Steve's Ramblings

I have always been fascinated by the aurora borealis (Northern Lights); but, have only managed to view them once in my lifetime.  It was many years ago, as a teenager, in Indiana at my grandparents’ house during the winter.  Living in the south does not allow one the opportunity to see this phenomenon.  An excellent overview of the northern lights is discussed here.

The following video is a spectacular series of clips taken from the international space station.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Many things are visible as one watches this video – of course, the myriad of colors of the northern lights; lightning flashes in the clouds all over the earth; certain cities are quite apparent (Chicago, by Lake Michigan; Cairo and the lights along the Nile River; for example); an occasional constellation (Ursa Major, the big dipper; Cassiopia) is identifiable.

What is the long red line at the 3:47 mark on the video?  I have not been able to identify that region of the earth to even guess at what it might be.  (It appears again about the 4:38 mark).  Any suggestions?

# posted by Steve @ 8:05 PM