While I have to salute the choice of background music in the video (Trey's music is some of the best, though this sounds like a cover and not the maestro himself), there's nothing in the video that you wouldn't be able to see right on the ground, and I'm dubious. I think we're being spoofed here!
And even if they really did use a helium balloon, 100,000' is barely 19 miles (just over 30 km). This is way below the height of even the lowest aurorae! I knew this already but decided to research it for the benefit of readers here (something the author of this article would have done, if he had any background on the subject).
Quoting from the Norwegian web site...
http://www.tgo.uit.no/articl/theaurora.html
The height of the northern lights above ground level was a controversial subject for a long time. Around 1900 there were few people who claimed that the northern lights could reach right down to the ground, but whether they were located at a height of a few kilometers or many hundered kilometers up was unclear. The problem was solved by photographing them simultaneously from two places. If the appropiate distance between the two places was selected, it was possible to discover the displacement of the northern lights in relation to the stars in each photographs and thus calculate their height. Thousands and thousands of such triangulations were preformed from 1910 up to the 1950s. They showed that the northern lights were generally between 90 and 130 km above ground level, but many auroras - particulary the rayed aurora - extend to a height of several hundred kilometers. By way of comparison, the usual flight level of a jet is ca 10 km, and the ozone layer is located 20-30km up. We have to go almost as hight as satellites to find the northern lights. A consequence of the great height is that the northern lights are visible over distances of several hundred kilometers. Thus an aurora over Bear Island could be seen in both northern Norway and Svalbard, and an aurora over Finnmark could be seen in the northern sky in the county of Troendelag.
Boy, those northern Norwegians might have to deal with extra dark and cold, but they sure do get a nice reward in the way of a sky show!
Camera company GoPro sent some of its extreme-sports high definition cameras up into the charged particles of the Northern Lights. The result: some action-packed shots in a video that includes moving and still scenes of what the company claims are the first ever images from inside the lights - also known as the Aurora Borealis - where solar wind and geomagnetism combine to put on a show. The video seems to be a montage from land and space, but I take GoPro at its word that this includes footage shot from helium balloon rigs at 100,000 feet above Alaska earlier this month. Have a look, and hold onto your hair. If the embed doesn’t work (Vimeo seems to have taken it back after first letting us have it) then click here or on the video credit below:
“Plasma Jam” | First Photos/Video INSIDE the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) from Cortex Network on Vimeo.
