The Northern Lights – Nature’s FireworksBy: Kevin Krein

It was 2:30 am and 20 degrees below zero. I was fast asleep, when suddenly someone was pounding on the door for me to get up. Instantly I was awake! Frantically I put on my snow pants, insulated winter boots, jacket, gloves, and hat. I grabbed my tripod and an extra battery for my phone. This was the moment I had flown here from Seattle to witness. North of the Arctic Circle, 300 miles from the nearest Starbucks, Mother Nature was going to put on a light show in the night sky and I didn’t want to miss it. This spectacle was the reason I came to this remote Alaskan town where sled-dogs outnumbered people. I was about to see the Northern Lights!

Midnight Fireworks

The Northern Lights are a phenomenon in the night sky in an oval shaped region circling the North Pole that includes Alaska, Canada, Iceland, and Scandinavia. They range in color from light pink to green, and also red, violet, orange, yellow and white. The lights slowly move and change shape, sometimes they look like a bright glow, other times forming into ribbons, streamers, or lacelike curtains that seem to hang magically in the sky. Some people even claim they make noise! During intense displays they can be seen as far south as Mexico. They are best seen in winter months when the nights are longer.

Even today, many people consider seeing them a spiritual experience. Imagine what it must it have been like long ago before science was used to explain the natural world. For thousands of years people have been looking up in the sky in wonderment. As they watched them dance in dazzling patterns across the sky, what stories or significance did they attach to them?

Goddess of the Dawn

Dragon Aurora over Iceland February 18, 2019 Copyright Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng. In Chinese mythology, auroras were believed to be

dragons engaged in a celestial battle of good versus evil.

Most early people explained the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis as they are also called through their myths. In fact, the name Aurora Borealis comes from mythology. They were named by the astronomer Galileo in 1621. He named them for the Roman goddess Aurora. Aurora was the goddess of the dawn who raced across the sky in her multicolored chariot. The word Borealis is a Latin word that means: of the North. So Aurora Borealis literally means “The Dawn of the North.” Did you know there are also Southern Lights? These are called Aurora Australis or “Southern Dawn.” Both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis have the same causes.

For the Greeks and the Romans, the Aurora Borealis would have been a rare sight, maybe happening once every 10 or 11 years. And they probably would have appeared as a red glow in the night sky. Because of the red color and how rare they were in Greece and Italy, people saw them as a bad omen. Sadly, it is harder to see the Northern Lights today than in the past because light pollution obscures them if they are present.

Even though they were a rare for Greeks and Romans, they were much more common for the Vikings and who believed the Aurora Borealis was the glow reflected off the armor, shields and weapons of the Valkyries. The Valkyries were female warriors who would rather die in battle than retreat or surrender. It was the job of the Valkyries to search for heroic mortals who had died in battle and escort them to Valhalla to join Odin for the final battle at the end of days called Ragnarok.

Spirits, Walruses, and Dwarves

The Vikings Romans were not the only people who used myths to explain the natural world. There are many stories about the Northern lights told by indigenous peoples. For Labrador Eskimos, the lights were torches to guide spirits of the dead to the heavens where they play a ball game with a walrus skull. But for Eskimos of Nunavut the Northern Lights were the spirits of Walrus’s playing ball with a human skull! Makah people of Washington believed the lights were the cooking fires of a tribe of dwarves boiling whale blubber, while Mandan Indians of North Dakota believed it was the cooking fires of great warriors boiling their enemies, YIKES!

The Saami people believed when the Aurora was present, people were to behave in a very solemn manner. Children were expected to be calm and quiet. Bad luck, sickness, or death could fall upon you if you didn’t show respect. If you whistled under them, it could bring them closer and they might whisk you away, never to be seen again. Shaman’s drums would have runes inscribed on them to harness their magic.

Weather in Space

Today, we know from science that the Northern lights are not caused by dragons, or dwarves, they are actually caused by our sun. The sun is surrounded by a powerful magnetic field that sometimes can get tied in knots. This causes violent eruptions called Coronal Mass Ejections which send super-hot plasma flying toward the Earth at two million miles per hour. This is called solar wind and it takes about

Photo of Northern LightsBettles, AK. 2 AM Feb 2018 by Kevin Krein

40 minutes to reach Earth. Scientists monitor sunspots and solar storms because they can interfere with satellites, communication systems and power grids. Solar storms peak about every 11 years, the last peak was in 2013. Solar wind would wreak havoc on Earth and destroy life but the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field of its own which protects it. It is only near the North and South poles where the magnetic field comes closes to the atmosphere that some plasma from the sun interacts with matter in our atmosphere causing it to give off light. The whole process is very similar to how a neon light works.

A Magic Experience

Standing in the snow that night, 2000 miles from home and gazing upward; I watched the sky above me move and shimmer in ways I never could have understood from just a picture in a book. The whole landscape was aglow as lines of color drifted across the sky from one horizon to the other. And even though I understood the causes of the Aurora Borealis, I definitely felt a connection to people who long ago looked up at the same sky and felt a need to invent stories to explain their experience. Science doesn’t do it justice, it was so much more than that. It was definitely a magic experience that I won’t ever forget.

GLOSSARY

Tripod: A three legged stand that supports a camera

Myth: A traditional story typically involving supernatural beings or events used to explain the history of early people or natural phenomena

Light Pollution: brightening of the night sky caused by street lights and other man-made sources, which inhibits the observation of stars and planets.

Solar Wind and the Earth's Magnetic Field (Image Credit: NASA)

Valhalla: The great feast hall of Odin’s chosen. These were mortal warriors who died in battle and who would aid Odin during doomsday.

Indigenous: Originating in a particular place, native

Solemn: Serious, formal and dignified, not cheerful.

Runes: Letters used in a set of related alphabets to write Germanic languages before the introduction of the Latin alphabet.

Plasma: Ionized gas consisting of positive ions and free electrons

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akasofu, Dr. Syun-Ichi. The Northern Lights, Secrets Of The Aurora Borealis. Portland: Alaska Northwest Books, 2009. BOOK.

Artisan Travel Company. Northern Lights Legends From Around the World. n.d. WEB. 15 January 2019. <https://www.theaurorazone.com/about-the-aurora/aurora-legends>.

Encyclopedia Brittanica. Brittanica Library. 30 September 2016. WEB. 15 January 2019. <https://library-eb-com.ezproxy.kcls.org/levels/referencecenter/article/aurora/273016>.

Imster, Eleanor. What Causes The Aurora Borealis? 15 February 2017. WEB. 15 January 2019. <https://earthsky.org/earth/what-causes-the-aurora-borealis-or-northern-lights>.

Jokinen, Anniina. Aurora Borealis, The Northern Lights, in Mythology and Folklore. 4 February 2007. 15 January 2019. <http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/revontulet.htm>.

Staff. Aurora Borealis: What Causes The Northern Lights and Where to See Them. 11 October 2017. WEB. 15 January 2019. <https://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html>.

Sled Dogs - Bettles, AK Feb 2018 Kevin Krein