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Cold fire of the night
Natural History, Sept, 2003 by Erin M. Espelie
Aurora was the radiant Roman goddess of dawn, a charioteer who could light up the night sky. Her namesakes, the aurora borealis and aurora australis, are similarly un-Earthly: electrons and protons pour out of the Sun and speed through space until they hit a region rich in gases--the atmospheres of most planets and of a few moons do nicely. As the particles collide with different gases, they trigger colored light-works: red or green from oxygen, for instance, or blue or violet from nitrogen.
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If Earth had no magnetism, like Venus, the-light show would be erratic. If Earth were magnetized closer to its equator, as Neptune is, Mexico City would be prime for viewing. As it is, auroras on Earth follow magnetic lines of force that converge at the north and south magnetic poles. They can be seen year-round; check the Internet for readily available aurora "weather" forecasts.
Eager to capture the lights, photographer Art Wolfe took the frozen Dalton Highway, which stretches 414 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. He watched the aurora reel and dance in pale greens for two hours above the Brooks Range. What he found most mystical was that "when the film was developed, there were lovely reds that had been there, but just couldn't be picked up by the naked eye."
In his twenty-five-year career Seattle-based photographer ART WOLFE ("The Natural Moment," page 6) estimates he has taken a million photographs (see his Web site at www.artwolfe.com). His latest book, Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky, showcases Wolfe's landscape photography, with essays by Art Davidson. Wolfe made his photograph of the northern lights in Alaska under the midnight light of a half moon in March.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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