Solar storm’s ‘dancing light’

The forecasted aurora australis arrived as promised on Tuesday night, lighting the sky across the South.

Keen aurora watcher Taichi Nakamura shared these images of the spectacular display near Invercargill, which lasted most of the night.

"It went overhead and covered the entire sky," he said.

"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."

The display was caused by a couple of fast-moving coronal mass ejections (CME) from the sun, which hit Earth on Tuesday, causing a severe G4 geomagnetic storm.

Charged particles from the CME collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light which creates the colourful displays over head.