The Northern Lights blazed in the skies of Alaska and other parts of the United States Monday night, treating onlookers to a shimmering display of blue, red and green.

The ghostly streaks, also known as the aurora borealis and rarely seen south of Canada and Alaska, appeared as far south as Georgia and Alabama. In regions unused to such shows, the display prompted alarmed calls to law enforcement authorities.

Sonoma County, Calif., emergency dispatcher Randy Muelheim said some callers thought it might be "a terrorist thing."

"Some thought we were being bombed," said Mike Melton, emergency management director for Colbert County, Ala. "I got concerned that it might have been an airplane going down."

University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists said the show was linked to a Sunday morning solar flare. That event produced a "coronal mass ejection" -- a cloud of ionized hydrogen released from the sun and sent toward Earth, which in turn colored the sky in much of the country.

No terrorists, just an unusual eruption on the sun.

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