Aurora Borealis: Nature Lights Up the Skies
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[ Warning: Lots of images. Please allow for images to load. ]
Aurora happens in both the southern and northern hemispheres, particularly in the polar zone. It is called Aurora Borealis (also known as Northern Lights) in the Artic region and Aurora Australis in the Antartic region. Streaming plasma clouds, composed of fast moving charged particles, form a solar wind. It is the tangential interaction of the solar wind with the earth’s magnetic field that traps some of these charged particles. These trapped particles then flow along the magnetic field lines of the earth into the upper most regions of our planet’s atmosphere. That’s when the lights become manifest and their dance begins.
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Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere
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Aurora australis captured from space by NASA's IMAGE satellite.
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Aurora australis as seen from a Space Shuttle
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Aurora Borealis seen from the International Space Station (ISS)
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The Northern Lights shine above Bear Lake, Alaska, US
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Panoramic photograph from Edison, New Jersey, US
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Red and green Aurora in Fairbanks, Alaska, US
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Aurora Australis appearing in Swifts Creek, Australia
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Green Aurora Over Lake Superior, Canada
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Aurora Borealis as seen over Canada at 11,000m (36,000 feet)
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Aurora sightings in Oklahoma City, US
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Northern Lights over a house in Iceland
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Aurora seen at night in Scotland, UK
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Aurora over Arena, Wisconsin, US
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View of the Aurora and Comet Hale-Bopp over Boston, US
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Purple Aurora in Flambeau Lake, Wisconsin, US
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Another one from Flambeau Lake, Wisconsin, US
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Aurora Borealis with Orion, Unknown location
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Missing information, Unknown location
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Missing information, Unknown location
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Missing information, Unknown location
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Northern Lights - Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.
(Credit: National Geographic via Dark Roasted Blend) Photo by Kyle Anderson.
VIDEOS
Aurora Borealis from Space
Aurora display in British Columbia, Canada
Second part of the time lapse video above
Aurora Borealis as seen from Vestby, Norway
This one is from Northern Wisconsin, US
Finally, one from the International Space Station (ISS)
This post was written by Jennifer Hitchcock from Life of a School Bus Driver. Images and videos collected by Ilker Yoldas from these sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!