Aurora Borealis

Both Tammy and I have had the good fortune that we have each seen the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) multiple times in our lifetimes.  In fact, we have had the opportunity to view them multiple times during our tenure as stewards at the Genuine Faux Farm.

It takes a pretty strong showing for the lights to make an appearance in Iowa, and when it does, it often does not reveal dramatic movement or color to the casual observer.  In fact, it often seems to be only slightly more dramatic than the glow of a town's or city's street lights reflecting off of the bottoms of low cloud cover.  And, of course, seeing the Northern Lights can become even more difficult for those who are not fortunate enough to live in the country, where there are fewer lights (though there are getting to be too many, in my opinion - fodder for a future blog).

Sunday night's show started out to be a lot like many of the other shows we have viewed over time.

You can actually see some of the glow on the horizon from the town of Fredericka, which lies directly to the north of our farm.  This picture does not represent what we were seeing at about 10:30 pm with our eyes because the camera actually sees differently than humans do at night.  If you want to learn more about that, I suggest this article.  The key is that the cells that make up most of our night vision only see black, white and shades of gray.  Typically, when we see Northern Lights in Iowa, they are not bright enough for our eyes to use the cells that see color.

Our cameras, on the other hand, don't have the same limitation, so they can record those colors for us to see later.

In any event, Sunday's show started as many of our previous viewings have gone.  Fairly low on the horizon and only a hint of a greenish color to our naked eye.  We even hopped in the car to see if a different location provided us with a better view (it was nice, but didn't change things much).

We actually thought the image above was going to be the peak showing for this session.  It's neat.  But, I do have to admit that I was probably a bit more annoyed by my failure to get our better camera to work and I was tired - so I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably should have.

It was after 11 pm when we were trying to shut it all down for the night and I recognized that my phone was missing (my inability to track certain objects over the past week could be another blog). This, of course, was doing nothing for my mood - though I really must admit that I was letting little things have too much power over how I felt.

The search actually led me to go outside to see if it was in a vehicle - and I looked up to find the aurora borealis pulsing.  And my limited human eyes saw colors.

Thank goodness for my absent-minded misplacement of the phone.

This is the most spectacular viewing of the Northern Lights that I have witnessed in my life (and certainly for our time on the farm).  Despite having grown up in Minnesota, Tammy couldn't recall a better showing either.

These lights are created when energized particles from the sun strike our planet's magnetic field at forty-five MILLION miles per hour.  Our Earth and its magnetic field redirects these particles to the polar regions, which results in a light show we can enjoy if we're looking at the right time.  If we are so inclined we can wrangle our cameras or camera phones and take pictures to see the colors better and share with our friends and family via various electronic communications.  Now, that's entertainment.

But I think I had an even deeper appreciation for Sunday's event when I considered the reason for their appearance.  What we were seeing is evidence that our planet has a security system that protects the life forms that call Earth home.  Just another reason why I feel motivation to do what I can to uphold my responsibility to protect and care for this Earth.

Hey there, Mother Earth, thanks for the protective actions.  I just hope I can be even a tiny bit effective in my efforts to protect you, because this force field that deflects the solar waves sure is impressive.  I'm not sure how to measure up to that - but I sure will give it a shot.