Northern Lights
Tonight, we didn't get to see any polar bears yet, but we lucked out with a sighting of the Northern Lights. Check out my picture of how they look in the Arctic sky. What do you think causes the Northen Lights? Look it up online if you don't know. (Hint: Many of you learned about the Northern Lights last year when we studied the atmosphere.)
posted by Doug @ 11:06 PM
6 Comments:
Hey Doug,
Some of the kids had some questions about the northern lights and your trip.
1. Why are the lights green and not yellow in the picture?
Saif and John
2. Why did you go Canada to learn about the climate?
Joshua N.
3. What kind of animals live up there? Can you bring some examples back or take pictures of them?
Jayquan
So, Saif and John, the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are caused by solar winds interacting with the magnetic field of the earth and striking gases in the layer of the earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere. The color of the northern lights depends on which gases are being made to "glow" by the energy of these solar winds. The green lights that we saw are caused by oxygen molecules. See if you can look up what other gases can interact with the solar winds to cause the northern lights, and what colors they will be when they glow.
Joshua, where I am in Canada is 1) an environment where not a lot of people live or affect the environment, so we can see changes in nature without it being disturbed all the time by people or vehicles, and 2) a sub-arctic climate at the edge of the treeline and the tundra. What this means is it's where the forest means the frozen land, so we can see how climate is changing in both environments. We can see if global warming is affecting the way plants grow, or which plants grow, and we can also see how the permafrost (land that is frozen underground all year round) is changing or melting because of climate change.
Jayquan, there are many different kinds of animals that live up here. This town is most famous for the polar bears and beluga whales that migrate through here every year. Also, there are lots of small mammals like arctic foxes, red foxes, arctic hares, voles, weasels, wolverines, lemmings, and squirrels. There are lots of interesting birds of prey here too that eat these small mammals, like golden and bald eagles, several kinds of owls, kestrels, falcons, and hawks. I will take pictures of all the ones I can see, although I missed an eagle that flew over our van today while we were driving back from town.
i miss you doug by ricky
Mr. Doug Why Are You So Tall From Alvaro Oh Yeah Can You Take A Picture With A Polar Bear
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