An aurora in shades of green, red and purple was photographed from the International Space Station as the orbital laboratory passed above Kyrgyzstan. NASA Earth Observatory published the image on 16 September 2026 as its Image of the Day, titled “Purple Haze Aurora”.

The photograph, catalogued as ISS075-E-88592, was taken on 7 September 2026, when the station was at about 255 miles, or 411 kilometres, altitude. NASA attributes it to the Expedition 75 crew. Astronaut Jessica Meir wrote the following day that she had never before seen such a brilliant purple wavelength and alluded to Jimi Hendrix’s song.

The display occurred amid a high-speed stream of solar wind from a coronal hole and lingering effects of several coronal mass ejections, according to NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center updates cited by NASA. The disturbances interacted with Earth’s magnetosphere and produced minor G1 geomagnetic storms.

The colours have a physical explanation. Energetic particles excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere; when they release that energy, they emit photons. Oxygen can produce green at roughly 100–200 kilometres altitude and red above about 200 kilometres. Excited nitrogen can glow blue or pink. When those emissions overlap, auroras can appear purple, pink or even white.

The photograph was acquired with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a 15-millimetre focal length. NASA says it was cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artefacts were removed. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Astronauts can see auroras at any time of year, but around the equinoxes the geometry of Earth’s magnetic field relative to the solar wind favours energy transfer into the magnetosphere, a phenomenon known as the Russell–McPherron effect. The picture shows the orbital laboratory above Central Asia, not an aurora photographed from the ground.

Image: NASA / ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility / Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. Astronaut photograph ISS075-E-88592, 7 September 2026, public domain. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Purple Haze Aurora — NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day, 16 September 2026.