How do the Northern Lights work?

The Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis, occur when charged electrons from the sun interact with the Earth's magnetic field. Learn more about auroras and solar activity in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:31):
I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how does the Aurora
borealis or the Northern lights work? The Aurora borealis has
always fascinated mankind, and people even travel thousands of miles
just to see this amazing light show in the Earth's atmosphere.
The aurora's both surrounding the Northern Magnetic Pole and the

(00:52):
Southern Magnetic Pole, occur when highly charged electrons from the
solar wind interact with elements in the Earth's atmosphere. Solar
winds stream away from the Sun at speeds of about
one million miles per hour. When they reach the Earth
some forty hours after leaving the Sun, they follow the

(01:13):
lines of magnetic force generated by the Earth's core and
flow through the magnetos sphere, a tear drop shaped area
of highly charged electrical and magnetic fields. As the electrons
enter the Earth's upper atmosphere, they encounter atoms of oxygen
and nitrogen at altitudes from twenty to two hundred miles

(01:34):
above the Earth's surface. The color of the aurora depends
on which atom is struck and the altitude of the meeting.
Green auroras mean that an oxygen atom up to a
hundred and fifty miles in altitude has been hit by
an electron. Red auroras mean that an oxygen atom above
a hundred fifty miles in altitude has been struck. A

(01:57):
blue aurora means that a nitrogen at them up to
sixty miles in altitude has been struck, and a purple
or violet aurora means that a nitrogen atom above sixty
miles in altitude has been struck. All of the magnetic
and electrical forces react with each other in constantly shifting combinations.

(02:17):
These shifts and flows can be seen as the auroras
appear to dance, moving along with atmospheric currents. The auroras
generally occur along the auroral ovals, which center on the
magnetic poles of the Earth. And roughly correspond to the
Arctic and the Antarctic circles. There are times, though, when

(02:38):
the lights are further south, usually when there's a lot
of sun spots. Sun Spot activity follows an eleven year cycle,
and the next peak will occur in two thousand and
eleven and two thousand and twelve, so opportunities to see
auroras outside their normal rain should be good. There are
many stories about sounds associated with auroras, but there are

(03:00):
no recordings of these sounds. Scientists can't agree on what
would produce sounds during an aurora. Do you have any
ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send
me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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(03:21):
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