The theory was that the lights were reflections from Earth’s oceans. Another theory was that they were reflected sunlight coming from below the horizon, lighting up the sky. Even fires in Greenland were speculated as being the cause of these mysterious lights.
How the northern lights are created?
Auroras occur when charged particles (electrons and protons) collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Those collisions produce tiny flashes that fill the sky with colourful light. … The shape of Earth’s magnetic field creates two auroral ovals above the North and South Magnetic Poles.
What phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the southern lights?
Aurora borealis is also known as ‘Northern lights’. Similarly, aurora australis is also known as ‘Southern lights’.
What is the difference between Northern Lights and Southern Lights?
The only difference between the Northern Lights and Southern Lights is that the Northern Lights occur at the North Pole, while the Southern Lights occur at the South Pole. … In fact, the scientific name for the Northern Lights is ‘Aurora Borealis’, while the scientific name for the Southern Lights is ‘Aurora Australis’.
What causes the phenomenon of northern and southern lights?
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. These atoms become excited at different levels in the atmosphere. … Once the nitrogen atoms begin to decay, they emit a purple coloured light.
Are there Southern Lights?
Yes, there are southern lights. The aurora australis occurs around the southern magnetic pole, much as the aurora borealis (northern lights) occurs around the northern magnetic pole.
How often does Aurora Borealis happen?
“Active periods are typically about 30 minutes long, and occur every two hours, if the activity is high. The aurora is a sporadic phenomenon, occurring randomly for short periods or perhaps not at all.”
Why is the aurora borealis green?
The most common color seen in the Northern Lights is green. When the solar wind hits millions of oxygen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere at the same time, it excites the oxygen atoms for a time and they decay back to their original state, when they emit the green hue we can see from the ground.
How would you describe the Northern Lights?
Answer. The northern lights, one of several astronomical phenomena called polar lights (aurora polaris), are shafts or curtains of colored light visible on occasion in the night sky. … The origin of the aurora begins on the surface of the sun when solar activity ejects a cloud of gas.
Why is Aurora Borealis only in the North?
Of the two poles, the aurora can be seen the strongest near the arctic circle in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason that the Aurora can only be seen at the poles has to do with how the Earth’s magnetic field acts. The Earth has a metal core and acts much like a bar magnet with two poles and a magnetic field.
What is cool about the Northern Lights?
1. Aurora is the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas is the Greek term for the north wind, hence the name Aurora Borealis. 2. The International Space Station sits at the same altitude as the Northern Lights meaning astronauts can see the lights from the side.
Do the Northern Lights happen every night?
There is no official season since the Northern Lights are almost always present, day and night. Caused by charged particles from the sun hitting atoms in Earth’s atmosphere and releasing photons, it’s a process that happens constantly.
Is aurora Borealis A plasma?
The ultimate energy source of the aurora is the solar wind flowing past the Earth. Both the magnetosphere and the solar wind consist of plasma (ionized gas), which can conduct electricity. … Electric currents originating in such fashion apparently give auroral electrons their energy.
Why are the Northern Lights bad?
The Northern Lights occur so high up in the atmosphere that they don’t pose any threat to people watching them from the ground. The aurora itself is not harmful to humans but the electrically charged particles produced could have some potentially negative effects to infrastructure and technology.
What does Borealis mean?
: an aurora that occurs in earth’s northern hemisphere.
What is Arora?
The Arora is a community of Punjab, comprising both Hindus and Sikhs. The name is derived from their native place Aror. Historically, the Arora section of the Khatri community had been principally found in West Punjab, in the districts to the south and west of Lahore.
Is there an aurora borealis in Antarctica?
Best Places to See Northern Lights
This auroral zone covers Central and northern Alaska and Canada, Greenland, northern Scandinavia and Russia in the Northern Hemisphere, and Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere. In the south, auroras can sometimes be seen from southern Australia, New Zealand, and Chile.
Does Australia have aurora borealis?
Auroras tend to be most visible during the autumn and vernal equinoxes. … The equivalent of the aurora borealis in the Southern Hemisphere, aurora australis are most commonly found in southern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica, per Smithsonian Magazine.
Do aurora borealis make sound?
What is clear is that the aurora does, on rare occasions, make sounds audible to the human ear. The eerie reports of crackling, whizzing and buzzing noises accompanying the lights describe an objective audible experience – not something illusory or imagined.
Why is there no Southern Lights?
Fairly simple, really. That being said, the reason the southern lights are not as popular is due to their extremely remote location, and in turn, are much harder to access for travellers who make the journey thousands of miles away to witness this fascinating occurrence in real life.
Does Aurora mean Rose?
The name Aurora is primarily a female name of Latin origin that means Dawn. … Aurora Borealis is a name for the Northern Lights. Nicknames for Aurora include Arie, Rory, and Aura. The most famous fictional Aurora is Princess Aurora from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty also known as Briar Rose.
What do northern lights look like to eye?
The Aurora Borealis appears in a spectrum of colors. Including white-gray. … Our naked eye can most easily see the green-yellow part of the spectrum where the sun emits most of its light. Green is the most common color observed but the Northern Lights can also appear white-gray.