Northern Scandinavia and Iceland offer the most accessible destinations from the UK for viewing the northern lights, but there are recognised locations throughout the zone that offer optimum conditions for sightings.
It is important to be away from any sources of artificial light, such as street lighting, whereas you do want to be near open spaces offering big sky viewing. See our full collection of northern lights holidays ».
Aurora forecasts are given for a 3-day period and are constantly updated. Longer term forecasts based on the day solar cycle can be useful, but as with long term weather forecasts, they can change. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for alerts when strong aurora are predicted.
The sun is essentially a huge ball of self-luminous plasma which rotates every 27 days or so and surrounding the sun is a million-degree-hot atmosphere called corona.
Fast moving solar wind flows from these coronal holes, consisting of a stream of charged particles, which typically take days to reach the earth — though this can be much faster following powerful solar flares or coronal mass ejections CME. This is where the reaction of the particles and gases happen — atoms and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen get excited and release the light we know as the northern lights. Indeed, the event occurs simultaneously in the southern hemisphere causing the southern lights aurora australis to appear with one mirroring the other.
At the start and end of the cycle there are fewer sunspots, which is known as Solar Minimum , while in the middle of the cycle, known as Solar Maximum , the number of sunspots are at their most , finally returning to Solar Minimum to complete the cycle.
The Solar Cycle helps scientists to predict the likelihood of aurora activity, with solar flares and coronal mass ejections also increasing during the cycle.
Solar maximum is generally regarded as the better time for viewing the northern lights as there is more activity. However, during the calmer period of solar minimum, corona holes can be long-lived. In other words, the sun is always emitting solar wind so auroras continue to be visible throughout the entire year cycle solar cycle. Our advice is not to get too focused on which part of cycle we are in as there are too many other variables including weather and cloud cover. The Kp-index measures magnetic disturbances caused by solar wind ranging from 0 low activity to 9 intense storms underway.
For instance, looking at both the Kp-index and weather forecast may help planning your evening activities over your break. Even a Kp index of 2 or 3 can produce beautiful auroras, but it gets exciting at 4 and above! The colour of the aurora depends on which chemicals are present and the altitude of the meeting of atoms and particles. Displays can vary in intensity — from a glowing curtain of greenish yellow lights, dancing in the distance to a spectacular, multi-coloured fusion stretching across the sky.
Most people lucky enough to see the aurora witness a display of green lights but if you are really lucky then that display might be yellow and red, or even multi-coloured.
The differences depend on two main factors: what type of gas is reacting with the solar particles and at what altitude this activity is taking place. And above km, oxygen atoms glow red when reacting with charged particles from the sun. While far-eastern Canada tends to be cloudy, the shore of the Hudson Bay, the northern Canadian towns of Yellowknife or Whitehouse, or the west coast of Alaska are usually good bets. The city of Fairbanks itself can be a great choice for seeing northern lights without needing to go too far in the wilderness.
Alaska Tours' aurora tours. Northern Tales Yukon aurora tours. Northern Lights Tours. A traveler could also take a train across the auroral zone to the town of Churchill in Manitoba on the western shore of Hudson Bay — an area famous for its polar bear population.
Churchill Arctic Adventures tours. The northern lights result when charged particles streaming from the sun collide with molecules high up in Earth's atmosphere , exciting these molecules and causing them to glow. The different colors of the northern lights come from different molecules: Oxygen emits yellow, green and red light; while nitrogen is responsible for blue and purplish-red hues. Earth's magnetic-field lines channel these solar particles toward the planet's north and south magnetic poles, which explains why auroras — the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis — are high-latitude phenomena.
Indeed, the aurora borealis is visible most nights, weather permitting, within a band several hundred miles wide that's centered at about 66 degrees north — about the same latitude as the Arctic Circle. This "standard" aurora is generated by the solar wind — the particles streaming constantly from the sun.
But solar storms known as coronal mass ejections CME can ramp up the northern lights considerably and make them visible over much wider areas.
However, if you're planning an aurora-viewing trip weeks or months in advance, you can't count on any help from a solar storm and should therefore head to a destination somewhere near the northern ring. Related: The sun's wrath: Worst solar storms in history. The southern auroral ring lies above Antarctica and is very difficult for skywatchers, or anyone else, to get to.
That's why this article focuses on the northern lights — for reasons of practicality, not antipodean antipathy. Southern Hemisphere dwellers take heart: The aurora australis can sometimes be viewed from New Zealand and Tasmania.
There is also a mysterious, aurora-like brightening phenomenon in Earth's atmosphere called "Steve" that isn't attributable to aurora, although scientists aren't sure of its cause. Finnish researchers have also been tracking dune-like shimmering lights that appear to be linked to gravity waves and oxygen atoms. The huge gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune each produce their own auroras, due to their magnetic fields and thick atmospheres.
However, the colors of the gases change because of differences in each planet's atmospheres and magnetospheres. Venus and Mars also have auroras, of a sort. The Venus Express spacecraft found solar field interactions with the planet's ionosphere forms a "magnetotail" that generates an aurora when the accelerated particles hit the atmosphere,.
Mars has local auroras over magnetic fields in its crust , as well as a larger, northern hemisphere aurora generated from solar energetic particles hitting the atmosphere. Click here for more information Got it! View Holidays. If we had a pound for every time we have been asked this question Southern Lights, Northern Lights, Extra-Terrestrial Lights The lights appear in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and even on other planets but from an Aurora hunting point of view, only the Northern Lights are a genuinely viable option.
Finland Finland is often overlooked in favour of its neighbours Sweden and Norway, but you are just as likely to see the Aurora there as anywhere else. Sweden To say that Northern Sweden is sparsely populated would be something of an understatement.
Credit: Kirkenes Snow Hotel. Credit: Iceland Pro Travel. Iceland Iceland has long been known for its amazing geology but in recent years, the Northern Lights have become a major attraction too. Greenland Greenland has never featured heavily on the tourist map but, as travellers become more adventurous, it is a destination where visitor numbers are starting to grow. Canada Canada seems like a long way to travel in search of the Northern Lights but when it is somewhere like the Yukon , the journey is more than worthwhile.
Learn more about the Northern Lights. Coronal Holes — A clue to when the Northern Lights might appear? How do the Northern Lights appear? What is the Solar Maximum? How likely am I to see the Northern Lights? Why are the Northern Lights sometimes coloured differently? Does a full moon ruin your chances of seeing the Aurora Borealis? When is the best time to see the Northern Lights?
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