How are the NORTHERN LIGHTS created?	Plants & animals in Alaska
How to prepare for the Norhtern Lights.	The differnt kinds of lights

The northern lights or Aurora Borealis as they are also called, are a spectacular light show in the northern region of Alaska, but can be seen in other places around the world. The northern lights have been a mystery for many years.  Although many have been mythical, there are scientific reasons to support this phenomena.  These lights are one of the natural wonders of the world, because of the mystical lights being so spectacular.

The Aurora Borealis are caused by the sun's sun spots (or hot places in the sun) giving off a solar wind. This energy passes through the Earth's atmosphere and as molecules pick up speed they become hot and begin to glow. When the sunspots become more active they give off more energy and the lights become more active.

The Northern Lights have many colors within them, like green, red, blue and yellow. The Northern Lights are different colors because Solar Wind collides with different kinds of gases at different heights in the atmosphere.  The Northern Lights can have a variety of brightness. The brightest being compared to the brightness of the Milky Way and the dimmest being compared to the brightness of a full moon. There are three different kinds of lights. The first is Quity Arces, which appear as curtains or bands or ribbons of light. The second is Raide Arces, which appear as shafts or bundles of light. The third is Diffuse Patches, which appear as thin and scattered. Some lights have only a thickness of 100 meters but some are several hundred kilometers tall and well over 1000 kilometers in length.

There have been many myths about the Northern Lights. The people of Norway thought the lights were dead warriors fighting. The Vikings thought they were female messengers of the god Odin, to mark those to be killed in battle. The people of Lapps and Finland believed they were messengers of God. The Northern Lights were one of the last unsolved mysteries of the natural world.

If you go to Alaska to see the Northern lights you'll have to know a few things. First, bring appropriate clothes, like insulated jackets, gloves, and boots. The highs range month to month. The high in January is 8-37 degrees F., in March 8-44 degrees F., in July 44-71 degrees F., in September 33-64 degrees F., and in November it is 5-45 degrees F. Snowshoes are always a good idea if you wanted to go hiking.

Alaska has many types of wildlife. It has the Moose, Wolf, Lynx, Beaver, Caribou, Marmots, Ground Squirrels, Mountain Goats, Dall Sheep and Wolverines and that is just some of the wildlife. If you go hiking try to make as much noise as possible to scare off the bears because, the Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, and Polar Bear  inhabit Alaska's native ground and are territorial. . Mosquito repellent is also good to have around because they are plentiful. If you plan to camp and find your own food by fishing and hunting you will need a permit.

There are many varieties of rare plants in Alaska. Some rare plants are: Bearing Sea Wormwood which is a yellow flower, the Oglivie Mountains spring beauty, the Muir's fleabane, the Narrow-leaved Prairie Rocket, and the Drummond's Bluebell. The Barneby's locoweed is another rare flower of the Artic. There are even more like: the Kobuk locoweed, the Yukon Podistera, and this is just the beginning of a long list. Some plants and trees that may be more familiar to you are: Spruce trees, Mountain Hemlock, Cottonwood, Ferns, Cabbage, Peat Moss, Pine trees, and Red Cedar trees. Many Natives of Alaska still today use many plants for medical purposes. If you want to find out more about plants used for Medicine you could refer to the book titled, Medicinal Flora of the Alaska Natives by Ann Garibaldi.

It's taken us a long time to figure out these mystical wonders.  They fasanated us so mauch we had to find a way to find out what the Northern Lights really were. So in 1957 we launched one of the first space satellite to try to figure out what the lights were.  They are still a miraculous sight so consider going to see them sometime.