Northern Lights in Yellow Springs
November 2004

Northern Lights: Nature's Neon Sign
By Jamie Simpson
Copyright Dayton Newspapers, Inc., all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission

...Though we see the northern lights at night, the sun is responsible for them. The sun and the Earth's atmosphere team up to make nature's neon sign. Though it's not exactly "Eat at Joe's," the science is much the same...

Our planet has a magnetic field that surrounds us above our atmosphere. The poles act like the opposite ends of a magnet, one positive and one negative. This is how compasses work; they use that magnetic force to point the compass head northward...

The colors we see are created by the gases most prevalent in the atmosphere. Oxygen creates yellow-green light, nitrogen red light and hydrogen and helium blue and purple light — although our eyes have a hard time seeing those two colors at night.

Because the electrons are concentrated at the poles, we see the colored lights to the north.

Hence they are called the northern lights. 

Jamie Simpson is chief meteorologist at Channel 7 (WHIO-TV). His weather column appears weekly in the Dayton Daily News.

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