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Aurora australis seen from the ISS, 2017. An aurora (pl. aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or ...
Feb 16, 2017 · The otherworldly aurora borealis, or northern lights, begin high in the Earth’s atmosphere—at altitudes from 60 to more than 250 miles—when charged particles from the sun become trapped in ...
Feb 9, 2024 · The northern lights, or the aurora borealis, are beautiful dancing ribbons of light that have captivated people for millennia. But for all its beauty, this spectacular light show is a rather ...
Oct 19, 2023 · An aurora is a natural light display that shimmers in the sky. Blue, red, yellow, green, and orange lights shift gently and change shape like softly blowing curtains. Auroras are only visible at night, and usually only appear in lower polar regions. Auroras are visible almost every night near the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, which are about 66.5 degrees north and south of the Equator.
May 17, 2023 · The aurora borealis lights up the night sky behind Iceland's iconic Kirkjufell volcano. Auroras are caused when charged particles from the sun collide with gases in Earth's atmosphere. The color ...
Jun 13, 2024 · There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple. These green bands of light in the winter sky above Alaska are an aurora borealis. This is the name for an aurora in the Northern Hemisphere. Credit: Sarah Histand.
Oct 8, 2021 · This aurora is caused by undulations in Earth’s magnetic field called chorus waves. The waves periodically dump bunches of electrons into the atmosphere. That creates rhythmic flashes of light. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, courtesy of Krista Trinder. Not all colorful lights in the night sky are auroras.
When the aurora peaked in the late 1980s, shows over Churchill, ... giving people beyond the normal limits a glimpse of the lights. The aurora of 1958 also coincided with the dawn of the space age.
The strongest lights tend to appear between 9pm and 2am, though the best sightings often occur between 11pm and midnight. Between 4am and 5pm there is generally too much daylight to see the aurora – exceptions are the darkest months of the year and higher latitudes such Svalbard, where it is dark 24/7 from mid-Nov to end of Jan.
The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) are the result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. (Protons cause faint and diffuse aurora, usually not easily visible to the human eye.) The electrons are energized through acceleration processes in the downwind tail (night side) of ...
