Staff members at Novosibirsk State University, Roman Belousov and Mikhail Maslov, photographed the Northern Lights 100 km from Novosibirsk. The rare natural phenomenon takes place after powerful flares from the Sun.
The NSU staff could predict in advance the probability of the Northern Lights as a result of the sun flares. After a flare a cloud of plasma is emitted, this is called a coronary mass or solar matter. When the cloud reaches Earth, the polar aurora occurs. You can determine the probability of Northern Lights appearing at the Novosibirsk region latitude based on the solar wind parameters explained the leading engineer at the NSU Observatory, Mikhail Maslov. On September 8, after three powerful sun flares, the solar wind parameters were favorable, and so a decision was made to shoot.
The village of Duplenskoe was chosen to be the shooting location because clear weather was predicted in this part of Novosibirsk. Joining Maslov in the filming was Roman Belousov, the leading engineer at the NSU Laboratory of Cosmology and Particle Physics.
– Favorable conditions for the solar wind parameters started to develop at six o’clock in the evening and a good opportunity for shooting appeared," said Mikhail Maslov. NSU’s Maslov and Belousov watched the Northern Lights from 22:05 to 23:37 local time. The polar lights were captured on ordinary SLR cameras, placed on tripods explained Maslov. According to his estimates, this bright natural phenomenon occurs 2-3 times a year at the Novosibirsk latitude and depends directly the sun’s activity.
NSU staff are regularly engaged in photo and video shooting of astronomical phenomena. What began as a hobby, gradually became part of their professional activity. A series of sun flares began September 4. Two days later, scientists announced the most powerful flare in the past 12 years with a score of X9.3. On September 7, there was a second powerful flare that was given the highest class of activity, - X. The third powerful flare, which was also attributed to class X, occurred on September 8. The fourth powerful explosion was recorded by the astronomers on the evening of September 10. According to scientists, a series of flares is a natural result of changes in the solar corona.
