By: Meruni Are
The Northern Lights are magnificent colors that create a light show that many people have been watching for a long time. The lights become visible to humans when the sun shoots particles, which create wind. An aurora is created when this powerful wind hits Earth’s upper atmosphere. This is why the name of the Northern Lights is Aurora Borealis. You might think that the Northern Lights consist of the same colors every time they appear. However, the multitude of colors are chosen based on Earth’s atmosphere’s chemical structure. Each atom in the atmosphere reflects its own remarkable group of colors. The most common colors seen in an aurora are red and green due to the color that nitrogen and oxygen produces.
Evidently, the Northern Lights are truly extraordinary. Many people want to see the Northern Lights at least once in their lifetime, because they think that the Northern Lights are rare. Surprisingly, this is extremely incorrect. In fact, the Northern Lights are visible every hour of every day of the year. The difficult part is that you have to be in a specific place of the world in order to actually see them. Photographers and astrologists have observed that in order to get the best view of the aurora, you should be somewhere within 1,550 miles of the North Pole’s radius. Most people go to specific cities in Arctic areas such as: Fairbanks, Alaska; Yellowknife, Canada; and Abisko National Park, Sweden. The most popular place to view the Northern Lights is Iceland because you can get an amazing view of the Northern Lights anywhere in Iceland. The best time to view the Northern Lights is from September to April due to the sky’s darkness.
Lastly, auroras aren’t unique to Earth. In fact, auroras are present on other planets in the universe such as Mars and Venus. Auroras have also been observed on Jupiter, and they are much bigger than the ones observed on Earth because Jupiter has a much stronger magnetic field, compared to Earth. In summary, the Northern Lights are a beautiful display of various lights that can easily be viewed from Arctic regions and the Northern Lights are indubitably something that everyone wants to observe in their lifetime.
Works Cited
Hindy, Joe. “NASA Says More Aurora Borealis Nights Are Coming -- and Soon.” CNET, 17 October 2024, https://www.cnet.com/science/nasa-says-more-aurora-borealis-nights-are-coming-and-soon/. Accessed 1 November 2024.
Waldek, Stefanie, and Daisy Dobrijevic. “Northern lights (aurora borealis) — what they are and how to see them.” Space.com, 23 July 2024, https://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html. Accessed 1 November 2024.
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