The Northern Lights also popularly known as Aurora Borealis, is the spectacular celestial phenomenon of colored light that is visible in the night sky especially in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. As these bands, arcs or curtains of colorful lights appear in the northern latitudes and are visible in the Northern Sky from the Northern Hemisphere, they are known as Northern Lights. “Aurora Borealis” is named after Aurora – the Roman Goddess of dawn and Boreas meaning north wind in Greek. The term ‘Aurora Borealis' was first used by Galileo, the famous Italian scientist and since then it became the scientific name of Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis means ‘red dawn of the north' in Latin.

The Northern Lights frequently occur during the time of late autumn or early spring and hence are prominently visible in the northern sky during the months of September to October and March to April. The Northern Lights can be visible from Andenes and Oslo in Norway, Fairbanks in Alaska, Northern Scotland in Great Britain, the Canadian and US border, Mexico and other Mediterranean countries. In the Mediterranean countries Northern lights are visible only when the solar activity is very high.

The Northern Lights are caused owing to the activity of highly charged particles known as ions that travels from the solar winds and gets trapped in within the magnetic sphere of the earth. When the charged ions collide with the gases within the ionosphere of the earth, they start gleaming.

Thus, these flickering lights of red, green, purple and blue in the night sky are none other than the auroras that have inspired the awe of people since yore!