The Yomiuri Shimbun
A low-latitude aurora that was observed from the Kushiro Marsh in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on Wednesday evening. This photo was taken with a 30-second exposure.
16:07 JST, November 13, 2025
SAPPORO — A low-latitude aurora that turned the northern sky a reddish hue was observed in Hokkaido on Wednesday night. The colorful phenomenon was even visible with the naked eye from the town of Kushiro at about 7 p.m.
An aurora appears when electrically charged particles emitted by the sun collide with the Earth’s atmosphere, causing them to glow. Auroras are commonly observed at high latitudes around the Arctic, but they are also sometimes visible at lower latitudes following a large solar flare on the sun’s surface.
A large solar flare occurred from Sunday to Tuesday, according to the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.
“The coronal gas ejected by the flare was traveling very fast, so I think this aurora will finish relatively quickly,” said Kaori Sakaguchi, research manager at the institute’s Space Environment Laboratory.
AloJapan.com