What is the Northern Lights phenomenon over Eastern Europe due to?
An aurora borealis lit up the sky over several Bulgarian cities on Sunday night. It was visible in places in the northern part of the country and with very low cloud cover. A similar celestial illumination was also observed 21 years ago.
Northern Lights visible from Bulgaria
A beautiful aurora coloured the Bulgarian sky in red hue on Movember 5. The phenomenon is due to a solar flare which started on November 3.
"The energy that is released during the restoration of the energy levels causes this glow in different colours. The colour of the phenomenon depends on two things - on the energy charge, on the energy of these particles and on what atoms it interacts with. In this case, we observed a red glow, which occurs at high altitudes," explained Prof. Petya Trifonova, deputy director of the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography.
Besides the solar flare, another possible cause for the glow could be a HARP experiment. The experiment aims to study auroras by creating artificial ones.
"It is very likely that what we observed resulted from the combination of this scientific experiment that is currently taking place and the natural processes of the sun," said Associate Professor Petya Trifonova.
The attractive red glow was visible in the northern part of the country and where there was little to almost no cloud cover.
"The denser the cloud cover, the less you can see. If there are breaks, the clouds themselves become very attractive to watch," explained Anastasia Stoycheva, director of "Forecasts and Information Services" at NIMH.
The magnetic field will soon be completely calm and the red glow leaves no trace behind.
