Finland: A journey to the Arctic Circle
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to go to Helsinki in Finland. Since Finland is also famous for its Aurora Borealis as part of it lies in the Arctic circle, I decided to go a weekend earlier, and visited Rovaniemi, which is very close to the arctic circle. The scientific study of the Northern Lights phenomena has been going on since a century in Finland. Basically, solar “winds” consisting of plasma (electrons, protons and alpha particles) are thrown out by the sun. Fortunately for us, the earth’s magnetosphere protects us by deflecting the solar wind. However, a severe solar storm can cause havoc blacking out entire cities like Quebec in Canada in 1989, and affect communication networks throughout the world. — in Rovaniemi, Finland . If I had known earlier, I would have planned a visit to Inari, one of the northern most villages in Finland, for a more brilliant view of the northern lights. My friend went there during the same time, and got great picture...