Many consider the aurora to be something of the most beautiful things that can be seen. The different colours in green, blue and red that swiftly move across the sky are really fascinating. If it is the first time you see a sparkling aurora it is easy to lose one's breath. Regardless of the fact that I have seen quite many beautiful auroras, I cannot just walk by when I see a new one. There are no two auroras that are alike, so if you have seen one aurora it does not mean that you have seen them all.
Auroras appear in many different shapes.
The aurora mostly seen early in the evening is shaped as an arc and stretches all across the sky in an east-west direction. The arc has indistinct edges and is green. Yamauchi Masatoshi Sometimes arcs can become active and start to look like pieces of drapery with distinct rays that show the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. The length of an aurora arc can be quite large, maybe 1000 kilometres or more, but the width can be as small as 100 metres. If you stand directly beneath an aurora in the direction of the magnetic field the rays look like they are all coming from one point and radiating in all directions.