Aurora

[Paul Ward]

(taken from the old archives)

From: Laura

can you please help me? what exactly is Aurora? this question is just out of personal interest. Thank you.


From: Lefty


The aurora is an interaction between charged particles like electrons and the Earth's upper atmosphere. These high-energy charged particles strike the atmosphere and cause it to glow. Generally you can only see them from very extreme northern latitudes, such as Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, or in northern Russia, or in extreme southern lattitudes like in Antarctica. The Earth's magnetic field is the mechanism that causes aurora to be confined to the north and south regions of the globe. Charged particles like electrons are guided along the Earth's magnetic field, just as your compass is guided to point north by the magnetic field. At the poles, these particles become concentrated and collide with the atmosphere and each other, creating the beautiful light display that we can see from the ground. Hope this helps.