Watch the Northern Lights dance over the Washington Monument

Rare, possibly one-of-a-kind video has emerged of the northern lights dancing over the National Mall and Washington Monument. Even though clouds in the D.C. area mostly obscured the epic display of auroras — which was seen in all 50 states and Puerto Rico — a short window opened up just before dawn Saturday when the clouds parted.

Billie Mitchell, a professional camera operator and cinematographer, was ready for the moment the northern lights broke out. From his 21st-floor apartment in Crystal City, he started shooting at 3:50 a.m. and managed to capture what may be the only video of the northern lights in existence over Washington’s skyline.

As the video opens, dancing, shimmering green lights sweep low in the northern sky.

Next, curtains of purple light streak from north to south at a higher altitude, passing directly over the Washington Monument.

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Mitchell said in an email that this spectacle was not visible with the naked eye but that the more sensitive lens of his Sony RX100 V digital camera was able to pick up the auroras’ magnificent color.

Auroras are created when energy and particles from the sun temporarily disturb Earth’s magnetosphere, triggering a geomagnetic storm. Some solar particles travel along our planet’s magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, exciting nitrogen and oxygen molecules and releasing photons of light in different colors.

The colors of an aurora correspond to the type and altitude of the element that is excited in Earth’s atmosphere. Excited oxygen atoms glow red above 120 miles and glow green between 60 and 120 miles. Excited nitrogen atoms below 120 miles can glow pink or purple.

Friday night’s clouds sent many Washingtonians to bed feeling cheated as beautiful scenes of the northern lights emerged from far-flung locations such as South Florida, Southern California and Texas. But, early risers — or those who stayed up much of the night — were rewarded when the clouds unexpectedly broke apart between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Saturday.

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Because of the auroras’ surprise appearance and the time of day, relatively few people captured images close to the District. But since Saturday, a couple dozen readers have sent us photos from the District and surrounding suburbs. Most of them said that they could see the auroras only with the aid of a camera, but a few — especially those outside the Beltway and farther from city lights — reported seeing them with their naked eyes. The most vibrant scenes sent to us came from the mountains in western Virginia, where the northern lights were visible — at least for short periods — on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

The sunspot area that produced the geomagnetic storm behind the auroras remains extremely active but is rotating away from Earth, meaning the D.C. area probably won’t have another opportunity to see the northern lights in the near term. However, the sun is near the peak of its 11-year cycle during which it produces more geomagnetic storms than normal.

Below, find a set of photos from within a two-county radius of the District, shared with us by readers in recent days:

Inside the District

Falls Church

Springfield

Woodbridge

Calvert County along the Bay

Kasha Patel contributed to this report.

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