During our road trip through Switzerland, an overnight stay in our tent in the mountains certainly could not be missed. We always find this a fun, adventurous experience and try to include it in every road trip. This time, Bachalpsee seemed to us the most unique location to camp.
Around 2 a.m., Lissa woke up because she needed to pee. She whispered that she saw some colors in the sky, but since she didn't have her glasses on, I had to go outside. I took my camera with me, and what we saw then was a sky full of stars and many green streaks in the sky. The colors were hard to see with our own eyes, but due to the long exposure time of my camera, we could see it well. Lissa went back into the tent and lit up the tent with a headlamp so that I could capture this unique moment!
Back in the tent, I searched online for what this natural phenomenon was, because I had never seen this before. It's called airglow. Airglow is a relatively unknown phenomenon that occurs in the upper layers of the atmosphere of our earth. During the day, our atmosphere absorbs radiation from the sun, leading to the ionization of atoms and molecules. At night, this energy is released through chemical reactions, resulting in airglow. There are many other factors that play a role in airglow, such as temperature and altitude. That's why we could never see this in Belgium.