YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — The special thing about Yellowstone National Park, is that it doesn’t matter how many people are watching when something grand happens.
With fall turning into winter, the park is making its seasonal transition by closing roads and other amenities. The temperatures are starting to drop, and animals are preparing for hibernation. But local photographer and Buckrail reader Griffin Kerwin braved the quiet night and was rewarded with the elusive Aurora Borealis around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30.
The northern lights are the visible result of collisions between fast-moving electrons and oxygen and nitrogen gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the different colors of the aurora are dictated by the gas involved in the energy exchanges. Oxygen emits greens, yellows and reds, while nitrogen emits blues.
