For years, researching the connection between the Sun's magnetic field and that of the Earth, I studied the aurora borealis. Magnificent arcs of an otherwordly green stretched across the sky, lazily moved southward, then, more often than not, exploded into a shimmering display that took ones breath away. Standing at the banks of the Virgin River, the Sun's last rays barely a memory, I hoped for a similar conflagration as the arc of a cloud moved across the sky. Would it be set aflame by those last rays as they lifted themselves from the landscape to the skies above? The answer was an emphatic, but ephemeral, yes...
The Virgin River on a rainy day in Zion National Park, Utah. Photographed December 2019.
The sky caught fire on this evening, long after the Sun had disappeared below the horizon. Photographed May 2020.
