Re: what are some projects concerning the recreation of the nothern lights

Dear Amber,
The aurora borealis is caused by particles of the solar wind exciting molecules of air some 100 kilometers up to make them glow. It would be very complicated for you to duplicate those conditions down here on the surface of the earth!

I suggest you study the images in the following web sites to see what shades of red and green show up in the aurora. Then go to a fabric shop and buy the finest, thinnest, most gossimer veils you can find. The aurora is light, but to us it often looks like vast, strange veils or curtains eerily waving in a ghostly wind. (I am a big fan of the Northern Lights; that's the sort of language we use to describe a particularly good show.)

You can recieve email notification of possible aurorae. Satellites between Earth and the Sun send notification every time there is a CME, a coronal mass ejection, of particles towards the earth. Go to http://www.spaceweather.com to sign up. Here are the aurora web sites.

• http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/
• http://www.alaskascience.com/aurora.htm
• http://dac3.pfrr.alaska.edu:80/~pfrr/AURORA
• http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora
• http://www.ptialaska.net/~hutch/aurora.html

I hope you see the aurora soon and make a pretty model of it.