For those brave enough to cope with the inhumanely frigid temperatures and endless hours of darkness that come with winter in the north, there is a beautiful reward: the spectacular light show of the aurora borealis.
The aurora borealis, more commonly called the northern lights, or simply the aurora, light up the northern sky with streaks of beautiful colour that seem to dance across the sky. In the just over two years we’ve lived here, we have experienced many degrees of the aurora borealis, from faint streaks of green visible in one section of the sky, to a sky full of a huge arc of vibrant green and pink, so bright it lights up the ground below. Green is the most common colour, with pink being much more rare. This Tuesday, we were drawn to look at the lights by the common green, but were pleasantly surprised when pink aurora began to cross the sky, a fitting colour for Valentine’s Day, not to mention, a much better gift than a box of chocolate!
Tuesday night was typical of most of our aurora experiences. We took our dog for his evening walk and noticed the aurora in the sky, visible, but diminished by the light given off by street lights and houses. Other than relying on seeing the aurora ourselves, we also check the aurora forecast by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska. Knowing that the aurora borealis is always more impressive away from the light of town, we drive down to the boat launch at the Slave River where we get to see the full intensity of the northern lights as they fill the dark sky.
Despite having lived in the north for a few years, we had yet to take pictures of the aurora. I think we were intimidated by the challenge it imposed, not to mention a genuine fear of losing fingers holding a camera during the winter. Tuesday night, we finally brought our camera and decided to try getting a few shots. We knew that the most important technique for getting photos of the aurora is long exposure time, in order to capture all the light they emit. However, we didn’t have a tripod, and it quickly became apparent that neither of us had the steady hands required to hold a camera still for 30 seconds. So, we used the roof of our car as a make-shift tripod and it seemed to work! We were pretty shocked that the photos actually turned out, and other than cropping and straightening, we didn’t do any editing so we could show what the colours really look like. It was also surprising to see that not only did we capture the lights, but also the stars that filled the sky.
The car roof made a great tripod!
While photos of the aurora can be breathtaking, they will never fully capture two of the most spectacular features of the aurora. The first is the sheer expanse of the aurora, which stretch from horizon to horizon in a giant arc across the sky. It is impossible for human eyes to see the full arc of the aurora, even with an awestruck head stretched as far back as the neck will physically allow. Nor can photos capture how dynamic the aurora are. While in photos, it simply looks like the sky was painted with a stroke of colourful light, in reality, the aurora are constantly moving, seeming to dance across the sky, constantly changing in intensity and even colour. It is literally breathtaking, particularly in combination with the cold winter air!
Not only are the aurora visible behind me, but I can see a show in front of me as well!
With such an amazing display of surreal light, the aurora have inspired many to believe they have special powers. Here, local Aboriginal elders warn that if you whistle at the northern lights, they will sweep down to earth and take you away. While the aurora borealis seems mysterious and magical, there is a scientific explanation for this incredible natural phenomenon. When energized particles shoot out of the sun, they are carried by solar winds into our atmosphere at extremely high speeds. Here, they smash into nitrogen and oxygen atoms, pushing the atoms into excited states. When the atoms go back to ground state, they release a photon of light, resulting in the amazing aurora we see from earth. The type of atom being excited and its altitude create different colours. Green is released by oxygen atoms, pink by nitrogen atoms, and yellow is visible when there is a mix of green and pink in the sky.
When atoms drop to an 'unexcited' state, it sure looks exciting!
If you want to see the northern lights yourself, you could join the thousands of tourists who brave the cold each year to come to the Northwest Territories in search of the aurora. Even if you can’t make it up to the north, you can view the northern lights from the Aurora MAX observatory in Yellowknife, where a camera takes live shots of the aurora borealis.
