Those Alaskan Lights

[Wowjack]

What are those lights that are so beautiful up in Alaska and how does that happen? I think its called "Bearoulis?"

 

[jointops]

WJ,

Man, from St. Elmo's Fire to the Northern Lights, huh?

Well, the Aurora Borealis is a phenomenon of the Northern Hemisphere the Southern Hemisphere is Aurora Australis.

It's a natural display of light in the sky that are a continuous flow of electrically charged particles from the sun. These get trapped in our magnetic field and the particles strike atoms and molecules in the atmosphere that release the energy known as the Aurora B. or the Aurora A.

OK, not a meterologist here, just a pilot. So you might want to do a search on the old computer just to confirm the answers to your own questions.

Happy landings

 

[Singlecoil]

What are those lights that are so beautiful up in Alaska and how does that happen? I think its called "Bearoulis?"

"Bearoulis" is that blue flash of light you see right after the polar bear swats you upside the head. It is also the last light you will ever see.

The Aurora Borealis, also called the Northern Lights is something entireley different and perhaps what you were inquiring about. From my non-astronomical background, I can tell you that they are born on the sun in the form of solar flares. If the flares are large enough, they are able to travel as far as the earth, where they line up with the lines of flux in the earth's magnetic field. As the magnetic fields converge and ram into the earth at the poles, the particles in the solar flares create light of varying colors as they pass through the ionosphere. The most common color is green, but I've seen blue, white, red, and orange. Sometimes they move very slowly like a gently moving curtain, or can dance all around the sky like a laser light show. Winter is about the only time to see them as it is not dark enough in the summer.

 

[Wowjack]

Pleased

I'm pleased to see I can ask a question at a straight answer. I was interested in some of the weather phenoma (sp?) people see out there which I haven't.

Happy Holidays

 

[nosewheel]

I've seen the Light

Beleive it or not while living in the Yukon (five years) Ive seen the northern lights many times but...Ive also heard them too. They sometimes hiss and crackle. Now it may have been associated with too much Yukon Jack and living in darkness 22 hours a day at -40 F but what can I say, I HEARD THEM !! Really I did.