An aurora (plural: aurorae or auroras; from the Latin word aurora, "sunrise" or the Roman goddess of dawn) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. Most aurorae occur in a band known as the auroral zone,[1][2] which is typically in 3° to 6° latitudinal extent of geographical poles, or equivalently, 10° to 20° latitudinal extent of geomagnetic poles, and at all local times or longitudes. During a geomagnetic storm, the auroral zone expands to lower latitudes.

Auroras are restricted primarily, but not always, to high latitudes because there is where the magnetic poles and magnetic force field lines come back into the earth. I.e. are closest to ground zero, so to speak. The force field lines get close together there like a bar magnet force lines.