This spectacular show of bright red, green, white, purple and orange was captured over Saint Cloud, Minnesota, 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of the state's most populous urban areas, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
It began shortly before midnight and lasted through dawn.
Auroras are visible along the earth's poles and are the result of highly charged particles in the solar wind colliding with atoms from earth's atmosphere.
The colors depend on the altitude and the gas involved in the collision.
Comment:
ScienceDaily
Sep. 29, 2012 - The sun erupted with a wide, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 27, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are a phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later, affecting electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models estimate that the CME is traveling at around 700 miles per second and will reach Earth on Sept. 29.












