What causes the aurora borealis or northern lights?
Source: Earth Heal – News For An Earth In Transition
by Eleanor Imster
Image via Colin Chatfield in Saskatchewan, Canada
What causes the aurora borealis or northern lights?
You see them. They’re beautiful and mysterious. What science says about storms on the sun and the northern lights.
Those who live at or visit high northern latitudes might at times experience colored lights shimmering across the night sky. This ethereal display is known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. What causes these lights to appear?
The aurora often appears as curtains of lights, but they can also be arcs or spirals, often following lines of force in Earth’s magnetic field. Most are green in color but sometimes you’ll see a hint of pink, and strong displays might also have red, violet and white colors. The lights typically are seen in the far north – the nations bordering the Arctic Ocean – Canada and Alaska, Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Greenland and Russia. But strong displays of the lights can extend down into more southerly latitudes in the United States. And of course, the lights have a counterpart at Earth’s south polar regions.
Spectacular aurora, or northern lights, seen by EarthSky Facebook friend Colin Chatfield in Saskatchewan, Canada on October 24, 2011.
Read more about the spectacular October 24, 2011 display of northern lights
Some Inuit believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen dancing in the flickering lights. In Norse mythology the aurora was a fire bridge to the sky built by the gods.
But science tells us that the aurora happens because of the sun.
