Alaska Photo Graphics - Northern Lights photos & pictures

Northern Lights photos ~ (Aurora borealis)

Photos, information and facts about the northern lights - scientifically referred to as the aurora borealis

Browse our northern lights photographs which may be licensed as commercial stock photography or purchased as fine art decor pictures for your home or office.

Picture search

• Northern lights photos (all)
• Northern lights and cabins
• Northern lights and mountains
• Northern lights and pipeline
• Red Northern lights

Northern lights corona display, a luminous circle near the zenith. Big dipper constellation in the center. photo taken in Fairbanks, Alaska. © Patrick J. Endres

Slide Show

• View our Northern lights slide show

Photo Tour

• Northern Lights & Polar bear photo tour
  Guided photo tour for the Northern Lights and Arctic Polar bears in Alaska with professional photographer Hugh Rose.

Green arcs over the Koyukuk river in Arctic Alaska.
© Patrick J. Endres

Polar bear sow with twin cubs, Kaktovik, Alaska
© Hugh Rose

Articles

• How to Photograph the Northern Lights
  Basic instructions and tips on how to photograph the northern lights with a digital camera. Where to go, how to dress, batteries, lens types, etc.

Green arcs just after dusk, the remnant daylight gives the enhanced blue in the sky. White Mountains National Recreation Area, Alaska. © Patrick J. Endres

Northern Lights Forecast Web sites

• UAF Geophysical Institute
• Space Weather
• Solar Cycle 24

Definition of the Northern Lights (American Heritage Dictionary)

Northern Lights or Aurora: "A luminous atmospheric phenomenon appearing as streamers or bands of light sometimes visible in the night sky in northern or southern regions of the earth. It is thought to be caused by charged particles from the sun entering the earth's magnetic field and stimulating molecules in the atmosphere."

Colors and the Northern lights

• Red and Green-Oxygen: Light emitted by the Aurora tends to be dominated by emissions from atomic oxygen, resulting in a greenish glow and in the higher altitudes the red glow.

Oxygen gasses at about 60 miles up in the atmosphere give off the common greenish glow (at a wavelength of 557.7 nm) © Patrick J. Endres

Oxygen gasses at about 200 miles in the atmosphere give the dark-red glow (at 630.0 nm of wavelength). © Patrick J. Endres

• Other colors-Nitrogen: Variations in color, especially those emitted by atomic and molecular nitrogen (blue and purple) vary quickly and result in dynamic movement in the aurora.

Blue, purple & violet colors are caused by light emitted from Nitrogen gasses. © Patrick J. Endres

Encyclopedia: (Columbia University Press)

Northern Lights: "aurora borealis (bôr'ēăl'ĭs) and aurora australis (ôstrā'lĭs), luminous display of various forms and colors seen in the night sky.

The aurora borealis of the Northern Hemisphere is often called the northern lights, and the aurora australis of the Southern Hemisphere is known as the southern lights. Each is visible over an area centering around the geomagnetic pole of its own hemisphere.

The aurora borealis is said to occur with greatest frequency along a line extending through N Norway, across central Hudson Bay, through Point Barrow, Alaska, and through N Siberia. It is often visible in Cana