The northern lights in Yellowknife are so beautiful, I had to post these. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Yellowknife is the best location in the world for viewing the aurora borealis. As the nights grow longer, the green, red and mauve lights of aurora borealis, or northern lights, are absolutely brilliant in their dance across the sky. See Discover North. Britsh Columbia has some beauties as well. There are some great websites out there to see pictures like these. Aurora's Northern Lights. I also noticed a contest at Nordlys - Northern Lights.
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. For more great info go to Nordlys - Northern Lights.
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. For more great info go to Nordlys - Northern Lights.
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