Video of the aurora australis taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The aurora australis, or southern lights, are caused by the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth磗 atmosphere. Like the northern lights, it occurs around the poles due to the channelling of solar wind ions there by the Earth磗 magnetic field. Aurorae typically occur at altitudes of around 100 kilometres. The ISS orbits around 350km above the Earth. This sequence of shots was taken September 17th, 2011, from 17:22:27 to 17:45:12 GMT, on an ascending pass from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia over the Indian Ocean.