Sometimes called “The Dance of the Spirits,” the Aurora Borealis is a natural light display visible through the winter months, particularly in high latitude regions of the Arctic. This time-lapse by Chris Tandy captures the Northern Lights last January in the Kvæfjord and Harstad areas of northern Norway. The majority of the displays involve undulating patterns of green light, but in rare instances, red and blue lights can also be seen.

What causes the Aurora? Theories about its origins have been debated for centuries and common misconceptions persist that the aurora is the sun’s rays scattered off ice crystals in the high atmosphere. In truth, the light is created more than 100km above Earth’s surface as high-speed electrons and protons ejected from the sun in a solar flare collide with air molecules in the upper atmosphere.