The Story About Auroras
Auroras are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in polar regions. They are caused by the collision of charged particles with the earth’s upper atmosphere at altitudes of about 80km. In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis, named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and in southern latitudes the effect is known as aurora australis.
The image on the right is of an aurora australis taken from the south of South Island, New Zealand. The image was taken by Stephen Voss and reproduced here with kind permission from Stephen. His web site has a number of beautiful images of the aurora australis and is well worth a look.
