The Northern and Southern Lights, very active in recent years, offer magnificent spectacles to observers. But what generates these colors and why shouldn’t we whistle for the auroras? In recent years, interest in the almost psychedelic spectacle of vibrant green and purple lights dancing in the sky has increased significantly. The desire to catch a glimpse of the so-called Northern Lights and Northern Lights has spawned sightseeing tours, events, and countless tracking apps.
While the appeal of this ephemeral phenomenon is obvious, here are some things you might not know about the Northern Lights and Northern Lights.
What causes the different colors?
Large explosions on the Sun’s surface, called solar storms, regularly eject vast streams of electrically charged particles. Some of this plasma eventually travels to Earth and is attracted to the planet’s magnetic poles.
“These particles collide with atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially heat them up,” astronomer Tom Kerss explained on the Royal Museums Greenwich website. “It’s like heating a gas and making it glow.”
The different colors of light depend on the elements present in the atmosphere. Oxygen, which makes up about 21 percent of the atmosphere, emits a green color when heated, while nitrogen dyes a light purple, blue, or pink.
Interactions with oxygen at very high altitudes can even turn the lights an intense scarlet red color, but this is relatively rare.
Where are the lights visible?
The light show is usually only visible near the Arctic Circle or, in the case of the aurora australis, around Antarctica. However, an 11-year cycle of powerful solar spots and flares, known as solar maximum, during which lights colored the sky much farther from the poles, recently ended.
“When more (solar) energy comes in, the northern oval and the southern oval get bigger,” Katie Herlingshaw, an upper atmospheric physics researcher who works in Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, told DW.
Recent protests have been seen in Hungary, Switzerland and the US state of Florida, as well as southern Australia and New Zealand.
“Almost every cycle, if not all (…), experiences these last bursts during the decline phase,” Tamitha Skov, a physicist specializing in space weather, explained to Space.com in October 2025.
“Typically the last burst occurs about two to three years before the solar minimum. So within a year and a half to two years we should see something.”
Are the Northern Lights dangerous?
Researchers at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory in Svalbard – the world’s northernmost aurora station – studied the solar energy particles contained in the northern lights and their potential to damage the ozone layer.
Noora Partamies, an atmospheric physicist at the observatory, told DW that polar regions sometimes experience “massive ozone depletion” because of the northern lights.
The ozone layer, this thin layer of gas located approximately 15 to 30 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, provides a fundamental shield that protects us from intense solar radiation.
“The level of exhaustion can be very variable,” Partamies said. She explains that some solar protons are very energetic and can cause stratospheric ozone depletion of 50% or 70% in the upper stratosphere of the polar region, damage that can persist for weeks before recovering naturally.
Are the Northern Lights exclusive to Earth?
Although more difficult to detect, auroras have been observed on most planets in our solar system. Its size and intensity are linked to the planet’s atmosphere and the strength of its magnetic field.
On Mars, which instead of a global magnetic field similar to that of Earth, has a more localized field, mainly in the southern hemisphere, the light show is more diffuse.
“A diffuse green glow seems entirely possible in the Mars sky, at least when the Sun emits energetic particles,” said Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado, quoted by NASA’s science portal.
In fact, astronauts orbiting the International Space Station (ISS) were also able to enjoy the light show from their unique perspective, and sometimes even walk through it.
Why shouldn’t you whistle for the Northern Lights?
Possible sightings of the Northern Lights were recorded at least 3,000 years ago, in a Chinese text dating from the 10th century BC, which described a “five-colored” appearance in the northern night sky.
Over the centuries, these natural phenomena have inspired different peoples around the world. The name itself is linked to the Roman dawn goddess Aurora and Boreas, the Greek god responsible for the north winds. The miraculous lights were often interpreted as a prophecy or a sign from the gods.
Ancient Norse myths associated the Northern Lights with reflections from the armor and spears of the Valkyries, the deities who led dead warriors to Valhalla, according to Norse mythology. They were also believed to represent the Bifrost Bridge, the magical rainbow that connected Earth to the home of the gods.
The Finnish word for Northern Lights translates to “fire fox” and evokes a mythical, elusive creature with a flaming tail that threw snow crystals into the air as it streaked across the countryside, setting the sky ablaze.
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The myths of Native American and Inuit communities associated the lights with creator gods, evil giants or the spirits of stillborn babies and dead ancestors. For many cultures, from the Sami of Lapland to North American tribes, the lights were to be feared and respected. Something as simple as a whistle, for example, could attract the wrath of the spirits, who would descend to take the unsuspecting offender away.
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