The tents in the foreground are lit by a rising moon, while the green dancing light of the aurora glows softly overhead. The aurora borealis or northen lights is caused by energetic charged particles entering the upper atmosphere from space. Our sun emits a constant stream of these particles (the solar wind). Earth’s magnetic field guides them towards the north pole and downward, where the particles (mostly electrons) collide with the atmosphere. Atoms and molecules of the atmosphere absorb energy from these collisions and later release energy by emitting a photon of visible light: this luminous glow is the aurora. The same phenomenon is visible in the southern hemisphere where it is called aurora australis or southern lights. Aurora comes in several colors; the most common green aurora is emitted by oxygen molecules and occurs at an altitude of about 100 km (60 miles).
Taken August 26, 2013 at Skaftafell campground, Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland
Nikon D300s, 26mm, f/4, 30 s, ISO 800, with intervalometer (the photographer was asleep in the third tent)
Here is a one-hour time lapse video showing the movement of the aurora.
See the location on Google Maps
The next morning the Google Street View cameras hiked by and took pictures of us packing up! I’m in the blue jacket. Amazing coincidence…
Later that day the Google photographer walked past a mirror window and you can see what his gear looks like.