Science fiction in the sky Rare aurora creates incredible natural spectacle

In Tromsø in northern Norway, rare auroras can be observed in January. An aurora conjured up particularly spectacular colors in the night sky - an almost surreal natural spectacle.

It almost looked like something out of a science fiction movie: on the night of January 21, an exceptionally strong aurora shone over northern Norway. Within a very short space of time, light formations emerged that looked like moving curtains of light, criss-crossing the sky in bright colors and changing rapidly.

Extreme solar storm as the trigger

The rare natural spectacle was triggered by an extremely strong solar storm. Large quantities of charged particles from the sun hit the Earth's atmosphere and caused the intense glow.

This was so strong that the aurora could be seen far beyond the usual regions, as far as Scotland, northern England and parts of central Europe.