As we are all seeing more and more views of the Northern lights – let me explain what the are :
The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are a natural light display predominantly seen in high-latitude regions near the Arctic. They occur when charged particles from the Sun, carried by solar winds, collide with Earth’s magnetic field. These particles are directed toward the magnetic poles, where they interact with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere (mainly oxygen and nitrogen), creating vivid light displays that can be green, pink, red, violet, or even blue.
The lights often appear as curtains, arcs, or waves of shimmering light that dance across the night sky. While they are most commonly seen in places like northern Canada, Alaska, Norway, and Finland, similar phenomena, known as aurora australis, occur near the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere.
But we are seeing them in the UK and other parts of the world…
WHY ?
Let’s look at this a different way,
When fuel, like gasoline or oil, is spilled on the ground and mixes with water, it creates a thin film on the surface. This film produces an array of colors due to a phenomenon called thin-film interference.
Here’s how it works:
• The fuel forms a very thin layer, which allows light to both reflect off the surface of the film and pass through it to reflect off the underlying water or ground.
• As light reflects from both the top and bottom surfaces of the film, the waves of light interfere with each other. Depending on the thickness of the film and the wavelength of the light, this interference can be constructive (amplifying certain colors) or destructive (canceling out others).
• The result is the colorful, iridescent pattern you see, which shifts and changes as the thickness of the fuel film varies across the surface.
This is similar to the rainbow-like effect you see on soap bubbles or a thin layer of oil on water.
Can you see where I’m going with this… ?
If a chemical is spilt on the floor and water is added it creates the amazing array of colours – this is also happening in our skys above us.. but not spilt.. but purposefully placed.. !!
