For anyone who may not know, this is a photo of the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. These photos were taken by our son's girlfriend's father (are ya with me?) a few years back, and he's kindly given me permission to post them here.
I've not seen Northern Lights for four or five years, but they are eerie and spectacular! It seems like they were very active when I was a kid. I remember watching them and thinking that the world was coming to an end! I'm not sure why my parents didn't try to dissuade me from this notion.
From what I've read, 'the Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere.' (Read more at The Northern Lights Center.) So I think that when there's more solar flare activity, it would be more likely that we'd have Northern Lights. I believe the sun has its storms and emits solar flares independent of what's happening 93,000,000 miles away on little Earth.
It is very exciting to see the swirling colors of the Northern Lights here in NW Wisconsin. One information source says that they're usually viewed after midnight in the summer and as early as 8 PM in the winter.
The Northern Lights leave me in awe of the energy of the sun and the power of the Creator who made the sun, just one of the many He placed in His Universe.
Here's a link to the Geophysical Institute web site with a schedule for the aurora borealis. I sure hope we get to see them sometime this summer. It's worth the wait til midnight.
Any other Northerners out there who love to watch the Northern Lights? Any of you displaced Northerners ;-) who miss the Northern Lights?
