"A dull arc hung around for a couple of hours before suddenly exploding with a mixture of rays and curtains." — Stephen Voss, Southland, New Zealand.
Two large solar flares on June 13-14 sent surges of charged particles crashing into Earth’s atmosphere about three days later, igniting brilliant aurora displays.
The Northern Lights were seen on June 16 as far south as Iowa, Nebraska and Maryland, while the Southern Lights illuminated the night sky in New Zealand on June 17.
The flares responsible for the sun’s coronal mass ejections were ranked as M-class, or medium intensity, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.
The current cycle of sunspot activity has been increasing to what is expected to be a peak in 2013.
Photographer Stephen Voss captured several colorful images of the aurora australis near New Zealand's southern city of Invercargill.
That region was in midwinter at the time of the aurora, allowing for several hours of dark sky to view them.
Photo: Steven Voss