Face The Outdoors

What Causes the Colors of the Northern Lights?

Colors of the northern lights over Fairbanks Alaska — aurora borealis showing green from oxygen, red from high-altitude oxygen, and violet from nitrogen at each atmospheric layer

The colors of the northern lights are determined by which gas is excited, at what altitude, and how energetically solar particles react with it. The aurora borealis and aurora australis produce different colors because different gases emit different wavelengths — this is how aurora colors form. Understanding the northern lights altitude map changes how you […]