The NOAA reconstructed the “trace” of the Northern Lights over North America and Europe during the historic night of May 10 to 11. These are two composite images, meaning images created from multiple shots taken by the NOAA-20, NOAA-21, and S-NPP satellites. Multiple solar eruptions led to one of the most incredible nights ever observed globally: while Northern Lights are usually limited to higher latitudes, they were seen as far south as the United States (such as in the Arizona desert and Florida) and even in southern Europe (like Italy).
The image of the Globe, showing the north of France, was captured at the beginning of the phenomenon on Earth: the Northern Lights then descended much lower.
The two images also highlight the extent of light pollution at night in major cities in North America and Europe.