Observing Skills · 12 of 12
Aurora
Where do you go to see the northern lights, and when do they come south?
The northern lights are a ring round the magnetic pole, not the Pole: overhead in Tromsø and Fairbanks, out of sight at the Pole, and brought south to Edinburgh and London by a rising Kp.
You’ll be able to say where on Earth the northern lights are overhead, and read a Kp forecast for how far south they will reach.
Where and which night
Working out when this is best placed from where you are…
Where
Kept for this guide only, until you change it here — your map settings, and every other guide, stay as they are.
Print, play outside or present
Scan with a phone's camera, or open
Sources
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, "Aurora" — two ovals centred on the magnetic poles, which a major storm expands toward the equator
- NOAA NCEI and BGS, World Magnetic Model 2025 — the geomagnetic north pole, over the Canadian Arctic, that the ring is drawn round
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, "Planetary K-index" — Kp, 0 to 9 every three hours, measures disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field; Kp 5 is a G1 storm
- Carbary, "A Kp-based model of auroral boundaries", Space Weather 3, S10001 (2005) — the oval's equatorward edge moving south as Kp rises
- NASA Science, "Auroras" — oxygen's green from about 100 to 200 km up, its red above 200 km
With a keyboard, focus the sky, aim it with the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter to drop the pin at the centre of the view; or press Show me.