Tag: aurora

The Polar Nights

Photo by Frans Van Heerden on Pexels.com

You must have heard this phrase somewhere or might also have seen the movie based on the 30 Days of Night but what we all don’t know is that people of that particular place are afraid of facing the continuous period of Polar nights.

The night which doesn’t end and the day which always lasts, yes there are places on our earth giving meaning to something absurd phrases like this also.

Norway, Alaska, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and many more add up to the list of this unique phenomenon of earth’s tilt.

But, you might not know what all this is about So let me get you through this interesting phenomenon of that visit the same marked places every year.

The Barrow

In the northernmost town of the United States, Alaska is also known as Barrow, which is widely talked about for its extended period of darkness and light as well each year.

The sunsets and rises just once a year in regions of high altitude and near the arctic circles because of the earth’s tilt.

These changes occur when the season changes from fall to spring with the visit of 2 months of darkness enveloped and the same for the summertime of never setting sunlight.

The Scar it has:

Now, imagine the terror of not witnessing the light for straight 66 or 60 days with the tease of sunlight below the horizon.

Yes, it is not as easy as just saying and thinking about it as for, getting immersed in the dark cold, and long night they do need to prepare themselves for any kinds of effects it will have on their physical as mental health.

As the sun is the source of vitamin D, the land for that duration of time also becomes D starved as they don’t witness the warmth of the sun till next year’s month of January.

The people also fear that this straight duration of the polar nights can also make their nightmare of blood-sucking creatures true and alive.

The Beauty it holds

The coin has two-phase so do the polar nights of Alaska, even though people might be getting stuck in the cold and long night for the whole 24hr a day till the next sunrise still the nature has many things to offer.

The amazing and dancing belt of polar light and the sky showering you with the light of millions and billions of stars altogether to celebrate in the only language they know, you can witness something much of worth for these polar nights every year.

In those frigid nights of cold one could see the dazzling ribbons of colored light of Red, Violet, Green, and many more unimaginable combinations.

The Aurora

Last but not least, places like Alaska also give us this dynamic and brilliant skylight stretched far away and yet so near and close that you might think you can touch them by extending your hand.

Nature has everything balanced out even though we might think that having half of the year in darkness and another half in light may be doing unfairness to the equation but it’s not.

Dreamy Colorful Auroras

In the northern and southern pole, beautiful lights show in the sky, best seen at night. They are colorful and mesmerizing to watch. They are called aurora or polar lights. Auroras were first seen in 1791 in New England. The word Aurora is the name of a Roman goddess of dawn. These are mostly seen in high altitude regions that is around Arctic and Antarctic regions.

There are auroral zones between 10o to 20o from the geomagnetic poles. “Auroral oval” is the name given to the region which displays the aurora. The Aurora that appears in the region near to northern pole are called Aurora Borealis and the Aurora that appears in the region near to southern pole are called Aurora Australis.

how this colorful auroras are formed?

You may wonder to know that the reason behind this beautiful event, which mostly appears at night, is our very own star, The Sun. He is boiling and burning continuously since formation. The temperature of the sun at his surface is 5,505o C. But inside in the core of the sun, the temperature is 15 million degree Celsius. As the temperature fluctuates, some charged particles are thrown out of his outermost surface and travel outwards. The technical term for this is “The Solar Wind”. This wind reaches the earth and the charged particles strike with the atoms in the atmosphere. Because of this, excitation in the energy of the electrons occur and when they are returning to the original energy level, release photons which is the light we see. The earth`s magnetic field diverts these charged particles towards the poles. Hence these phenomena can only be seen in these areas.

How the light is of differnt colors?

Aurora of different colors are seen. Sometime they are green, blue and sometimes they are yellow or violet. The reason for the different colors are the atoms with which the charged particles colloid. Collision with Oxygen molecules caused yellow and green light. Collision with nitrogen caused blue, red and violet colors. the molecular nitrogen gives purple color but the atomic nitrogen gives blue.

Altitude also affects the colors produced. At a height of 150 miles green light will appear and above that red will appear. Blue lights appear up to 60 miles and above that purple and violet colors appear.

These auroras can be seen in other planets also. But the planet must be having its atmosphere and active magnetic field. In our solar system Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune experience auroras.

The Aurora borealis is always present. But they can be seen when the sky and air are clear. September-October and March-April are the best time to watch these phenomena. NASA says after 2 days of sun spot activity these lights are brighter.

best places to watch aurora:

Darker the place better you can view the aurora. Choose a place away from light pollution and air pollution. Get a place with a larger view of open sky free of clouds. The places near to the Arctic circle are best. This may include Alaska, Iceland, Greenland Norway, Finland etc.

To capture this beauty you don’t need any expensive camera. A normal camera with a tripod will be more than enough for you. The Aurora Borealis appears and disappears very fast, hence you must be patient and quick enough to take a good picture of this beautiful event.