It is always amazing to see different pictures and videos of the Aurora Borealis. And the video below is great.
The Aurora Borealis
I can never remember what cause the light show. Here's a reminder of what it is from How Stuff Works:
The auroras, both surrounding the north magnetic pole (aurora borealis) and south magnetic pole (aurora australis) occur when highly charged electrons from the solar wind interact with elements in the earth's atmosphere. Solar winds stream away from the sun at speeds of about 1 million miles per hour. When they reach the earth, some 40 hours after leaving the sun, they follow the lines of magnetic force generated by the earth's core and flow through the magnetosphere, a teardrop-shaped area of highly charged electrical and magnetic fields.
As the electrons enter the earth's upper atmosphere, they will encounter atoms of oxygen and nitrogen at altitudes from 20 to 200 miles above the earth's surface. The color of the aurora depends on which atom is struck, and the altitude of the meeting.
Making the Video
NatGeo has an article on how the video was made and outlines a bit of their process:
To photograph northern lights, it’s best to use a light-sensitive digital single-lens reflex camera, or DSLR, with a full-format setting to capture as much light as possible, Possberg says. (See National Geographic’s tips on shooting with available light.)
The couple shot with three cameras using light-sensitive, wide-angle lenses that were programmed to take a picture every 30 seconds. Possberg also used her iPad to change the ISO and shutter speed—two ways to manipulate how much light is registered by the camera’s sensor—remotely without touching the camera.
Because cold temperatures zap battery life quickly, Claus customized batteries normally used for computers to power the cameras. Those batteries lasted up to 12 hours in -4°F (-20°C).
To steady the cameras in the polar wind, the team fitted them to tripods—”without a tripod, you can forget it,” she says—and covered the cameras with hoods to shield against snow or rain.
Once everything was set up, the Possbergs would shoot for at least three to four hours at a stretch—sometimes continuing through the night.
The Aurora Video
Arctic Lightscapes from Anneliese Possberg on Vimeo.
Here's a bit of the description of the video from Anneliese Possberg:
Around the polar circle light occupies a very important role, especially in winter. During the freezing months the sun creeps only along the horizon providing thus long hours of this tender twilight that occurs before sunrise and after sunset. But the nights are even longer and then another special light brights up the sky: the aurora borealis. In this film I wanted to show how individual the northern lights are: they may dance very fast in a frenetic rhythm or explode in a red-purple firework or they may just glow greenish over the starry sky vaguely distinguishable by the human eye. Every night there is a different night show – if the polar lights appear as they use to be very shy divas.