Over the weekend, spectators who stepped outside at around midnight were treated to a vibrant display in the often-empty night sky. I heard about Auroras from a fellow student on campus Monday afternoon, and thought I had missed my opportunity to witness the Northern lights for the first time, but later that evening I decided to go outside and peek up into the night sky. I had always thought the Northern lights were going to be a simple green colour in the sky that was stationary. Instead, I was treated to a spectacular view of the Northern Light phenomenon. What I got to witness were bright shades of neon green and a rose red that filled the blank night sky. It was like watching a gentle stream of watercolour paint flowing through the clear night skies. It was an impressive view for the naked eye, but depending on where you were in Brandon light pollution could have obstructed your view.
What causes the Northern Lights?
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are created when the energized particles traveling from the sun slam into Earth’s atmosphere at speeds up to 45 million mph (72 million km/h). Our planet gets hit with these winds all the time; our magnetic field protects us from these continuing storms. As these charged particles slammed into the earth’s ionosphere, or upper atmosphere, an aurora is born. The brightly coloured particles that make up the northern lights are represented by the chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. The vibrant colours seen in the aurora over Brandon are represented by a couple of different factors. The red hue is produced from nitrogen molecules, and comes at a higher elevation, and the green colour production comes from oxygen at a lower elevation.
Why are they visible over Brandon right now?
The sun is going through a roughly 11-year cycle of activity, where the solar winds that travel towards Earth carry extreme amount of energy. With these heightened levels of energy, the lights are brighter and expand further south. This was not the first time southern Manitoba was treated to this phenomenon; in May of this year, the northern lights were visible in parts of southern Manitoba. With this increased activity in the sun, it means more people in parts of southern Canada bear witness to a natural phenomenon that often takes place in the northern parts of Canada.
What does it mean to Indigenous peoples?
Many different Indigenous cultures have their own legends about the Northern Lights, although they are often looked at as a spiritual phenomenon, representing the spirts of our ancestors and the Creator. In some First Nations mythology, the Northern Lights are often associated with the afterlife, as the spirits of loved ones who have passed away. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors live in a place called the Land of the Dead.
One final thought as I took pictures - I looked up, and witnessed a full sky dancing in a calm manner. I could not help but imagine what it would have been like to be one of my ancestors sleeping in the empty plains, surrounded with family and nothing else around. How beautiful and oddly terrifying that would be.