northern lights

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Northern Lights

ART

What are Northern Lights?

The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere.

The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres..

What is the Scientific Name?

They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south.Auroral displays appear in many colors although pale green and pink are the most common

WHAT CAUSES THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?

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.

Variations in color are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.

The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth.

Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles.

Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.

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Where can you find out more information?

The massive flare that erupted from the sun on Tuesday could bring beautiful displays of the Northern Lights as far south as Colorado late on Thursday night and early Friday morning.Click on the screenshot above to watch a movie of the solar flare captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft.

Aurora forecast. (Source: University of Alaska Geophysical Institute)It was associated with a huge eruption of material called a coronal mass ejection.

Now, that material is racing toward Earth and is expected to trigger a strong geomagnetic storm — a disturbance to Earth’s protective magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere. It’s that kind of disturbance that triggers the Northern Lights.The University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute predicts that auroral activity will be high on Thursday:

http://helioviewer.org/?movieId=zF3X5

Where can you find the Northern Lights?

Ellie and Alex (jens kids) in Finland

Stop Motion Video of Northern lights in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

http://vimeo.com/40555466

Contemporary Art Inspired by Northern Lights

What materials are used?

What materials are used?

What materials are used?

What materials are used?

Demo – Chalk Pastels

Art Demo : Watercolor