1. AURORAS - Electricity & Magnetism in Nature Connie Walker NOAO

2. A Brief History of Auroras

3. Norwegian chronicle: the King's Mirror (1230 AD) The aurora in the King's Mirror was said to be a natural phenomenon and was nicknamed Nordurljos, or northern lights. The scientific name, Aurora Borealis, is Latin and translates into the red dawn of the north. The Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), first used the expression. Where Galileo lived, northern lights consist of mainly red color.

4. The Origin of Aurora

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8. In 1989, solar storms disrupted satellite transmission & power grids. Eastern Canada lost power for 9 hours.

9. Things Around the Earth We Cannot See Air (gases: nitrogen, oxygen, etc) Magnetic Field –Played with iron filings –Bar magnet at Earth’s center –Field lines we draw to represent it Poles: where field strongest? Weakest? A Plasma –Made up of charged particles (mostly electrons) –They spiral along the magnetic field lines

10. Plasma or energetic electrically charged particles (mostly electrons) accelerate along the magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with gas atoms, causing the atoms to give off light.

11. Cool Website Solar wind, plasma, magneto-tail, aurora: http://www.northern-lights.no/english/what/cause.shtml

13. Cool Websites Two good examples of an aurora (movies): http://www.weatherpaparazzi.com/video/videodetail.asp? id=105 http://www.northern-lights.no/resources/gregcolors.wmv Auroral ovals around the poles today: http://www.northern- lights.no/english/measurements/poes.shtml

17. http://www.northern-lights.no/english/what/planets.shtml

18. .............. http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/auroras/story.html Story

19. More Cool Websites Mythology of Auroras http://www.northern- lights.no/english/mythology/index.shtml

20. http://www.wikipedia.org http://www.encarta.com http://www.nasa.gov http://www.space.com http://www.weatherpaparazzi.com/ http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/auroras/story http://www.northern-lights.no/ http://www.spaceweather.com/

21. The Following Images of Aurora Australis are Provided With Many Thanks to Karina Leppik and Chris Martin (her better half)…