The Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. Sequence taken on September 17, 2011 from 17:22:27 to 17:45:12 GMT, on an ascending pass from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia over the Indian Ocean.
Nasa has released the images of the aurora, also known as the Southern Lights, taken from the International Space Station.
Two videos, one taken on September 17 and one on September 11, show the Aurora Australis over Australia, Madagascar and New Zealand.
Still images taken on September 26 show even more dramatic light shows, in the more common green and a rarer red.
Auroras are caused when charged particles from solar flares associated with sunspots flow toward the Earth in what is called the solar wind.
The Earth's magnetic field captures the particles, which collide with atoms in the atmosphere and release energy, seen in rare places on Earth as auroras.
The colours depend on which atoms are causing the splash of light seen in the aurora. In most cases, the light comes when a charged particle sweeps in from the solar wind and collides with an oxygen atom in Earth's atmosphere. This produces a green photon, so most auroras appear green. However, lower-energy oxygen collisions as well as collisions with nitrogen atoms can produce red photons - so sometimes auroras also show a red band.
Auroral activity is on the rise as the 11-year sunspot cycle cranks up towards an expected peak early in 2013.
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