{"id":183965,"date":"2025-12-14T09:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/183965\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:03:08","slug":"arcs-curtains-corona-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/183965\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcs, curtains, corona and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FormsView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Susan Jensen<\/a> in Irby, Washington, captured this view of the aurora through patchy clouds on April 2, 2025. Thank you, Susan! Do you know the names of the forms of aurora? Brush up on them here!
\nThe forms of aurora: From arcs to curtains and more<\/p>\n

The aurora \u2013 or northern and southern lights \u2013 can take many shapes. And as you watch, the lights dance and flicker, morphing from a diffuse glow to rays that shoot up from the horizon to cinnamon-bun swirls. There are many names for the variety of auroral forms you can see. And there is no specific or definitive list of shapes, but here are some of the most common forms you might spot.<\/p>\n

Diffuse glows<\/p>\n

A diffuse glow on the horizon is a form of aurora that people often overlook. If your eyes are not adjusted to the dark or if you\u2019re not in a dark-sky location<\/a>, you can miss it altogether. And if you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re looking at, the glow of light in the distance might just look like light pollution from a distant city, dimly illuminating the sky. <\/p>\n

But a diffuse glow is probably the most common type of aurora. You can see this form when geomagnetic activity is low or when a storm is just beginning or ending. It first starts as a faint, hazy glow that can spread to reach more areas of sky. Your camera will pick it up much more quickly than your eyes, which is also true of all auroral forms. Diffuse auroras don\u2019t have any distinct edges or specific patterns.<\/p>\n

Diffuse auroras occur when energetic electrons scatter widely before colliding with atmospheric particles, producing an even, cloud-like illumination instead of defined shapes.<\/p>\n

\"AView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Dan Belcher<\/a> captured a diffuse glow of aurora in New Mexico, just 15 miles north of Mexico, on November 11, 2025. Thank you, Dan!
\nArcs<\/p>\n

An auroral arc might be the next step up in activity you see. Arcs can be smooth with curves (homogenous arcs) or look like streaks of upward brush strokes (rayed arcs). Sometimes arcs can look like ribbons undulating in the sky as they pulsate and flicker. But auroral arcs can also remain static or shift slowly.<\/p>\n

This form of aurora happens when charged particles flow along magnetic field lines, creating a concentrated band of light at specific latitudes known as the auroral oval.<\/p>\n

\"GreenView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Diane Rains<\/a> in Hudson, Wisconsin, captured this rayed arc form of the aurora on May 10, 2024. Thank you, Diane!
\nRays<\/p>\n

When activity starts to ramp up, you might see rays \u2013 or vertical streaks \u2013 shooting upward into the sky. You can have a single ray projecting upward from an otherwise diffuse glow, or you can have a sky filled with rays. The rays can converge overhead to create an auroral corona, discussed below.<\/p>\n

Auroral rays form when the incoming particles follow individual magnetic field lines, creating parallel columns of light.<\/p>\n

\"TreesView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Robynanne Cash-Howard<\/a> captured these auroral rays in Highbridge, Wisconsin, on November 12, 2025. Thank you, Robynanne!
\nCurtains and draperies<\/p>\n

The curtain and drapery form of aurora is especially photogenic. This shape can resemble a billowing sheet or shimmering veil. Plus, it often ripples, giving it even more of a 3D appearance. Curtains are essentially auroral arcs bunched up in parallel lines.<\/p>\n

This form of aurora also occurs because auroras line up parallel to magnetic field lines. But there is more at play, including currents and wave-particle interactions that help define the shape of the aurora. We still don\u2019t know everything about how the aurora forms in the different shapes it does, and it\u2019s an active area of research.<\/p>\n

\"GreenView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Thea Schenk<\/a> in Eidsfjord, Norway, captured this aurora in the form of curtains or drapes on October 1, 2025. Thank you, Thea!
\nSpirals and swirls<\/p>\n

Sometimes the shapes of the aurora become very active, twisting into unique forms such as spirals and swirls. You will likely only see this shape during an especially strong geomagnetic storm or when you\u2019re closer to one of the poles.<\/p>\n

When you see spiraling or swirling aurora, you\u2019re seeing the turbulent, shearing motions within the solar plasma, which is guided by Earth\u2019s magnetic field lines.<\/p>\n

\"Bright,View at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | EarthSky\u2019s Ra\u00fal Cort\u00e9s<\/a> captured this spiraling aurora in northern Norway. Thank you, Ra\u00fal!
\nAuroral corona<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re having a really great night, the aurora may dip so far south that you can see it right overhead. Perhaps it will even fill your sky from horizon to horizon! The name for the aurora when it appears overhead is corona. It can look as if it is beaming down right to touch you. If you see an auroral corona, consider yourself lucky.<\/p>\n

\"AView at EarthSky Community Photos<\/a>. | Joel Weatherly<\/a> in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, captured this view looking straight overhead at an auroral corona on May 11, 2024. Thank you, Joel!<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Here are some of the forms of aurora that you might see in the sky. Some of the forms are more common, such as diffuse glows, while others are a sign of a big geomagnetic storm.<\/p>\n

Read more: What are these weird aurora blobs? Explainer here<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt
\n View Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Susan Jensen in Irby, Washington, captured this view of the aurora through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59611,85,46,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-183965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astronomy-essentials","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}