Aurora Max each other, creating tiny flares of light that decorate the sky with colorful light. Billions of these tiny flares occur in sequence causing the lights to seem like they are dancing or moving. The lights in the Northern hemisphere are called Aurora Borealis or simply The Northern Lights while the lights in the Southern hemisphere are called Aurora Australis or simply The Southern Lights. The purpose of the project is to monitor the frequency and intensity of the Aurora Borealis (Northern lights) in the years that led up to the Solar Maximum that was scheduled to occur in 2013-14. Scientists
Aurora explanations: that the ocean was surrounded by vast fires; that the sun flares could reach around the world to its night side; or that [[glacier]]s could store energy so that they eventually became [[Fluorescence|fluorescent]]. In the 1740s [Benjamin Franklin] theorized in his paper "Aurora Borealis, Suppositions and Conjectures towards forming an Hypothesis for its Explanation" that an aurora was caused by a concentration of electrical charge in the polar regions intensified by the snow and moisture in the air: Observations of the rhythmic movement of compass needles due to the influence of an aurora were confirmed in the Swedish city