Wow what a sight. (77)
jeepers: Is this related or similar to the colors you get during certain sunsets and sunrises because of pollutants or dust in the air ?
NO That is a different phenominom.... can be caused by Volcanic action, high winds in deserts lifting vast amounts of sand.... and afew other reasons
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Very good description.
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patmac: NO That is a different phenominom.... can be caused by Volcanic action, high winds in deserts lifting vast amounts of sand.... and afew other reasons
Well that explains our sunsets then. We get ash from Montserrat, a nearby volcanic island. And we get dust from the Sahara Desert. Thanks
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patmac: NO That is a different phenominom.... can be caused by Volcanic action, high winds in deserts lifting vast amounts of sand.... and afew other reasons
NO, NO, NO. gerisoul is 100% correct. The phenomenon of Northern Lights has nothing to do with volcanic activity.
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English64: NO, NO, NO. gerisoul is 100% correct. The phenomenon of Northern Lights has nothing to do with volcanic activity.
Thanks for explaining cause I know nothing about the Northern lights.
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I have been an amateur astronomer and optical meterologist for thirty five years since ten years old. Nothing at all to do with volcanic activity.
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In response to: As I was standing outside tonight and looking up at the sky I saw the Northern Lights.This was the very first time I'd ever seen them.They were so awesome.
Has anyone ever seen them?
Has anyone ever seen them?
I have seen them several times while at the family camp in northern NH during deer season over the years. One year the colors were so brilliant it was spectacular. Wished I had a camera with me each and every time
Earl
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English64: I have been an amateur astronomer and optical meterologist for thirty five years since ten years old. Nothing at all to do with volcanic activity.
Isn't he answering my question about sunsets ? I think this is what he is talking about right ? 
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Raynew1959: I have seen them several times while at the family camp in northern NH during deer season over the years. One year the colors were so brilliant it was spectacular. Wished I had a camera with me each and every time
Earl
Earl
This is the very time I've seen them and what a sight I saw.I'm buying myself a camera so I'm perpared if I'm ever able to see them again.
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Big_John: I lived in Alaska for a short period of time and I was lucky enough to see them. Truly amazing aren't they?
That far north they must have been a great show.
I was raised in Northern New Hampshire and we would get some color in the sky sometimes. One warm summer night when I was about seven or eight though my father woke us all up to see them. The sky was full of pulsing streams of color. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen or expect to see.
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jeepers: Isn't he answering my question about sunsets ? I think this is what he is talking about right ?
I was not answering a sunset question simply answering the cause of Northen Lights. gerisoul and I are correct in that Northern Lights are NOT caused by volcanic activity.
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jeepers: Isn't he answering my question about sunsets ? I think this is what he is talking about right ?
yep jeeps Sunset affected by the vocanic and sand plus a few others....------ This thread is Archived ------
katt1017: That far north they must have been a great show.
I was raised in Northern New Hampshire and we would get some color in the sky sometimes. One warm summer night when I was about seven or eight though my father woke us all up to see them. The sky was full of pulsing streams of color. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen or expect to see.
I was raised in Northern New Hampshire and we would get some color in the sky sometimes. One warm summer night when I was about seven or eight though my father woke us all up to see them. The sky was full of pulsing streams of color. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen or expect to see.
Nothing like having a few drink and watching the northern lights with someone you like! hummmnnnnn.....
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patmac: yep jeeps Sunset affected by the vocanic and sand plus a few others....
Thanks 
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Read "Color and Light in Nature" co-auhthored by Dr David K Lynch and Dr William Livingston published by Cambridge University Press. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful pictures and a not too complex write up about the causes of colorful sky glows and other meteorological and astronomical phenomena. Very much a "coffee table" book to impress friends and family with.
P.S. : You will find two of my pictures in it.
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somechick: Thanks for explaining cause I know nothing about the Northern lights.
I bet they are beautiful. I wish you had a camera so we all could see
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angelface1234: I bet they are beautiful. I wish you had a camera so we all could see
They were and I'm going to buy a camera for next time.
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somechick: They were and I'm going to buy a camera for next time.
Let me have your credit card info and I can send a nice one from the islands. 
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jeepers: Let me have your credit card info and I can send a nice one from the islands.
Yah right.------ This thread is Archived ------
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I have seen the Aurora Australis.. when living in the South Island of New Zealand.. A beautiful site.
The way the Northern Light or aurora works is a lot like a neon sign, except that in the aurorae the conducting gas is in the ionosphere, instead of a glass tube, and the current travels along magnetic field lines instead of copper wires.
The power source for aurorae is Solar Wind. The Earth's magnetic field looks a lot like the magnetic field of a bar magnet with field lines going into and out of the Earth's magnetic poles, where the magnetic field is strongest. Solar Wind from the Sun is always pushing on the Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere), deforming and stretching it into a long leeward tail like the wake of a ship, which is called the magnetotail The aurora happens when energetic particles (protons and electrons) from the Sun enter the Earth's magnetosphere and are captured in the magnetotail. When disturbances occur in the Solar Wind or there is an energetic Solar Flare, the particles are accelerated along the field lines, becoming more dense near the magnetic poles and eventually precipitating into the Earth's ionosphere. As they hit the ionosphere the particles will inevitably collide violently with gas atoms. This adds energy to the gas atoms which in turn will release light and more elec trons - the ionosphere starts to glow!
The different colours in an aurora are depending on the distribution of different gases at different altitudes. Very high in the ionosphere (above 300km) oxygen is the most common gas resulting in reddish colours when exited. Other gases like nitrogene and helium produce blue or purple colours.