RISON - Anyone who happen to be surfing any kind of social media platforms early Friday night probably came across images similar to this one showing a very rare appearance of the “northern lights” (aurora borealis) across the Arkansas skies. This shot was made by the Herald’s Douglas Boultinghouse just north of the Woodlawn area about 9:15 p.m. Friday. While the colors are not as vibrant to the naked eye, Boultinghouse said there was pink haze in the sky that prompted him to pull out his smart phone camera to take a few shots. He and others also reported that there were visible streaks of light of the sky, and once photographed with a smart phone, the colors would come out. The colors captured on the photos that were made in Cleveland County ranged from pink to red to purple to green to blue. The nocturnal light show is caused by energized particles emitted from a solar flare on the sun slamming into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), according to space.com. ...
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