Solar Flares and Aurora Borealis

The past several days, various news sources have discussed the solar flares that our Sun has been responsible for lately. Yes, our gallant life-giving star occasionally has its moments. Perhaps the Sun is frustrated with the antics of us humans here on Earth - and methinks we may give a lot of cause for that. But even in spite of our antics, the Sun continues with these phenomena. The flares are apparently caused by large energy releases. They eject clouds of electrons, ions and atoms through the Sun's corona into space, ultimately bombarding those in their path with x-rays and UV rays.

It appears that we here on Earth are fortunate, for the most part. These charged particles may occasionally disrupt long-range communications, although so far there has not been much disruption reported. It also appears that Earth has a strong enough magnetic field to repel harmful rays so as to protect our atmosphere from being stripped of its oxygen atoms. I find that to be a good thing.  After all, none of us could exist without oxygen. However, our neighboring planet, Mars, has a magnetic field that is not as strong as our own.  This article describes how Mars loses oxygen atoms in its atmosphere ten times faster than Earth's atmosphere does.

But in recent days, I have also noticed more people on Facebook and elsewhere posting photos of the wonderful Northern Lights displays in their areas this year.  One wonders whether the Sun's recent activity may have something to do with some of the more spectacular displays.  Or perhaps I am just noticing these displays more this year.  Here, for example, is a wonderful video from Norway, taken in January 2012.  And here is a series of photos as posted in today's Washington Post online, taken by Alaskan photographer, Dennis Anderson.  Sorry, but you'll first have to sit through 15 seconds of a commercial before being able to view the WaPo series.          

Around here, the night skies have been much more subdued.  We cannot see the Northern Lights from here, although the last few evenings, we have had some nice sunsets. Here was last evening's:

I LOVE the wonders of the internet!  The Northern Lights were winter phenomena of my youth that helped to compensate for the long, cold, dark, bleak and harsh winters on the high plains of north-central Montana.  In my youth, I didn't realize how fortunate that I was. After all, not everyone could see these wonders first-hand, as we were used to doing, but I didn't know that then. Even then, however, I appreciated their almost supernatural beauty.  With the internet, I can now relive some of that pleasure without having to endure the occasionally painful existence.

That is pretty close to a definition of Paradise, IMO.