Sign up for free

Newsletters

Once a month
get new photos
and expert tips.

Photography
Main Photo Galleries Wallpapers Photo of the Day Photographers Photo Tips Buy Prints

Aurora Borealis, Arctic Circle, 2002

A leggy evergreen looms over a stretch of Arctic boreal forest as light from the aurora borealis paints the night sky emerald green.

These natural fireworks shows, also called the northern lights, occur when solar wind—electrically charged particles blasted from the sun—collides with atoms in the upper atmosphere over the Earth's magnetic poles.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Boreal: The Great Northern Forest," June 2002, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Peter Essick

Sign up for free

Newsletters

Photography

Aurora Borealis, Arctic Circle, 2002

Special Advertising Section

Photo Tip of the Week

Sign up for free

Newsletters

Photography

Aurora Borealis, Arctic Circle, 2002

Special Advertising Section

Photo Contest

Take Quiz

Photo Tip of the Week

Long Exposures

Photography DVDs

New Photo Books From National Geographic