I have never been far enough north to see the aurora borealis, but I found some amazing photographs on Flickr (made available, of course, through the generous people who contribute to Creative Commons).
It was very difficult to choose, so I decided to go for variety of color and landscape.
These first two came with an explanation, so of course I wanted to put them first. Besides: the brilliant emerald green colored-light, more intense than I'd ever imagined.....! But first, the explanation, to which one of the photographers (Zheng Xu) kindly provided a link:
"The northern lights have had a number of names through history. The scientific name for the phenomena is Aurora Borealis, which is Latin and translates into the red dawn of the north. It was the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who first used the expression. On the latitude where Galileo was living, northern lights consist of mainly red colour.
What causes them?
Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second.But even with such speeds (over a million kilometer per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to three days to reach our planet. When they are closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles; 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.
When the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky. (quoted by Zheng Xu from this site)
1. "Aurora Borealis" by "Zheng Xu (Fairbanks, Alaska)
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
2. Öxarárfoss in Iceland - Aurora Borealis by Arnald Valdimarsson
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using
it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here
.
3. Aurora, Red & Green Curtains by Spodzone (website: Tim Haynes: a landscape photographer in Scotland) (Perth in Scotland)
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
4. "Aurora Borealis" by Matthias Burch (Iceland).
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
5. "Aurora Borealis" by Jim (Code Poet)
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compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using
it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
6. Aurora Borealis, just after sunset by Robert Voors (the Lofoten, Norway).
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in
compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using
it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
7. Aurora by Anita Evans (North Cumbria)
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
8. Aurora in Whitehouse, Yukon, Canada by Peter Lytwyniuk (website: Studiolit)
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
10. Northern Lightning! by Oli Haukur
I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in
compliance with a Creative Commons license. Before saving it or using
it, please consult the terms of the applicable license. The license can be viewed here.
This is such a great news, it really helps,Thanks for convey the message, i really didn't know about that,Thanks for share this.
Posted by: College Term Papers | March 01, 2010 at 06:13 AM
The auroras on the gas giants seem, like Earth's, to be powered by the solar wind. In addition, however, Jupiter's moons, especially Io, are powerful sources of auroras on Jupiter. These arise from electric currents along field lines, generated by a dynamo mechanism due to the relative motion between the rotating planet and the moving moon.
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