The forecast aurora australis lived up to its billing in the South.
Keen aurora watcher Taichi Nakamura, who shared images of a spectacular display in the sky near Invercargill, said the “huge display” lasted most of the night.
“It went overhead and covered the entire sky. It even shed shadows like a full moon on a night with no moon.
“The aurora kept pulsing and covered the entire sky, making it an exciting night being with the dancing light.”
Dunedin astronomer Dr Ian Griffin said the aurora were caused by a severe G4 geomagnetic storm.
Dr Griffin said the storm meant more aurora may be visible across southern skies for the next few days.
“There’s a bunch of incoming stuff.”
The colourful phenomenon is caused by charged particles from coronal mass ejections of plasma from the sun, when they collide with gases like oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere.
It causes them to release energy in the form of light which creates the colourful displays over head.
The onset of the severe geomagnetic storm also has the potential to affect power transmission lines, so Transpower is keeping a close eye on the grid.
Sometimes, it will remove South Island electricity transmission lines from service to prevent damage to critical equipment.
Removing the circuits from service does not have any impact on consumers’ electricity supply.
Nema is monitoring the large ejections and believed they were unlikely to result in significant impacts to New Zealand’s electricity grid.