestial spectacle in the intervening night of May 10-11.

“The red auroral light was captured by our Hanle camera towards the northern horizon from half past midnight till about morning twilight, and peaked around 2 AM”, said Dorje Angchuk, the engineer-in-charge of the Hanle observatory.

The most intense solar storm in 21 years struck the earth on Friday, raising the possibility of disrupting communication networks and power grids across the world. Indian scientists now predict that Saturday night may witness an even more powerful solar storm.

Aurorae or the bright spectacle of cosmic colours occur due to an interaction between the Earth’s magnetosphere and the incoming solar wind that carries charged particles and magnetic fields. They are more intense when solar storms hit the Earth.

They are generally seen from higher latitudes, and not from India most of the time. Only in the case of extremely strong solar storms, countries at lower latitudes get to see them.

The recent set of storms was one such event where it was witnessed from India at Ladakh, the IIA said in a media statement.

The star released a series of violent solar magnetic storms. At least four such solar storms reached the Earth between 10 and 11 May, giving rise to extraordinary aurora across the world, even at low latitudes.

The two cameras at Ladakh not only picked up the intense red colour caused by energetic particles in the upper atmosphere, but also blue and violet coloured bands, caused by particles extending into the lower atmosphere.

“Astronomers at IIA study the Sun, coronal mass ejections and the space weather. It is not very often that we see aurorae at Hanle latitudes. We look forward to observing more such aurorae from Ladakh in this solar cycle”, said Annapurni Subramaniam, IIA, director.