Alaska's Northern Lights

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, have been dancing across the lofty latitudes of Alaska for as long as the Earth has been dancing around the Sun.

View From Above

It begins with the Sun's solar winds that send gusts of highly-charged particles hurdling toward the Earth.

Some get trapped high in our atmosphere. When they collide with gaseous particles, they create that eerie glow that is funneled along the Earth's magnetic field toward the poles -- the Aurora Borealis in the North, the Aurora Australis in the South.

Left: A view from the International Space Station.

Aurora Borealis

Photographer Ronn Murray and his wife, Marketa, of Fairbanks, lead groups to witness and capture the Aurora Borealis

"Most of the time it's just 'Wow!' I mean, your jaw, you're trying to pick it up off the snow," Ronn told CBS News' Lee Cowan.

Aurora Borealis

"When you're seeing the shapes, you're literally seeing the magnetic field lines being blown around by the solar winds," said Murray.

He calls the swirls and movement "the dance."

Aurora Borealis

A view of the Northern Lights.

Aurora Borealis

Streams of Aurora across the night sky.

Aurora Borealis

"It is very much like a drug!" Ronn Murray said of witnessing the Northern Lights. "You're chasing that ultimate high, and when you get that ultimate Aurora show, you're just on top of the world. You're going out there every single night trying to feel that again."