Aurora Borealis by Olivier Grunewald

Photo Credit: Olivier Grunewald

Olivier Grunewald was born in Paris in 1959. He started photographing birds at the age of 14. After studying commercial advertising photography at the Gobelins school of images, in Paris, he began to work as freelance photographer specialized in sports, mountaineering and rock climbing. Later, he began to focus more on landscape and wildlife, spending five months in French Guyana working on leatherback turtles - work that was awarded a World Press Photo prize in the nature category in 1995. In 1997, Grunewald began work on a book, Images of Creation, which tells in pictures the story of beginnings of universe and of life on Earth. In the process, he started to photograph the Northern Lights and active volcanoes - for him a fascinating personal discovery that sparked a long-term project on volcanoes and auroras.

Aurora Borealis
Science & Technology, third prize stories

2001

The Northern Lightsor Aurora Borealisare produced when solar wind, eruptions of electrified particles from the sun, collide with Earth's magnetic field. These magnetic storms can also damage satellites and other telecommunications installations. In a new scientific field, researchers at the EISCAT base are pioneering space meteorology, to forecast the weather in space. In the period 2000-1, increased solar activity led to particularly intense light displays.