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Northern Lights The Aurora Borealis—something that is as much experienced as observed. It is so otherworldly that it cannot be adequately captured in words or pictures. Churchill has been an area of study for this incredible light show for years, primarily by Canada's civilian space agency, the National Research Council. It seems the more you learn about the northern lights, the more questions you have. Perhaps this shows that some things were created to be infinitely mysterious. So what does cause the northern lights? Part of the answer can be found in the VanAllen radiation belts, which circle the world deflecting and reflecting much of the suns radiation away from the earth. This stray radiation is harmlessly diverted towards the earth’s polar magnetic regions. This radiation then excites gases in our upper atmosphere, similar to how a neon sign gives off different colored lights when using different gases. Oxygen gives off green light, and Nitrogen creates a pink light. How all these things happen, and for what reason is another question for another day. Northern lights actually occur all year long. The only problem is that they are hard to see when the sun is still shining in our long summer days. The best time to view Northern Lights is in the middle of winter, but some of the most memorable lights that I have seen personally happened during the months of September thru November. During our polar bear season our clients often see Northern Lights. The trick is to get into a dark area where the northern lights are not polluted by other sources of light. A full moon is one problem. Man made light is the other. The backside of our lodge is a relatively good place to see the northern lights, but it’s best to take a short drive out of town to get the full effect. To see northern lights during our polar bear season, try to come as late in the season as possible. The colder it gets, the less ice fog Churchill seems to get. If you have a penchant for taking pictures of the lights, it is recommend you bring a tripod and a good digital camera. The digital cameras seem to have a sensitivity to the northern lights that film just never had. Northern lights will appear in the sky in many different patterns and designs. Often it has been compared to someone in the sky playing a piano keyboard. Northern lights will shift, pulsate and quickly move in different directions. On extremely rare occasions, there is a phenomenon known as a pinwheel where light emanates from a central point and fans out much like a child’s pinwheel toy. I have seen this only 2 times in my life. One time out on a wilderness canoe trip with a friend, in search of a wily old bull moose, he woke up at three in the morning with his pants on fire (because he was sleeping to close to the camp fire) and looked up to the heavens and yelled "Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!” Of course I helped him put out his pants. But what we saw that night in the sky was a pinwheel. Jesus will come, just not that night. |
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