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Austria witnessed an extraordinary celestial display on Monday night, as vivid auroras illuminated the sky from Vorarlberg to Vienna. Christian Möstl, head of the Austrian Space Weather Office at GeoSphere Austria in Graz, described the event as an “incredible aurora” — a rare spectacle at these latitudes.
Western Austria Glows, Vienna Gets a Subtle Show
Clear skies in western regions offered the most striking views, with bright red, green, and violet hues dancing above the Alps. Even in the east, where fog and city lights usually drown out faint phenomena, the aurora managed to break through. In Vienna, only subtle green‑violet shimmers were visible, mostly from elevated areas and the outskirts, but they were unmistakably part of the same geomagnetic event.
A Solar Storm of Exceptional Force
The aurora was triggered by a remarkably strong solar storm. According to Möstl, the storm carried the highest magnetic field strength measured in at least 31 years. With solar particles racing toward Earth at 1,178 kilometers per second, it was also the fastest storm recorded in the current solar cycle. Despite its speed and intensity, it may not have been the strongest geomagnetic storm of the cycle — a detail linked to the orientation of the magnetic field at the storm’s core.
What Comes Next?
Whether Austria will see more auroras in the coming days depends entirely on the Sun. Additional solar storms could trigger new displays — but at the moment, such events cannot be predicted. Until then, the images and memories from Monday night remain a rare highlight, offering a glimpse of the extraordinary beauty the sky can reveal when solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field align just right.
- hector pascua with reports from heute.at/picture: pixabay.com
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