{"id":676,"date":"2026-04-23T05:26:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/?p=676"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:26:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:26:51","slug":"optical-phenomena-in-antarctica-aurora-australis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/2026\/04\/23\/optical-phenomena-in-antarctica-aurora-australis\/","title":{"rendered":"Optical Phenomena in Antarctica: Aurora Australis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most famous optical phenomena of the polar regions is the Aurora. In the Arctic it is known as the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, and in the Antarctic it is the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights. With the growing nighttime at McMurdo, we’ve been lucky enough to see some beautiful examples of this atmospheric effect (with many more sightings to come I’m sure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: The Arrival Heights Laboratory with the lidar systems collecting data (the visible laser is part of the Na STAR system). The Aurora creates a magical scene floating above the lab. The Fe lasers cannot be seen since they operate in the UV spectrum.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past weekend was “Operation Dark Sky” in McMurdo, which means that many of the street lights in town were turned off. In combination with the lack of moonlight, it created the perfect conditions for viewing the stars and Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to their counterpart in the North, the Southern Lights are caused by high energy particles from the sun. These particles hit gaseous atoms in the upper atmosphere (such as Oxygen or Nitrogen) and excite electrons to a higher energy level. The electrons eventually naturally fall back to their ground state. As this happens, the energy that was absorbed is released as light in the visible spectrum, giving us vivid colors in the night sky (green and red from oxygen, purple and blue from nitrogen). The exact colors and shapes depend on altitude, particle energy, and atmospheric composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auroras are stronger when there are solar flares or strong solar activity. If the sun gives off more high energy particles, we see more lights in the sky. Depending on conditions, Auroras can be different colors and can move and reshape themselves constantly. The effect is truly breathtaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: A very bright example of the Aurora on the same night.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: The stars during Operation Dark Sky. The milky way and some small auroras can be seen in the left photo, and the Na laser and two shooting stars can be seen in the right photo.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking photos of the Aurora is an interesting process. As with any photo at night, using a longer exposure time to allow more light into the camera is the best way to capture them. In fact, it makes them a bit larger than life. With the naked eye they are certainly visible, but aren’t quite as vividly colored or bright as in photos. That being said, it doesn’t at all diminish from the magic and beauty that they hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most famous optical phenomena of the polar regions is the Aurora. In the Arctic it is known as the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, and in the Antarctic it is the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights. With the growing nighttime at McMurdo, we’ve been lucky enough to see some beautiful examples of… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/73\/2026\/04\/Aurora-5.jpg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-02 13:27:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/lidarexploration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}