Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - A solar storm also caused the northern lights over Saxony-Anhalt. A dpa photographer reported that the lights were visible over Jerichow in the Jerichower Land district. The glow was more visible in darker areas. In brightly lit cities such as Berlin, that is rather unlikely, said the director of the Berlin planetarium at the Insulaner and the Wilhelm Foerster Observatory, Monika Staesche.
"It has to be clear so that you can see it," said a spokesman for the German Weather Service. In large parts of the night, with a cloudless sky, "in Saxony-Anhalt we were lucky" to see the light show well.
According to Staesche, so-called solar storms are responsible for the greenish or reddish glow. In the process, electrically charged particles are ejected from the sun. If this happens in the direction of earth, the particles can reach us. They need about one and a half to two days to cover the distance of around 150 million kilometers. When they enter the earth's atmosphere, they glow. With normal solar activity, the auroras can only be seen at higher latitudes.
