Like many people in Tasmania, grey nomads lucky enough to be on the Apple Isle at the moment are still raving about last night’s spectacular Aurora Australis ‘show’.
Veteran observers are describing the event as ‘the best and strongest’ they had seen in years.
The ABC reports that aurora is a natural display of lights in the sky — appearing as rays, curtains, flickers or spirals. It’s usually seen around the Antarctic and Arctic regions.
Last night, it was visible in areas across Tassie: in Blackman’s Bay and Clifton Beach near Hobart, in Launceston and Devonport in the north, in Ross in the east and in Queenstown in the west.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the aurora is ‘one of nature’s most spectacular visual phenomena’ and this one was a particularly widespread lightshow.
“This aurora event was seen as high up as in the Mallee in Victoria, and there were reports of faint sightings as far across as Perth,” BOM solar weather forecaster, Zandria Farrell, told the ABC. ”The size and frequency of these events will increase as we head towards a solar maximum, which is going to occur around 2023.”
The aurora occurs when solar flares blast streams of particles from the sun, which then go into solar winds and head towards Earth.
“These particles are directed by magnetic fields to the Earth, where they collide with atoms in the atmosphere,” Ms Farrell told the ABC. “These collisions are what you see as the beautiful lights, and what we call aurora.”
