How can you get a glimpse of the Northern Lights?
Every Fourth of July, Americans crowd mall parking lots, golf courses and lake shores to watch man- made fireworks hit the night sky. But those explosive light shows are nothing compared to the peaceful and mysterious fireworks display put on by our own Mother Nature. The dancing, shimmering Northern Lights — or aurora borealis — have dazzled humankind as long as we’ve walked the Earth. Legends and folklore attempt to explain them in just about every culture. Although they occur almost every day, they can only be seen in certain parts of the world, during certain seasons and at certain times of night. So what are these Northern Lights? We call the lights auroras. Auroras are a natural phenomenon caused by the interaction of solar winds and Earth’s magnetic field. Here’s how an aurora is formed: The sun burps out cloud of gas, which takes about two or three days to reach Earth. This cloud collides with Earth’s magnetic field, causing a chain reaction of energy among the particles in t
