Hi Stargazer945,
The northern lights called Auroras Borealis is a natural display of
wavy, flickering light in the sky that can be seen with our naked eye
only at night and occurs in the far northern and southern regions of
the Earth. Scientists believe that it is caused by a continuous flow
of electrically charged particles from the sun, called solar wind,
which causes a disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field and charged
particles in the ionosphere. When the charged particles strike atoms
and molecules in the atmosphere, energy is released and appear in the
form of auroras. A similar phenomenon in the Southern Hemisphere is
called the Aurora Australis. The auroras are the most visible proofs
of the sun's activity on the Earth's atmosphere.
For more technical details regarding the Auroras Borealis, you can
read the following links. Simply press the "Shift" key before clicking
on a link so it will open a new window or right-click on the link and
choose "Open in New Window" for your convenience.
The George Washington University - Information Systems and Services
What causes the Aurora Borealis?
http://home.gwu.edu/~withers/aurora_2001/science/project.html
Alaskascience.com
"The Aurora Explained"
http://www.alaskascience.com/aurora.htm
Not yet satisfied? There are still plenty of links to find and explore
through the last two links below.
Search strategy:
"what causes aurora borealis" - in Google Web search
://www.google.com/search?q=%22What+causes+Aurora+Borealis%22&cat=&hl=en
"what causes the aurora borealis" - in Google Web search
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=%22what+causes+the+aurora+borealis%22&btnG=Google+Search
I hope this helps you. Should you have any comments/questions, please
feel free to post your clarification before rating this and I'll
attend to you as soon as possible. Thanks for asking.
Best regards,
Feilong |
