At a Glance

On cold clear winter nights, a curtain of light shimmers across the sky in northern Canada. What is it? Well, it depends who you ask.

The Inuit believe that these northern lights are the spirits of the dead. When Inuit story-teller Michael Kusugak sees the wispy, white lights where he lives in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, he thinks of his father and uncle.

What the Inuit Believe

"We believe when you die, your soul goes up into the heavens. And on a clear moonlit night, all those people up there like to go out," says Kusugak, who authored seven children's books including the award-winning Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails. "And what they like to do is they like to play soccer, and that is what the northern lights are – the trails of the souls of the dead playing soccer in the sky."

Kusugak grew up listening to Inuit myths while living in tents and igloos. His family traveled by dog team in winter, and he learned English in a residential school. Now a world-renown author, Kusugak says the Inuit words for the northern lights mean "trails made by people playing soccer."

The aurora borealis and science

Eric Donovan of the University of Calgary interprets the aurora borealis (the scientific name for the northern lights that literally means "northern dawn") much differently.

"It exists roughly in an oval-shaped region centred on the magnetic poles," says Donovan, an associate professor in the Institute for Space Research, a world leader in auroral research.

"We look at (the aurora) as a great laboratory for increasing our understanding of plasma physics, and we look at it as a great laboratory for just increasing our understanding of the earth's environment," says Donovan, who specializes in taking scientific pictures of the aurora.

What causes the light?

Scientific Web sites will tell you that the sun produces charged particles, which create the solar wind. The Earth's magnetic field deflects the solar wind, but the field traps some particles and pulls them down into the upper atmosphere and to the earth's surface near the north and south magnetic poles. When the particles collide with upper atmosphere gas, they glow red, green, blue and violet. This light creates the northern and southern auroras.

What does it look like?

The northern lights change shape, colour, and structure. The lights may start as a long arc that stretches across the horizon. A few hours later, the arc may brighten or form waves. Towards dawn, the lights may fade and form wispy patches.

When does it occur?

The best time to see an aurora is at night between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. during winter, when weather tends to be clear.

Tourism

"I often have people calling me from Vancouver asking me if they will see the northern lights at the centre in November," says Heather Berg of Watson Lake, Yukon." (The northern lights) are always there, but you won't see them if it's cloudy."

Berg, who says the northern lights are mostly green in Yukon, is the operations manager of the Northern Lights Centre in Watson Lake, Yukon. The centre's exhibits explain the science and folklore of the northern lights.

Where is the best place to see it?

Small northern towns, such as Watson Lake (population 1,500), that have little light pollution are ideal places to view the northern lights. The lights have been seen as far south as New Orleans, but the best place to see them in North America is in the Yukon and in Nunavut, Canada. The lights can also be seen in Greenland and Iceland, northern Norway, and north of Siberia.

By Lucienne Poole, October 2006