![]() ![]() Managing expectations is a part of any northern lights journey: you may have come a long way, and it seems only fair the clouds throw open the curtains for a spectacular show. Manage your expectations and check the cancellation policy Step 5: Plan for the worst and hope for the best The newest smartphones are still able to capture surprisingly good footage, but hardly promising enough to make your work shine in the competitive field of #auroras. A tripod is an absolute must for a strong picture better yet, invest in a remote shutter release. When it comes to capturing them, note that the northern lights are photographed at shutter-speed of five to 20 seconds. Spotting the lights is sure to stick with you, but you may also want to capture this stunning sight for posterity. Take a tripod with you if you want good pictures of the northern lights © Getty Images For example, Iceland’s Meteorological Office has a daily forecast you can check out. Once you have your destination, find the necessary websites to track their aurora activity. (The scale is not a normal curve: it usually hovers around level three, while strength beyond level five is a rare solar storm.) In the Nordics, the Met Office of each country operates a nine-scale forecast every day. The lights appear quite suddenly, their intensity varying – but on any given day, scientists publish a forecast based on solar winds in the past three days to predict aurora strength. A flow of charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, slams into the earth’s magnetic field and cause atoms in the upper atmosphere to glow. The northern lights are caused by solar activity. While the winter brings the cold, it also increases your chances of seeing the nighttime illumination. The forces creating the spectacular streaks of colors are active year-round we just don’t see them during bright summer nights. Dark nights, however long, are the fundamentals. Statistically speaking, this claim has some merit – yet the correlation is hardly enough to dictate your travel plans. Sailing in Scoresby Sound, Greenland, some years ago, I saw them as early as late August.Īurora hunters – a professional title in the high North – claim the best time to see vivid northern lights is around the solar equinoxes, when day and night are of equal length. In Tromsø, Norway, I saw the auroras at 5pm on a December afternoon last year. It also has the added benefit of being popular for plenty of outdoor adventures like hikes, so you will have plenty to fill your time with when you’re not chasing auroras.īut there’s no need to limit yourself – more far-flung Arctic destinations have the benefit of constant darkness, or very brief hours of sunlight. Reykjavík, the northernmost capital, is a major hub for international flights and a good place to seek out the phenomenon. ![]() This is good news for travelers who don’t want to trek all the way to the North Pole – the oval latitudes 60° to 75° North range from Bergen, Norway (Europe’s capital of rain) to Salla, Lapland (the self-proclaimed coldest town of Finland).Īmong Nordic destinations ( Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland), the middle-of-the-aurora-belt Iceland is the easiest place to get to for most travelers. They appear, instead, on top of the globe like a doughnut, known as the Aurora Oval. Where you go should depend on your time and interests – but Iceland is a safe betĬontrary to the name, the northern lights do not brighten with every northern latitude. Iceland is an undeniably good spot for aurora watching © Natapong Supalertsophon / Getty Images Step 1: Choose where to go ![]()
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