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The other names of the Lights are Aurora Australis for the Southern Lights (also called Sørlys in Norwegian) and the Aurora Polaris or Polar lights (Polarlys is the general Norwegian term for both the northern and the southern lights). The Northern Lights is a light phenomenon often seen in the northern regions. The lights have been around since Earth formed an atmosphere -the dinosaurs saw it, early humans saw it and our descendants will see it. The Northern Lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, considerable amounts of solar particles are emitted from the sun into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with immense speeds of over a million kms per hour, yet it takes them two or three days to reach Earth. While closing in they are captured by the Earth's magnetic field - the magnetosphere - and guided towards the two magnetic poles of the Earth - the geomagnetic south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.
On their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles. Due to the obstruction, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon or a light particle. Countless such collisions make an aurora. Due to the collisions, the lights seem to be moving across the sky. |
