An alert about a geomagnetic storm might not sound like a good thing, but it’s exactly the kind of notification photographers of the southern night sky want to be getting.<\/p>\n
These storms are behind a phenomenon called the aurora australis, or the southern lights, which produce a colourful light show.<\/p>\n
And that’s just what happened in some southern parts of the country last night.<\/p>\n
Here are some stunning examples shared to the ABC’s Weather Obsessed Facebook page:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Greens, pinks and oranges in southern Tasmania.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Maria Holst Salomonsen<\/a>)<\/p>\n Check out the stars in this photo from southern Tasmania.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Bruce Cooper<\/a>)<\/p>\n Here’s another one of Bruce’s images from a different angle.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Bruce Cooper<\/a>)<\/p>\n Here’s what the sky looked like before twilight ended over Kangaroo Island in South Australia.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Linda Irwin<\/a>)<\/p>\n And here’s that same scene after twilight ended.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Linda Irwin<\/a>)<\/p>\n Darren Boaden’s managed to capture the glow even as far north as Burra in New South Wales, which is just south of the ACT.\u00a0 (Suppled: Weather Obsessed\/Darren Boaden<\/a>)<\/p>\n And here’s a snap from Yass, which is even further north than Burra.\u00a0 (Supplied: Weather Obsessed\/Tom O’Dea<\/a>)<\/p>\n These photographers are among many who post their snaps to the Facebook group.<\/a><\/p>\n It’s a public group where people share pictures and weather updates from around the country \u2014 and many other parts of the world.<\/p>\n Lately there’s been a lot of snaps of frosts and autumnal leaves, but it is flooded with aurora photos when geomagnetic storms flare up.<\/p>\n What is the aurora australis?<\/p>\n It’s a phenomenon when the sky in the Southern Hemisphere is lit up by glowing whirls of colour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “Australis” comes from the Latin word for “southern”.<\/p>\n In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the aurora borealis, or the northern lights.<\/p>\n What causes an aurora australis?<\/p>\n Geomagnetic storms.<\/strong><\/p>\n They’re triggered by something called coronal mass ejections.<\/p>\n “A coronal mass ejection is the literal ejection of material from the Sun out into space,” Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre (ASWFC) forecaster Andrew Jackling said<\/a>.<\/p>\n This sends charged particles from the Sun towards Earth, causing geomagnetic storms that can disrupt Earth’s magnetic field.<\/p>\n “Kind of like in a normal thunderstorm, your shutters on your house would get a bit rattled by the wind and the rain,” he said.<\/p>\n In a geomagnetic storm, the disruption can cause atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere to emit bright, colourful light<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And that’s what gives us these whirls of colourful lights in the sky.<\/p>\n Where can I see an aurora australis?<\/p>\n That depends on how strong the geomagnetic storm is but, generally speaking, it’ll be visible in southern parts of the country.<\/p>\n So Tasmania is your best bet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n But you might also be able to catch glimpses of it in southern parts of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and, if you’re lucky, New South Wales<\/strong>.<\/p>\n How can I catch the next aurora australis?<\/p>\n The ASWFC, which is part of the Bureau of Meteorology, sends out geomagnetic storm alerts via email.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n