Aurora Borealis

Yesterday at 2am after our shift Þórkatla, Gummi, Dammý and me left Hereford over the balcony. Suddenly Dammý stopped me and said: "Look - northern lights!" I lifted my head and there is was - right over our heads. Green and blue colours rolling over the sky, just like snakes. It changed from green to white, yellow and red. I could not believe my luck. Even my local co-workers where struck by the beauty of it. We stood there for at least half an hour to watch this natural phenomenon.
But how do these wonderful lights come into being? The visible aurora borealis, or northern lights, are caused by streams of charged particles from the sun, the solar wind, which are directed by the Earth's magnetic field towards the polar regions. Because the field curves downward in a halo surrounding the magnetic poles, the charged particles are drawn earthward.