What causes the colors of the Aurora?
Electrons carried along with the solar wind strike atoms of nitrogen and oxygen. Atomic oxygen creates the green aurora; nitrogen emits pink-red, blue, and purple auroras, while the rare bright red and orange-red Auroras are produced from higher altitude atomic oxygen. What creates the shapes of the Aurora? The energy output of the solar wind traveling along the earth’s magnetic field creates the patterns of the Auroras we see. These include homogenous arcs, bands, active arcs, rays, pillars, draperies, or curtains and coronas. Where can Auroras be viewed? Auroras exist constantly as oval shapes over both of the polar regions of our earth as well as other planets in our Solar system. The Aurora Borealis, or ‘Northern Lights, is viewed far more frequently than the Aurora Australis, the ‘Southern Lights’ because there are huge landmasses in our northern hemisphere and mostly water around Antarctica. The Auroral ovals are basically ‘born’ around the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. As the au
