Question

How are Northern lights caused?

Answer 1

When Earth travels around the sun, a small fraction of particles from the solar wind are intercepted by the planet. Most  of these particles are deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field, and move further into deep space. A small percentage of particles leaked through the Earth’s magnetic field and are funnelled downwards towards the Earth’s magnetic North and South poles.

When these charged particles contacts with the atoms and molecules high up in our atmosphere, they become excited. This leads to  two glowing rings of auroral emission around the North and South magnetic poles, known as auroral ovals.

As they decay back to their original state, they emit distinctive colours of light. known as the Northern Lights.