Colored light in the night sky near the earth's magnetic poles, called aurora borealis , "northern lights" in the northern hemisphere and aurora australis in the southern hemisphere.

Although aurorae are usually restricted to the polar skies, fluctuations in the solar wind occasionally cause them to be visible at lower latitudes.

Aurorae are caused at heights of over 100 kilometers or 60 miles by a fast stream of charged particles from solar flares and low-density "holes" in the sun's corona.