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Hi Newsround, I'm Dr. Charlotte Waterfall, I'm an astrophysicist who specialises in heliophysics, studying the Sun.
《Newsround》的观众朋友们，大家好，我是夏洛特·沃特福尔博士，我是一名天体物理学家，专攻太阳物理学，主要研究太阳。
The Northern Lights are caused when very fast particles erupt from the Sun, travel through space and then hit the Earth.
北极光是由太阳释放出的高速粒子，穿过太空，然后撞击地球造成的。
The fast particles from the Sun are released in huge explosions called "Coronal Mass Ejections", or CMEs.
这些来自太阳的快速粒子在被称为“日冕物质抛射”的巨大爆炸中释放出来。
A CME is basically a fancy term to describe the Sun blowing a very large bubble that suddenly pops and releases this fast stream of particles into space.
CME是一个复杂的术语，用来描述太阳吹出一个非常大的气泡，突然破裂，将这种快速的粒子流释放到太空中。
On Earth, we are protected from these particles by our magnetic field.
在地球上，磁场保护我们不受这些粒子的伤害。
Once in our atmosphere, these fast solar particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere to produce the colours we see in the aurora.
一旦进入大气层，这些快速的太阳粒子就会与大气中的氧和氮相互作用，产生我们在极光中看到的颜色。
For example, very high up in the sky, oxygen interactions cause red aurora, and lower down in the sky, we see green aurora.
例如，在距离地面较高的天空中，氧的相互作用会形成红色极光，而在距离地面较低的天空中，我们看到的是绿色极光。
Solar storms as large as these combined with clear weather conditions in the UK is very rare, something we haven't seen in over 20 years.
如此大的太阳风暴加上晴朗的天气条件，这在英国是非常罕见的，是我们20多年来从未目睹过的。
