The Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis in Finland

The ‘Northern Lights’ is a common name for the Aurora Borealis in the Northern Hemisphere.

On the official Travel Site of Finland website, it is claimed that Finland is one of the best places on Earth to spot the Northern Lights and that they appear on more than 200 nights a year in Finnish Lapland.

This postcard came from a direct swap on Postcrossing with Taru Harkko  of Finland who wrote to say that this postcard does not do justice to the real thing.

This postcard came from Jelena of Croatia (18 May 2016) who sent me this postcard as she knew I like Northern Lights.

What is an aurora?
An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.

The first postcard came in an envelope which carried this nice stamp of Finland.  It featured the
Pallas-yllästunturi National Park and was issued in 2009.