Are Northern lights red?

The earth is in a stream of high-speed solar wind flowing out of a hole in the Sun's atmosphere. On October 23, this caused a rare red Aurora to appear over Denmark. According to photographer Ruslan Merzlyakov, in the evening they suddenly appeared over the ruins of The hammershus fortress in the North of Bornholm island. He said it was an amazing experience to see the Northern lights at the 55th parallel of North latitude.

As a rule, the Northern lights are observed in the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere-67-70 degrees North latitude. However, during periods of strong solar activity, the auroral oval expands, and the Aurora can be seen in lower latitudes.

Usually the Northern lights are green-this is due to the glow of oxygen atoms 150 km above the surface. Red Northern lights are also caused by oxygen atoms, but at altitudes between 150 and 500 km, where the temperature and density of the atmosphere create suitable conditions for atomic reactions that emit red photons. Generally, the red Northern lights are too faint to be seen or photographed. They come from an extremely rarefied layer of the atmosphere, and in addition, as expert Les Cowley explains, the very slow atomic reactions that produce red photons are easily interrupted. Even the most experienced observers rarely see them.