国家地理杂志精美图片:绚丽多姿的北极光
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.
在加拿大瓦普斯克国家公园，亚北极冻土地带上空看到的北极光夜景。这是参加2008年国际摄影比赛的一张照片及图片说明。
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."
当北面的光线盘旋而上的时候，夜幕降临在缅因州阿卡迪亚国家公园的乔丹湖上。“那是我在阿卡迪亚最后一个夜晚，当时我正静坐着准备给夜空中的星光进行一次长时间曝光。”摄影师麦克尔.梅尔福特回忆道，“这时候，绚烂夺目的红色极光出现了。我当时很担心我是否把这美丽的景象抓拍下来。”
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.
引人入胜的天景表演为阿拉斯加的常住居民照亮了夜漫漫的冬季。这张北极光的照片拍摄到克里克联盟发光的地平线。在这张被曝光了十分钟的照片中，左上角的北斗七星呈现出条纹状，它们在12月的天空中旋转。这个地区的居民每年能看到数十次北极光，而那些居住在更北边的巴罗角的人们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."
在浩瀚的苍野下，一个里面亮着光的旅行帐篷好似星际之船行进在北极光中。与人们的共识相反，北极光并非仅仅是北极冬季里的光亮现象。它同样出现在夏天，甚至出现在远至南方的黄石公园。
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.
一株常青植物在北极圈的北方针叶林中独树一帜，隐现在被北极光染成翠绿色的天空下。这种天然的烟花表演，称为极光。太阳中的带电粒子爆发形成太阳风，当太阳风与地磁极上空的高层大气中的原子碰撞时，便产生了极光。
