One of the most powerful solar radiation storms on record, which led to the Northern Lights appearing at unusually low latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere, has also turned the night skies pinkish-red in parts of northern Greece.
The storm started at around 6 p.m. Monday with solar radiation hitting the Earth’s magnetosphere and triggering Aurora Borealis visible in Macedonia, Epirus and the Ionian Sea islands.
Constantinos Tziotziou, a solar physicist at the Athens Observatory, said that it’s rare but not unprecedented for the Northern Lights to become visible from Greece.
“The stronger the event, the lower latitudes the lights can be seen from,” he said. “That’s why they appeared red in the Ionian islands. Had we been further north the green lights would also have been visible.”
