What causes the northern lights?

Answer 1

explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_aurora

pictures: http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Curtis/aurora/aurora.html

Answer 2

The sun is the father of the auroras.

The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet.


The Northern Lights are constantly in motion because of the changing interaction between the solar wind and the earth's magnetic field. The solar wind commonly generates up to 1000,000 megawatts of electricity in an auroral display and this can cause interference with power lines, radio and television broadcasts and satellite communications. By studying the auroras, scientists can learn more about the solar wind, how it affects the earth's atmosphere and how the energy of the auroras might be exploited for useful purposes.

Answer 3

what causes the northern lights is: charge particles of the solar wind coming in contact with magnetic field of the earth...these charged particle is protons working of the positive ions of the earths magnetic field

Answer 4

Electrons eminating from the sun in the direction of the earth will spiral around the magnetic lines of the earth and move toward the poles. That is why they make that wavy pattern and they only occur (visibly) at higher latitudes.

Answer 5

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=northern+lights

Answer 6

solar winds hitting the poles of our magnetic field and light is dispersed as the northern lights

Answer 7

A late night party in Valhalla. Odin's gonna be ticked when he finds out about it. Thor and Loki are always throwing colored powder into the bon fire, thats where the colorful lights come from.

Answer 8

To light up the southern exposure.

Answer 9

the aurorae borealis and australis are a result of the interaction of the magnetosphere with charged atmospheric ions at altitude.