The dancing, shimmering display of blue, green, red, yellow, and white light in constant motion in the nighttime sky is an unforgettable sight. The beautiful atmospheric phenomena known as auroras are most often visible in the upper latitudes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They occur when charged particles from the sun collide with atoms from various gases in the Earth's atmosphere. The sustained movement is the result of the changing interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind.
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