Thread: Northern lights

What are Northern Lights?
How are they formed?
What about their sounds?
Please provide photos of Northern Lights.
THANK YOU.
HAVE A NICE TIME.

The northern lights are formed by the effect of the Earth's electromagnetic field deflecting cosmic radiation and other particles coming off the sun.
Because of the way the Earth's electromagnetic field is formed the shape of it makes it possible that you get the Northern lights visible in the far north of the arctic circle as this is where the electromagnetic field comes much closer to the earth. You also get the Southern ligths for the same reason because the electromagnetic field also comes quite close to the south pole.

Those at high latitudes might be a good show tonight and tomorrow from a very large flare heading our way.

The light itself comes from charged particles impacting the molecules in the air, which then reradiate the energy at specific wavelengths (colors) Similar to the way neon lights work.

For lots of northern light images, see here:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

BTW, it's not necessarily just high latitudes. A big storm can create aurora (the technical name) as far south as the US-Mexican border, though they are rare.

Is St. Elmos's fire a similar phenomenon?

Not really; that's more closely related to lightning, though in both cases the light come from the enegy pumped in.

No I just thought the way you explained the northern lights, which I thought was very good btw, it sounded similar to the charged particles and ionization of the air molecules description of St. Elmos's fire.

Like for instance particles already inside the earth's electromagnetic field reacting with another electric field within the air.

No, it's not reacting with another field in the air. The high velocity particles are hitting air molecules.

Originally Posted by kvskvt

What are Northern Lights?
How are they formed?
What about their sounds?
Please provide photos of Northern Lights.
THANK YOU.
HAVE A NICE TIME.

There are no sounds associated with the Northern Lights. It is a completely silent phenomenon. If you have seen movies of the northern lights where there was sound, it was added as part of the cinematic process to enhance the "mood".

IGPP/UCLA SSC Tutorial - Magnetosphere