What Causes Northern Lights
What causes the northern lights.
What causes northern lights. What causes the northern lights. The northern lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the earth s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun s atmosphere. The earth s atmosphere is made up of different atoms like oxygen and nitrogen and it s these atoms that cause the colours we can see in the northern lights. Ffion age 6 75 pembrokeshire uk.
As nature s most spectacular light show the aurora borealis is an unforgettable sight that s shrouded in mystery. Eleanor imster she was an integral part of the award winning earthsky radio series almost since it began until it ended in 2013. Colossal sheets of vividly colored light shimmy and dance across the night sky in locations near or within the arctic circle from siberia all the way to iceland. The most common colour seen in the northern lights is green.
I first saw the northern lights three years ago while driving home one night. The most common auroral color a pale yellowish green is produced. The northern lights and southern lights are a dazzling spectacle for skywatchers lucky enough to see them but fascinating science is behind what causes these impressive light shows. What causes the northern lights.
When the solar wind hits millions of oxygen atoms in the. Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.