Germany was illuminated under the glow of the northern lights, a rare celestial spectacle that could be seen especially in the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. Purple, red and green were the colors of the sky in different parts of the country during the last hour of Sunday (02.26.2023).
According to the director of the Berlin Planetarium, Monika Staesche, the show was also visible in the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse. In very illuminated cities such as Berlin or Hamburg, however, it is still more unlikely to glimpse the northern lights.
Why does this phenomenon happen?
Typically, with normal solar activity, auroras can only be seen at higher latitudes, such as northern Scandinavia or Iceland. According to Staesche, solar storms are responsible for the colorful play of colors in the sky: the Sun throws electrically charged particles towards Earth, which shine when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. It should be noted that such particles need between a day and a half and two days to travel the distance of about 150 million kilometers that separates the Sun from the Earth.
What shines are air molecules, either oxygen or nitrogen, says Staesche, who expects the phenomenon to be repeated in Germany on Tuesday night.