The forecast aurora australis lived up to its billing in the South.<\/p>\n
Keen aurora watcher Taichi Nakamura, who\u00a0shared images of a spectacular display in the sky near Invercargill, said the “huge display” lasted most of the night.<\/p>\n
“It went overhead and covered the entire sky. It even shed shadows like a full moon on a night with no moon.<\/p>\n
“The aurora kept pulsing and covered the entire sky, making it an exciting night being with the dancing light.”<\/p>\n
Dunedin astronomer Dr Ian Griffin said the aurora were caused by a severe G4 geomagnetic storm.<\/p>\n
Dr Griffin said the storm meant more aurora may be visible across southern skies for the next few days.<\/p>\n
“There’s a bunch of incoming stuff.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It causes them to release energy in the form of light which creates the colourful displays over head.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it will remove South Island electricity transmission lines from service to prevent damage to critical equipment.<\/p>\n
Removing the circuits from service does not have any impact on consumers\u2019 electricity supply.<\/p>\n
Nema is monitoring the large ejections and believed they were unlikely to result in significant impacts to New Zealand\u2019s electricity grid.<\/p>\n