What are the Northern Lights?

The northern lights and their counterpart in the southern hemisphere appear
when highly charged solar wind particles flowing from the sun collide with air
molecules in the earth’s atmosphere transferring their energy into light. This
occurs around the Polar Regions where those magnetic fields converge. These
magnetic fields create auroral ovals around the top and bottom of our planet
which move and distort as the earth rotates and solar flare activity increases.
They usually occur between 60 and 75 degrees of latitude, which covers northern
parts of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska and Russia as well as all of
Iceland.
Interestingly, the northern and southern lights, or aurora australis, occur
simultaneously but the inverse seasons mean they generally aren’t visible at the
same time.
When is the best time of year to see the northern lights?
The aurora borealis are potentially visible under dark skies from late August to
mid-April preferably under a clear, cloudless sky. While they occur year round
they are weaker than sunlight and therefore sightings aren’t possible from May to
July and for most of August.
Spring and autumn generally provide more stable weather conditions and milder
temperatures plus there is greater aurora activity around the equinoxes.
November through to February offer the darkest skies and longer evenings for
maximum sky-gazing.
The strongest lights tend to appear between 9pm and 2am, though the best
sightings often occur between 11pm and midnight.
Between 4am and 5pm there is generally too much daylight to see the aurora –
exceptions are the darkest months of the year and higher latitudes such Svalbard,
where it is dark 24/7 from mid-Nov to end of Jan.
Why is aurora activity stronger around the equinoxes?
Due to the axial tilt, as the earth moves around the sun the angle of our magnetic
fields relative to the magnetic field of the solar wind change. During optimum
configuration, which occurs during the equino