Aurora Borealis
Thursday, June 11th, 200930,000 feet above Greenland, on an international flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, I look out the window and my jaw dropped. Luminous green ribbons of aurora borealis, rippling and flashing against the dark starry sky, right outside the airplane window. For three hours I stared out the window in utter awe of the natural world.

In simple terms, the Aurora Borealis (in the North) and the Aurora Australis (in the South) happen when charged particles (electrons, protons, and what-have-you) released by the Sun collide with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The glowing green and red light comes from these particles exciting oxygen in the upper atmosphere (other colors = other gasses). These particles are guided by Earth’s magnetic field lines and pulled toward an area around 65ยบ North or South latitude (Alaska, northern Canada, Siberia, Iceland, southern Greenland, northern Scandinavia and Finland, and the coast of Antarctica).

Two weeks ago, at the Bay Area Maker Faire, I bought an “Aurorarium” – although it doesn’t actually create an aurora, it makes aurora-looking light patterns on the walls and ceiling. It is a Japanese Gekkan science kit and comes with a cool glossy color magazine about Aurorae: available online at the Maker Shed for $29.95.
It’s pretty damn pretty.
BBC’s Chris Lintott shows us Aurora Borealis over Norway:
Snap, Crackle, and Glow Bonus Round:
Listening to the radio discharges of Aurora Borealis:










