Northern Lights

[kazzee69]

Hi, didn't really know which section to put this question it but here is goes.

What causes the Northern Lights?

I have just downloaded 'Google Earth and it lets you view (via satellite) anywhere in the world. So I started looking up the seven wonders and was reading a website saying that the Northern Lights is one of the wonders. So what causes these beautiful lights?

[Clanad]

The phenomena is known as Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the southern hemishpere... simply put, they are caused by a plasma emitted from the sun containing ionized particles.  This is commonly called a solar wind since the plasma behaves somewhat like the movement of air on Earth.  As the plasma interacts with the Earth's magnetic field in the upper part of the atmosphere called the ionosphere, the interaction causes the ion plasma to glow.  Since the plasma is constantly moving they produce a curtain or shifting light affect somewhat like a neon tube (which is the same principle).  This is an abreviated description of a complex natural event which is more visibile the farther north one travels on earth's surface; hence the term (at least in our hemishpere) Northern Lights...

[don1]

kazzee it looks like an interesting site, how big is the file to download?

[MargeB]

Not sure, but you need a nice machine for it, apparently.

Clanad's right. And the magnetic field is cos the earth spins and has a molten metal core, so the iron gets all excited and causes the poles. And without this (so without the 'Northern Lights' we'd ALL BE DEAD! You can't have life on a planet which is bombarded by solar particles unless something like the poles handles them. Clanad, you can add that to our list of 'Weird coincidences that allow life on our planet'.

[Clanad]

Actually, MargeB, it's number 97 on a list of 287 now...

[kazzee69]

Not sure how big file is to download but its well worth it.

[Chillum]

got it a couple of weeks ago, then the downloads ceased. If it's going again...get it NOW, it's fantastic.

[MargeB]

"Sorry, you're operating system is not compatible with this software'. Grrrrrrrrrr! This is pure WinMEism.

[oligopoly]

try the official NASA satellite feeds. Google 'worldwind' and download the programme - about 150mb i think. Might be worth checking the min spec first though....