國家地理雜誌精美圖片:絢麗多姿的北極光

The Aurora Borealis as seen from the sub-arctic tundra nightscape. Wapusk National Park, Manitoba, photo and caption were submitted to the 2008 International Photo Contest. See photo galleries, play jigsaw puzzles, and download wallpaper of images from more than 105,000 submissions.

在加拿大瓦普斯克國家公園，亞北極凍土地帶上空看到的北極光夜景。這是參加2008年國際攝影比賽的一張照片及圖片說明。

Darkness settles over Jordan Pond in Maine's Acadia National Park as northern lights swirl above. "It was my last night in Acadia, and I was setting up for a long exposure of starlight in the night sky," recalls photographer Michael Melford, "and this brilliant red aurora appeared. I was in a panic to make sure I caught it."

當北面的光線盤旋而上的時候，夜幕降臨在緬因州阿卡迪亞國家公園的喬丹湖上。“那是我在阿卡迪亞最後一個夜晚，當時我正靜坐着準備給夜空中的星光進行一次長時間曝光。”攝影師麥克爾.梅爾福特回憶道，“這時候，絢爛奪目的紅色極光出現了。我當時很擔心我是否把這美麗的景象抓拍下來。”

Spectacular sky shows brighten the long winter nights for Alaska's year-round residents. This display of northern lights sets the horizon aglow at Trapper Creek. Stars of the Big Dipper, upper left, wheeling through the December sky, show as streaks in this ten-minute exposure. Residents of the region witness dozens of auroras yearly; those in the Point Barrow area farther north see as many as a hundred.

引人入勝的天景表演爲阿拉斯加的常住居民照亮了夜漫漫的冬季。這張北極光的照片拍攝到克里克聯盟發光的地平線。在這張被曝光了十分鐘的照片中，左上角的北斗七星呈現出條紋狀，它們在12月的天空中旋轉。這個地區的居民每年能看到數十次北極光，而那些居住在更北邊的巴羅角的人們更可以看到上百次之多。

"With infinite wilderness overhead, a traveler's tent lit from within turns into a starship navigating the northern lights. Contrary to widely held belief, the aurora borealis is not strictly a phenomenon of winter lights in the Arctic. It paints summer skies as well, and can occur as far south as Yellowstone."

在浩瀚的蒼野下，一個裏面亮着光的旅行帳篷好似星際之船行進在北極光中。與人們的共識相反，北極光並非僅僅是北極冬季裏的光亮現象。它同樣出現在夏天，甚至出現在遠至南方的黃石公園。

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

一株常青植物在北極圈的北方針葉林中獨樹一幟，隱現在被北極光染成翠綠色的天空下。這種天然的煙花表演，稱爲極光。太陽中的帶電粒子爆發形成太陽風，當太陽風與地磁極上空的高層大氣中的原子碰撞時，便產生了極光。