Written in the Sky: Aurora Borealis Explained
Channel: Institute of Physics
Date: 2012-03-01

The aurora borealis, or the northern lights, are one of nature's most mysterious displays. In this video, Jim Wild looks at aurora borealis in Iceland and explains how the lights are a mirror for intense solar activity, which triggers 'space storms' in the Earth's atmosphere. "In the past, people thought that the aurora lights were the souls of the dead in the night sky - ghosts sending messages down from the afterlife to people all stuck on the ground beneath them. And you can sort of see why - there's something very spooky about the aurora. In some ways, the excitement is figuring out the science behind the magic, and that itself is quite magical. I'm Jim Wild, and I'm determined to unlock the secrets of the aurora borealis. Not just because they're mysterious and magical, but because they tell us something about how we're connected to what's going on in space, and that's going to become increasingly important to our way of life. If they're not ghosts, what are the northern lights?"