"While looking through my image files I ran across this jewel I had overlooked before. This image was acquired on March 24, 2007 from the beach at Deep Creek, Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. The beach, along the eastern shore of Cook Inlet, is littered with ice that has been washed up and glazed by the waves and tides during a long spell of unseasonably cold temperatures. Across the Inlet 10,197 foot Redoubt Volcano is visible at left.The aurora borealis twists and curls into spiral formations to the right of the volcano and is then reflected in the waters of the inlet. Further to the right, a void in the aurora creates the effect of a shadow cast into the night sky by the cone-shaped volcano. Nitrogen fringing is visible as reddish emissions in the bands of aurora at right as particularly powerful particles penetrate the Earth's atmosphere to altitudes down to 35-40 miles high as opposed to the common green oxygen emissions that take place between about 50 and 100 miles altitude. These types of emissions by molecular nitrogen are as close to the ground as the aurora ever gets. A bright moon is seen at the left and reflected in the water. Moonlight sparkles off the icy beach in the foreground. I used a custom-built 6x9cm. medium-format camera and Kodak E100VS film for the origional image. COPYRIGHT (C) Dennis C. Anderson Night Trax Photography contact at: auroradude@acsalaska.net or visit: www.auroradude.com " |
