An arctic fox running across the sky, igniting sparks of every color; a horse-drawn carriage carrying guests to a heavenly wedding; a god sending angels to retrieve the souls of fallen warriors — these cultural stories all try to capture the magic of the aurora.
While these dancing lights usually appear close to Earth’s poles, this year is the best time in more than 20 years for people elsewhere to catch a glimpse.
Solar activity creates auroras, and we’re nearing solar maximum: the peak in the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle. This manifests in spectacular displays that are more colorful, frequent, and intense than usual and sometimes visible much farther from the poles.
As an avid photographer, I spent the winter in the far North. This close to the poles, the lights danced almost nightly in shades of green, pink, purple, red, yellow, and blue — the result of solar particles interacting with elements like nitrogen and oxygen in different layers of our atmosphere.
Sometime this year, you may hear that a solar storm is coming and that the aurora might be visible in your area. To improve your odds of seeing something spectacular, try to find a dark, clear sky. Get away from the light pollution of the city if you can and try to avoid cloudy skies since auroras happen in the upper atmosphere.