The sky went from a shade of green to a burst of red
I’ve chased the Northern Lights for my entire adult life. Whenever I’ve heard a forecast that the Northern Lights might be visible near to where I am, I have attempted to see them. There was one night when I lived in Connecticut that I drove four hours straight north after work to try to help my chances. I made it up to southern Vermont. Unfortunately, the activity of the Northern Lights didn’t start until after the moon had rose, so there was too much light in the sky to see them.
Living in Indiana, I didn’t expect that I would have the chance to see them here. Even still, I have always stayed up late to try to see them when there is a potential in the forecast. In 2024, I had the opportunity to see them for the first time, but they were barely visible to the naked eye. If I used a slow shutter speed on my camera, they would become more visible. Then in November of 2025, I truly was able to see them. The sky went from a shade of green to a burst of red in an instant. It filled me with awe, and it made all those nights spent trying to see them worth it.
The Northern Lights are also known as the aurora borealis. This name comes from the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, with the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas. The reason there were two colors in the sky is because the solar wind is interacting with two different types of gases in the atmosphere. Red comes from the reaction of oxygen gases, and this color is typically only seen in strong solar winds coming from the sun. The green comes from the nitrogen being excited by the charged particles from the sun.
The charged particles coming from the sun are typically electrons and protons. They originate in the sun from coronal holes and coronal mass ejections. These create solar winds that bring them to Earth. The colors appear once the charged particles arrive at Earth’s magnetosphere.
Red comes from the reaction of oxygen gases
Did you know?
- The Northern Lights have a twin, the Southern Lights. These are also known as the aurora australis.
- The auroras are fifty to four hundred miles high.
- In Finland, the name for the Northern Lights is revontulet, which means “fox fires”. This comes from a legend that Arctic foxes create the lights.
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