Facts of Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis

Facts of Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis

The particles such as solar winds race towards earth, most of them are turned aside by the Earth’s magnetic field and go around the planet. However, some particles do get into the Earth’s upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms of air to produce the colorful displays known as the "Northern Lights" or "Aurora Borealis".

A basic definition of Aurora Borealis is luminous arches or streams of light which appear in the in Northern regions of the earth.

Aurora Borealis is credited to Galileo Galilei (1616) and means “northern dawn.”

The best chance you have to see a Aurora Borealis is to visit the latitudes in the Arctic Circle from 68 to 74 degrees. The green circle indicates the most active latitude for the Aurora activity.

The Aurora Borealis has a curtain-like shape, and the altitude of its lower edge is 60 or 70 miles, about ten times higher than a jet aircraft flies. Thus, Aurora Borealis does not effect airplanes as they fly at altitudes well below the Aurora Borealis.

The Aurora activity seems to be at it's most active late evening between 10pm and 1am but can be seen in the afternoons during the polar winter above the Arctic circle.






During autumn and winter there is a strong chance to see the aurora during the evenings.

It is possible to forecast the Aurora Borealis within three days accuracy.

It is interesting to note that 'Aurora' was the name given to the Roman goddess of dawn.

The phenomena of the Aurora Borealis were explained by different stories - the legend and myth of bygone days - The lights were God or Goddesses appearing to  mortals. The lights were spirits or souls dancing in the sky. The red colour was associated with legend or myths relating to blood - murder, death, armies, wars and suicide.

In Inuit folklore, Aurora Borealis were believed to be the spirits of the dead playing football with a walrus skull over the sky.

The Algonquin believed the Aurora Borealis to be their ancestors dancing around a ceremonial fire.

The Finnish name for Aurora Borealis is revontulet, fox fires. According to legend, foxes made of fire lived in Lapland, and revontulet were the sparks they whisked up into the atmosphere with their tails.

Eskimos once believed that the lights were the spirits of seals, whales, and caribou, and the Algonquian Indians of Canada believed that the lights were reflections from a huge fire built by the “Great Spirit”.

The array of colours in the Aurora Borealis consist of red, blue, violet, and green. Red is the dominant color.

The NASA Space Weather Bureau provides a forecast of viewing the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.

Locations in the Northern hemisphere including Scandinavia, Canada, Northern America, Northern Europe and Siberia. Auroras occur around the magnetic poles in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Aurora Borealis can effect Earth's communications. The solar wind related to Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis can cause interference with radio, television and satellite communications.

The Aurora Borealis is not effected by changes in the temperature of the Earth.






The Aurora Borealis can appear as patches of light, in the form of streamers, arcs, banks, rays, or resembling hanging draperies.

During the 1980s, people living as far south as the US-Mexico border reported seeing the Aurora Borealis.

Aurora Borealis, from the Upper Atmosphere, can create a current on the ground strong enough to wreak electrical cables.

Aurora Borealis can last as little as 4 seconds to as long as 30 min.

Aurora Borealis occur on both the dark and the light side of the earth but you can only see them on the dark side.

It is believed that one Aurora Borealis may carry millions of mega-watts which would be enough energy, everybody in the United States would ever need.

Churchill is the only place where you can experience the Aurora Borealis from the observation deck of a world famous Tundra Buggy. It lies directly beneath the Auroral Oval in the Northern Hemisphere, with auroral activity occurring on over 300 nights a year.

It is the nitrogen in the atmosphere that makes the Aurora Borealis red and blue and the oxygen that causes the red and green colours to appear.

- By Sunil R Yadav

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