why not me?
Where to see the northern lights
where
The Northern Lights occur most commonly near the
Earth's Poles. Remember that the Aurora begins with the
sun shooting plasma at our atmosphere? Well, Earth's
geomagnetic field does a pretty good job of blocking
these charged particles... at least near the equator.
Earth's geomagnetic field is significantly weaker near
the poles. No need to worry, these particles are still
blocked by earth's atmosphere (which is why the Northern
Lights occur so far up in the sky typically), but the
plasma is still able to get close enough to
collide with the gases contained in Earth's atmosphere
which glow due to the energy-filled interaction.
According to Harald Falck-Ytter, author of the book Aurora,
The close relationship of the aurora and magnetism is evident in the approximate centring [sp.] of the auroral oval in the geomagnetic pole. The aurora appears along the lines of magnetic force, which encircle the earth in north-south lines like a longitudinally structured network. The lines dip towards the poles.
