A few weeks ago, I found myself gazing at the night sky, parked on the edge of a cornfield in my flannel pajamas. It’s not every day that something so extraordinary and urgent comes along that I leave the house in my slippers; but a picture-perfect aurora borealis is just that. As the greens and pinks danced in the sky, I knew that whatever was happening up there felt almost like magic. Turns out, it’s all thanks to the sun.
The Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, are the result of particles emitted from the sun mingling with the magnetic field of the Earth. As these charged particles collide with electrons in the magnetic field, photons (or light particles) are emitted, leading to aurorae. After looking into this phenomenon a bit more, I’m glad I didn’t waste any time heading out the door; auroras often come with little warning and a short window of time to watch. There really is no way of definitively predicting them, though a clear night sky, checking in on the geomagnetic activity index, and satellite measurements of solar wind can give us a better chance.
“Aurora” is named after the Roman Goddess of dawn, and “Borealis” comes from the Greek word for wind, boreas. While aurorae today are cause for great joy and awe, they were often feared before they were understood. Some cultures associate the Northern Lights with bad omens like the Sami indigenous people of Norway and the Inuit people of Northwestern Canada. However, in the Anishinaabe Ojibwe culture, the lights remind them of those that they have lost. Their relatives spend the night dancing in the sky, exchanging who leads with each night. There are some nights that individuals feel a connection knowing that their relative or loved one is the one leading the dance that evening. The Finish call auroras “Revontulet” which directly translates to fox fire; there is an ancient Finnish story about mythical fire foxes whose tails create green and red “sparks” as they drag on rocks, tree branches, and uneven terrain as they run through the landscape.
As auroras are the result of our magnetic field interacting with the sun’s emitted ions, there are certain latitudes that have a higher chance of seeing auroras; in fact, NOAA states that there is a 50% or greater chance of seeing auroras between the latitudes of 55- and 80-degrees North on any given day. However, cloud cover and amount of daylight greatly impact visibility, so winter is often the best time to see them. If the magnetic field and solar wind align, don’t let mismatched pajamas stop you from hopping in the car to catch them!
Author: Meredith Maloney – Office Manager/Naturalist