what are northern lights? how is it caused?

Answer 1

Particles eminating from the sun, the solar wind, in increased activity of solar flares, are trapped by the Earth's magnetic field and are drawn down into the atmosphere near the poles, North and South. In the North they're called Aurora Borealis, in the South they're called Aurora Australis.
In our neighbornood, on a clear night, they can be seen all the way down into Mexico (I'd like to see that, since I live in Southern Arizona, and haven't yet).
But, yes, they're beautiful, and they move all over the place.
"Rays" and "Curtains" dancing among the stars.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=images&imgsz=all&imgc=&vf=all&va=aurora+borealis&fr=ush-ans&ei=UTF-8

Answer 2

The magnetic field of the earth causes charged particles (solar wind) to get spiraled into the air above the magnetic poles of the earth. When these particles (I think they are mainly protons and electrons) hit atoms in the atmosphere, this excites the electrons in the atoms that make up the air. When the electrons become excited, they give off light as they jump up and down in their orbitals. We see this light as the aurora. I think fluorescent lights and neon signs work on the same principle.

Answer 3

lights in the sky near the north pole. they are caused by solar flares. the flame arcs that shoot off the sun. they'll whip all the way out here and lash across the earth. the earth is naturally protected by a magnetosphere and the lights are this flame hitting the magnetosphere.

Answer 4

Here are a couple of site that have to do with auroras:
www.spaceweather.com
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html

The first site has recent photos from around the world. The second has satellite data.

Answer 5

check out on google images. They' re lovely.

Answer 6

Search about them www.wikipedia.com, they are so beautiful, I'd love to see them someday.