Aurora borealis made an impressive second appearance Monday night for those State College and University Park residents who may have been watching the sky.

At about 8 p.m. the sky became blood red as an effect of the phenomenon. This was the second appearence made by the aurora, which also was was visible early Monday morning between 12 and 3, but experts said they are unsure whether the phenomenon will occurr again in the near future.

Adam Cramer (freshman-psychology) went out to observe the aurora after overhearing news of its arrival.

"There was just a large patch of red light that would grow in intensity," Cramer said. "I watched it for about 10 minutes. It was very impressive."

The aurora borealis, otherwise known as the "Northern Lights," is a dynamic display of colors seen in the night sky around the geometric pole of the Northern hemisphere.

Unpredictability will inhibit the viewing of the aurora as well as cloud cover and light pollution. The University Weather Station reports it is possible that another aurora borealis will occur within the next week to a month, but it may take patience and a lot of looking to be observed.

According to John Zink, reasearch assistant for the department of astronomy, the aurora borealis also has a counterpart -- the aurora australis, an identical phenomenon seen in the Southern hemisphere.

The aurora borealis occurs at the far reaches of the north pole (including Alaska and parts of Canada) year round, but quite infrequently farther south, Zink said.

"During these times," explained Mike Lavis (junior-meteorology), tower worker for the University Weather Station, "the aurora borealis is often visible in Canada and parts of the northern United States; displaying many of the colors of the spectrum, such as red, yellow, blue, green and violet.

Increased solar activity has allowed for people of lower hemispheres to witness the colorful display of lights, he said. This increase in solar activity in essence pushes the aurora farther south so even State College residents are able to witness it.

John Mathews, professor of electrical engineering and director of the Communications and Space Science Laboratory, explained auroras are products of massive solar storms. These storms also produce the effect on the sun commonly known as sun spots.

"This has been a very great year (for solar storms)," said Mathews, "sunspots can actually be seen with the naked eye."

The sun presently is reaching the end of its 11-year cycle, at which time solar activity should be enormous. Currently, solar activity is producing the largest storms in 20 years.

As these storms rise in intensity they may break off completely from the sun, hurtling X-rays and photons and particles at light speed throughout space.

"Earth is deluged from the charged particles from this storm," Mathews said.

These high energy charged particles are caught by the Earth's magnetic field and channeled to the poles where many are able to escape into the Earth's atmosphere, coming into contact with air molecules.

These contacts by the high energy solar particles "excite the air molecules, which then radiate various colors of light," said Zink.

Doug Oneal (junior-astronomy) refered to the aurora much as if it were a neon light. The particles must radiate an exact level of energy to produce a certain color of light.

According to Mathews these auroras have most often appeared in the form of streamers, arcs, and rays. The aurora may often have the appearance of hanging draperies hovering between 40 and 100 miles up in the sky.

"When I first saw it I thought that it was lights from the setting sun," said Matt Millman (sophomore-business).

The aurora appeared in the sky as a transparent, large, red cloud through which the stars could be easily recognized. Fading in and out like a dream, the aurora finally wove itself into the fabric of the night from which it came around 9 p.m.