Airglow
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Perseid Meteor Shower and Airglow
The Perseid Meteor Shower is formed when Earth travels through the debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteor shower can be seen annually from mid July to late August, and peaks around August 11 to 13 where 100 or more meteors can be seen per hour under ideal conditions. Dark skies are needed for the best view, as in Manitoulin Island, Ontario where this image was taken. This image captures the Perseids within a span of 3.5 hours. All Perseids appear to originate from a point, the radiant, in the Perseus constellation off to the right of the image. The airglow, formed as air molecules in the upper atmosphere were excited by solar radiation, was very faint to the eyes, but showed up as a green and red glow throughout the sky under long exposure.
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Airglow over Misty Canisbay Lake
A one-hour star trails session taken over Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Park got an extra shot of vibrance from airglow. While the airglow wasn’t visible to the eyes, it readily registered on the camera. Even the fog on the lake picked up the colour.
Airglow is a type of chemiluminescence – the emission of light from chemical interactions between oxygen and nitrogen atoms, and other free radicals created from solar energy in the upper atmosphere. While airglow may look somewhat similar to aurora, the energy producing aurora comes from solar wind particles directed towards Earth’s atmosphere through interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
