The aurora has a variety of shapes, colors, and structures, and can also change rapidly in time.

During a typical night, the aurora often starts as a single long arc that stretches from horizon to horizon in a generally east-west direction.

Near midnight, the arc may begin to brighten. Then curls or waves may start to form along the arc. It may also start to have vertical structures that look like thin tall rays of light.

Then, just about midnight, the whole sky may become filled with bands and rays that move rapidly from horizon to horizon.

This heightened activity can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. As dawn approaches the aurora will typically quiet down and form wispy quiet patches that can last until morning !!!



Saw that ? That's Aurora Borealis !
It's a beautiful natural phenomenon that often occurs in the polar regions of Earth.
Viewing locations include Fairbanks, Alaska, many locations in northern and middle Canada, and in the northern parts of Russia and Scandinavia.

OHMYYY!! I WANNA TO SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !

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The Aurora Borealis is made when storms on the the sun form solar winds, or large streams of charged particles streaming toward the earth.

These streams could have upward of ten million megawatts of electrical power.

It generally takes about three days for these streams of particles to reach the earth's upper atmosmere, or ionosphere.

When these charged particles hit the earth's atmosphere, they exite the atoms contained in the atmosphere.

These excited atoms have a higher energy state that usual and so want to get back to a more normal energy state.

The excited atoms give off excess energy in the form of heat, or the case of the aurora borealis, light.

The trillions of excited atoms give off enough light so that we can see the light from where we live on the ground, 43-200 miles above us.