Where to see the Northern Lights: A Guide to the Northern Lights 2022
Photographer Chad Blakley photographs the spectacular Aurora Borealis over Sweden's Absco National Park on Feb. 16, 2015. (Image source: Chad Blakley)
The pictures don't fully show the beauty of the Northern Lights.
To fully appreciate the splendor and magnificence of the Northern Lights, a celestial exhibit, you must camp in this ever-changing light and watch it wind and sway. Here's a detailed look at how the Northern Lights are observed.
Enchanting Aurora: Stunning Northern Lights photos
Second to none is the appreciation of this sparkling skylight, which can be spectacular or fleeting. Robert Steenburgh, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Space Weather Forecasting, has never seen the Northern Lights despite more than 20 years of research on the Northern Lights and related phenomena. It's not because he's never tried chasing the Aurora Borealis, as he once went on a trip to chase the Aurora borealis in the Yukon region of Canada.
Stingberg told Space.com that "when viewed with the naked eye, the aurora is not obviously visible, but can be seen with a camera that is capable enough", that is, a camera that can observe the faint aurora in the sky through long exposures. "There were no geomagnetic storms on the sun at that time, so the presence of auroras was very low-key."
But for those lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis burst, the Aurora looks like a curtain, like a jet pulse or like a light show flashing above your head, and you can watch the feast for free.
For best viewing, you can start your journey along the "Aurora Zone" that surrounds the north of the earth. But you need to know when to go and where to go. For example, summer may be a good time for vacation, but the better time to see the Aurora Borealis is between winter and spring.
The following is an introduction to the production of auroras, as well as when and where to see them, so that readers can further understand.
The northern lights, more formally known as the aurora borealis, are caused by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, interacting with the geomagnetic field.
If you're planning an Aurora Observation Tour, try not to schedule it during the summer months. You need a dark environment to observe the Northern Lights, which are rare in the Aurora Zone during the summer months.
The good news is that the Sun's 11-year cycle of activity has just begun, so we will observe more sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections in the years to come. Coronal mass ejection is the highest energy charged particle source originating from the corona, the Sun's upper atmosphere. When the sun shoots these plasma geysers in the direction of the Earth, magnificent auroras can be envisioned.
"In 2022, the chances of appreciating the auroras are still promising," Sternberg said, "the solar cycle does accelerate, and as solar activity increases, so does the chance of coronal mass ejection, i.e., plasma groups heading toward Earth, which drives geomagnetic storms and auroras." ”
But for the aurora experience in one session, you need to monitor more than just the solar weather forecast. The conditions needed were also unobstructed, dark skies, Charles Deehr emphasized. Charles Deehr is an Aurora Forecaster and Professor Emeritus at the Fairbanks Institute of Geophysics at the University of Alaska. His guide to aurora observation is rich in high-quality information. Winter and spring in the Northern Lights are generally less cloudy than in autumn, so it makes sense to plan a trip between December and April. Ideally, choose your travel timing that coincides with the new moon, and make sure to stay away from city light sources when you look up at the aurora, Charles Deehr adds.
"Dress warmly and look to the sky between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, although the aurora period may occur at any moment after sunset," Deehr wrote in his guide. "The typical duration of the aurora period is about half an hour, and if the aurora is highly active, it occurs every 2 hours. Auroras are phenomena that occur from time to time, occur randomly and briefly, and perhaps do not occur at all. ”
You can pay close attention to short-term aurora forecasts to get an idea of how likely the Northern Lights are to be active in your area, such as one provided by the University of Alaska's Geographic Sciences. A forecast of only the next half hour is on the Noaa Space Weather Forecast page. And, a science website for American citizens called Aurorasaurus, provides grounded, timely information from Aurora enthusiasts who want to urgently broadcast sky shows for the community.
So, where should you go? If you live in Europe, the easiest thing to do is head towards the far north of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Many locals in the three Nordic countries speak English and there are plenty of trips to choose from.
Iceland is another good choice, although cloudy skies may make it difficult to chase the aurora on any given night. If possible, give yourself extra time to adjust to the treacherous weather.
Northern Russia does have a fairly good train of slender aurora zones, but these areas are relatively inaccessible and lack the tourism infrastructure that most travelers want. Maybe you're lucky enough to spot the Aurora Borealis in areas that more travelers have traveled, such as Moscow or St. Petersburg (given that these cities are located at higher latitudes). But make sure you do your best to stay away from light pollution.
Below is an aurora observation tour offered by European observers
Experience the Northern Lights of 2022 in Tromsø
The Tromsø Tourist Board sells the opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis around the Norwegian city of Tromsø. Tromsø, the largest urban area in northern Norway and the third largest city in the world in the Arctic Circle, is located in the Northern Lights region, the area where auroras are most likely to occur on the Earth's magnetic north pole.
Tourism Tromsø has launched the "Aurora Chase" itinerary, which is a dynamic aurora chase at night during the Aurora season from September to April, as well as slowing down to "experience" activities such as dog sledding, boat trips and overnight stays at the best locations for aurora observation. Tromsø can be reached by plane from Oslo, the capital of Norway; explorers can sometimes see the Aurora Borealis during the flight.
Light of Lapland – The 2022 Abisco Aurora Tour
Light of Lapland sells a range of packages for the Aurora Borealis tour that take people looking up at the sky to the northernmost region of Sweden, Lapland. Lapland is located on the border between Sweden and Finland, where one can enjoy the excellent aurora borealis in winter and the wonderful midnight sun in summer. The Finnish region of Lapland is famous for being the home of Santa Claus.
The Light of Lapland event is held in Sweden, and most of the tourist destinations are Abisko National Park (not far from the Esrange Space Center, where the European Space Agency conducts rocket tests and operates satellite tracking antennas).
Described in an email with Space, photographer Chad Blakely said, "Abisco is known as the world's most popular aurora viewing site because it is located in a very special microclimate environment where there is less precipitation than anywhere else within the global aurora belt. Chad is the co-founder of Lapland Light.
In 2018, the company released footage of the spectacular all-day aurora during the Geomagnetic Storm on March 14 of that year.
Iceland Guide
Iceland Guide sells a range of packages to see the Northern Lights on the North Atlantic islands, including bus tours, boat tours and safari tours. Iceland is located just below the Arctic Circle, and here in the winter, people have a great opportunity to catch the Northern Lights. If you don't see the Aurora Borealis, you can also relax in the island's many natural hot springs and outdoor pools.
The "standard" auroras that can be observed in the Arctic are produced by the solar wind that is constantly flowing towards Earth. However, geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejection (CME) can greatly increase the brightness of the Northern Lights and make them visible in a wider area. For example, in late October 2021, a strong CME allowed more sky observers in the southern latitudes, including Nevada, South Dakota, Upper Michigan, and New Hampshire, to enjoy spectacular aurora shows. In the UK, photographers took stunning pictures in Scotland and the north of England.
As solar activity weeks (cycles of solar activity change, averaging about 11 years), this may become more common, or slightly less rare.
Steenburgh said: "There is a relationship between the intensity of the geomagnetic storm and the range of the aurora towards the equator. "Stronger storms produce stronger auroras and push them closer to the equator."
Steenburgh noted that the Space Weather Forecasting Center of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has some recommendations on its website for capturing auroras outside conventional aurora zones, in addition to providing information on the relationship between the intensity of geomagnetic storms and the extent to which they may spread to the equator.
However, unless other factors are combined—cloudless skies, less bright moonlight, no-night time, and no light pollution—even the strongest geomagnetic storms won't be enough to satisfy the viewing experience. No matter how strong the geomagnetic storms that pressurize the sky, city dwellers must travel to the countryside to experience the Aurora Borealis.
This image shows STEVE juxtaposed with the Milky Way over Lake Childs in Manitoba, Canada. (Image source: Krista Trinder/NASA)
Northern Lights are created when charged particles from the Sun collide with high-altitude molecules in Earth's atmosphere, activating the molecules and making them glow.
"The key is to get high-energy particles — things like electrons and protons that are injected into Earth's atmosphere along magnetic field lines, which are part of Earth's magnetic field," Steenburgh said. "They affect the atmosphere, and these interactions determine the color of the aurora."
The different colors of the Northern Lights come from different molecules. Oxygen emits yellow, green, and red light, while nitrogen is responsible for the shades of blue and fuchsia.
Earth's magnetic field lines direct these solar particles toward the Earth's north and south poles, which explains why the Northern Lights and their southern counterpart, the Australian Aurora, are high-latitude phenomena.
Indeed, weather permitting, the Northern Lights can be seen most nights, covering a zone of several hundred miles wide centered at 66 degrees north latitude, about the same latitude as the Arctic Circle.
The aurora borealis in the south, located above Antarctica, is difficult to reach for sky observers or anyone else. That's why this article focuses on the Northern Lights – not disgusted for practical reasons. But in recent powerful geomagnetic storms, the Northern Lights have appeared in parts of the United Kingdom and the United States, and skywatchers in Australia and New Zealand can see very rare southern lights.
There is also a mysterious, aurora-like brightening phenomenon in Earth's atmosphere called "Steve," which is not attributed to auroras, and scientists are not yet sure of their cause. Finnish researchers have also been tracking dune-like bright lights that appear to be linked to gravitational waves and oxygen atoms.
Auroras are not a phenomenon that belongs to Earth alone.
Gas giants , such as Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune , also produce their own auroras due to their magnetic fields and the thickness of their atmospheres. However, because each planet's atmosphere and magnetosphere are different, the color of the auroras changes with it.
Venus and Mars also have some sort of aurora. The Venus Express mission discovered that when the solar wind interacts with the ionosphere of Venus to form a "magnetic tail", the accelerated particles collide with the atmosphere of Venus, and auroras are produced. Mars produces localized auroras over the magnetic field of the Earth's crust, and in its northern hemisphere, there are larger auroras produced by the impact of the Sun's energetic particles into the atmosphere.
BY：Mike Wall , Elizabeth Howell , Tereza Pultarova
FY：Astronomical volunteer team
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