Behold: Aurora lights up the Indian Ocean beneath the International Space Station

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Astronauts document fierce aurora following solar storms Brilliant green flames dance above the darkened Indian Ocean in a time-lapse video taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Posted to the ISS Twitter account on Sunday, the video shows the aurora, or Southern lights as seen by astronauts on the space station. The charged particles generate the pretty lights as they transfer their energy into the magnetic field, but can also trigger a geomagnetic storm, an expansion and quivering of the field that can disrupt radio communications and even pose a hazard to satellites — in February, a geomagnetic storm pulled 40 newly launched SpaceX satellites out of low Earth orbit. SpaceX satellites disintegrate in the dark sky above Puerto Rico The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center had warned of the possibility of a moderate geomagnetic storm on Sunday.