Northern Lights Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
This article is a travel topic.
The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis are a natural phenomenon that can paint the night sky with unearthly, surreal color. To observers at far-northern latitudes, they're a frequent occurrence, but many who live in more temperate climes have never seen them, even though they're sometimes seen as far south as 35 degrees north latitude. This article will help you improve your chances of seeing the Lights if you journey north.
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Understand
Lights, similar to that of a sunset in the sky at night but ocasionally in arcs or spirals and usually following the earth's magnetic field. Most often light green in color but sometimes a variety of other colors. The Aurora Borealis is caused by charged particles ejected from the sun. When these particles reach the earth, they collide with gas atoms in the earth's atmosphere causing them to energise which results in a spectacular multi-coloured light show.
Where
Contrary to intuition, seeing the Northern Lights isn't just a matter of heading "north." The Lights usually circle the globe in a circular or elliptical band centered on the earth's North Magnetic Pole, which is not at the same location as the North Geographic Pole, but rather is offset in the direction of northern Canada. Furthermore, auroral displays aren't strongest at the North Magnetic Pole; the band of greatest auroral activity is usually offset from the Magnetic Pole by 20 degrees or so.
This quirk is actually fairly convenient for would-be aurora watchers. It means that locations in the north-central United States, for example Minnesota and North Dakota, and also southern Canada see Northern Lights much more frequently than they would if the Lights were centered on the North Geographic Pole. Alaska and Lapland (the northern part of Finland, Norway and Sweden) also fall in the region of greatest probability, while the far-north territory of Siberia that misses out on some of the Lights (because the Magnetic Pole is displaced away from that region) tends to be more inaccessible to the traveler.
A curiosity is that the exact location of the North Magnetic Pole varies from year to year, sometimes by tens of miles. The Pole has been moving north for a few years now as of 2006; it's now near Ellesmere Island in the nearly uninhabited far north of Canada. As a consequence, the advantages of being on the "right side" of the earth are not as pronounced as they were some years ago. Still, there's a slight North American bias even today in your chance of seeing the Lights.
This said, the actual latitudes of the Lights vary considerably. In times of high solar activity (more on that later), the Lights may be seen in North America at latitudes as low as 35 degrees north, meaning that all but the southernmost parts of the United States may get a display. The offset of the Pole keeps solar storms from benefiting Europe quite as strongly, but most of the countries of northern Europe will get displays during periods of solar storms.
When
There are both seasonal and long-term variations in the likelihood of a Northern Lights display. On a yearly basis, the Lights are at their peak in September and March, but also in October and April. The reasons for this trend aren't fully known, but it's definitely real, not just an artifact of the weather or other viewing conditions. The Lights can best be seen at around midnight.
In the longer term, auroral displays are correlated with an 11-year cycle in sunspot activity and other perturbations of the sun; the more restless the sun, the more aurorae. Unfortunately, 2006-7 corresponds to a minimum in solar activity, and therefore the number of Northern Lights-lit nights. However, at the most favorable latitudes, the Lights are still likely to be seen even at solar minimum; it's mainly at lower latitudes that they get scarce during the inactive times. The next maximum in solar activity will be in about 2012, with frequent Northern Lights displays likely for another two or three years after that, so you have plenty of time to plan a trip.
In addition to these more or less regular variations in frequency of the aurora, there are also less predictable, erratic displays resulting from solar storms. Some of these, particularly near solar-activity maximum, can lead to visible Northern Lights remarkably far south, if you're in an area with clear, transparent night skies. The "Alerts" section below will help you stay on top of solar activity and prepare for some viewing when a solar storm does occur.
Last but not least, don't forget the weather forecast — aurora occur very high up in the atmosphere, and if there are clouds in the way you will not see anything.
Prepare
Alerts
Into the wilds
Observing sites
Stay safe
Okay, so how about the Southern Lights?
Aurorae happen in a circle/ellipse about the South Magnetic Pole just as they do about the north one, and the South Magnetic Pole is similarly offset from the geographic South Pole. Would-be observers of the Southern Lights or Aurora Australis benefit from the happy accident that the offset of the South Magnetic Pole is generally in the direction of Australia, although the Pole itself is still in Antarctica like the geographic one. Tasmania is therefore relatively favored for the Aurora Australis, and southern Australia gets more than its share of Lights relative to latitude. All of the considerations about maximizing your chances of seeing the Northern Lights apply equally to seeing the southern ones.
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