Stunning red sky over China wins fans online

Photographs of stunning red aurora displays in parts of North China have attracted plenty of online interest recently, being praised for their exceptional beauty, rarity in the region, and distinctive coloring compared with the blue and green auroras typically observed in Nordic countries.

"As a 'byproduct' of geomagnetic storms, auroras are formed when high-energy particles brought by intense solar activity collide with the upper atmosphere of the Earth, resulting in a varied display of colors at different altitudes," said Chen Anqin, chief forecaster at China's National Center for Space Weather, adding that it is normal to see red auroras in mid-latitude regions like China during periods of intense solar activity.

People in parts of Heilongjiang and Gansu provinces, and the Xinjiang Uygur and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions witnessed the aurora borealis last weekend.