Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way

Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? {Airglow}. Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see.

A disturbance however — like an approaching storm — may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth’s {Atmosphere}. These {Gravity Waves} are oscillations in air analogous to those created when a rock is thrown in calm water.

Red {Airglow} likely originates from OH molecules about 87-kilometers high, excited by ultraviolet light from the Sun, while orange and green {Airglow} is likely caused by sodium and oxygen atoms slightly higher up.

While driving near {Keluke Lake} in Qinghai Provence in China a few years ago, the photographer originally noticed mainly the impressive central band of the {Milky Way} {Galaxy}. Stopping to photograph it, surprisingly, the resulting sensitive camera image showed {Airglow} bands to be quite prominent and span the entire sky.

The featured image has been digitally enhanced to make the colors more vibrant.

{Night Sky} {Astrophotography} {Celestial} {Cosmos}