A pic taken from ISS

[+hgbn]

 

Experienced the phenomenon with my own Mk2 eyeballs in Greenland earlier this year. I can only say the sky on speed

[ShrikeHawk]

Oh man, that's beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[Nesher]

cool...

[Lexx_Luthor]

I like the pure green. That gives me things to think about.

 

First experiments over The SF about two years back...

 

 

[+hgbn]

One odd thing about taking pics of this is that it becomes all green. In reality it shifts color every color, pulse and wave all over the sky. I don't think there is a camera in the world which can capture this awesome phenomenon and do it full justice. It has to experienced first hand.

[Rambler 1-1]

Never seen the northern lights from above before...

[Slartibartfast]

Damn thats a great picture...

[Lexx_Luthor]

hg that's good to hear. Looking closer I do see red in that pic. I made my aurora to have a very slow shimmer, about 20 seconds particle lifetime with gradual fade in and fade out. Gives something to look at on those long polar night missions.

 

 

[EmitterType001]

Name=Aurora-Red

EmissionType=POINT_EMITTER

UpdateType=NON_MOVING

MaxVisibleDistance=1500E+3

EmissionRate=2

EmissionVolume=300E+3,300E+3,0

ParticleUpdateType=SIMPLE_POINT

ParticleRenderType=VERTICAL_SPRITE

ParticleRandomOrientation=FALSE

ParticleLifeTime=20

ParticleLifeTimeDeviation=0.0

ParticleColorTableType=TABLE

ParticleColor[01].Time=0

ParticleColor[01].Value=0,0,0,0

ParticleColor[02].Time=0.2

ParticleColor[02].Value=0.18,0,0,0

ParticleColor[03].Time=0.8

ParticleColor[03].Value=0.18,0,0,0

ParticleColor[04].Time=1

ParticleColor[04].Value=0,0,0,0

ParticleSizeTableType=CONSTANT

ParticleSize=100E+3

PositionHeightOffset=170E+3

BaseSizeDeviation=0

TextureMaterial=AuroraMaterial

//=============================================================================================

[EmitterType002]

Name=Aurora-Green

:

:

etc...blah blah

[JediMaster]

Never seen the northern lights from above before...

 

Well, technically then you still haven't.

 

This is a picture of aurora australis, in the southern hemisphere.

[+hgbn]

Lexx! I would add some blue and purple colors as well. Maybe make it like pastel colors

[Lexx_Luthor]

I did at first -- Blue -- but it looked "too much" but then it could use alot of tweaking which I haven't done yet. Mostly I see red and green in pics. I've never seen these myself except one time in Mis-sip when the aurora was so powerful we could see it a hazy uniform glow low in the northern sky from 20 miles south of Jacksonville, even through the city glow. I've read about the shimmering.

 

Do the colours vary with altitude? In the SF screenshots, the green is below red. I set red starting at 170km, green 100km.

[+hgbn]

It's very difficult to determinate the height when you look at it at ground level. especially when it's directly overhead. Sometimes it looks like it only a few thousand feet up. And when it starts it looks like it's growing out of nothing. I can imagine in the ancient time that people thought it was a Divine thing. Color wise you can compare it with a Rainbow the same colors in vertical needles that shift color pulsing and waving over sky before it suddenly fade away. Some are up maybe 20 secs and some for minutes.

[Lexx_Luthor]

Do they shine strong enough to cast shadows on a clear dark moonless night? I could do that.

 

In fact, this was I guess a "pre-experiment" I did when I first got into THE SF, back maybe 2005. Its a horizontal sprite, not vertical, pure static but the basic experiment worked to learn how far I could push the grafix distances. The sprite was defined far north off the map edge, so the light source is very distant, so the shadows vary little if you fly a few hundred km.

 

 

 

 

Edit: I remember now. That was taken from an aurora photo, then smeared, and of course laid horizontal (wrong!). So the colours there^ are what could be seen I guess. From Mississippie, all we could see was a faint red glow low in the north sky. I guess shorter wavelengths got eaten by the atmosphere haze. Indeed, I do quite like the purple.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Lexx_Luthor

[+hgbn]

:clapping: Bring backs some good memory's. I think you good got it right.

[Lexx_Luthor]

I do need some blue in there. Getting back into it. I found some good links. Most common colour is yellow and green, then red, then blue. I see varying opinions on the distance of the aurora ring from the north magnetic pole: from 1500km to 2500km. I used 2000km to setup the ring in my game a few years back.

[Abhi]