ICELAND | Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights at Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach near Vík

Iceland in November and December? Really? I saw an Icelandair promotion on Instagram which I couldn’t resist. The catch? It had to be late November to the start of December 2022. But I could – easily – enthuse Oriol to come along for a road trip in the South and West of Iceland.

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When you go to the North in winter (actually, November is still autumn) you expect to see the Northern Lights or Polar Lights. But to see Aurora Borealis, as it’s also called, you must be lucky. You need clear skies and enough ‘activity’.

On our second night in Vík we got lucky. When we saw some Aurora activity we drove down to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, just outside Vík.

An aurora, plural: auroras or aurorae, is a natural light display in Earth‘s sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions, around the Arctic and Antarctic. Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky.

Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by the solar wind. Major disturbances result from enhancements in the speed of the solar wind from coronal holes and coronal mass ejections.

These disturbances alter the trajectories of charged particles in the magnetospheric plasma. These particles, mainly electrons and protons, precipitate into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere).

The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emit light of varying colour and complexity. The form of the aurora, occurring within bands around both polar regions, is also dependent on the amount of acceleration imparted to the precipitating particles.

Most of the planets in the Solar System, some natural satellites, brown dwarfs, and even comets also host auroras.

Where?

Most auroras occur in a band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3° to 6° wide in latitude and between 10° and 20° from the geomagnetic poles at all local times (or longitudes), most clearly seen at night against a dark sky.

A region that currently displays an aurora is called the auroral oval, a band displaced by the solar wind towards the night side of Earth.

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights. The former term was coined by Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei in 1619, from the Roman goddess of the dawn – Aurora – and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas.

The southern counterpart, the Aurora Australis (from Auster) or the Southern Lights, has features almost identical to the Aurora Borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zone.

The Aurora Australis is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Aurora Borealis is visible from being close to the center of the Arctic Circle such as Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

On rare occasions the Aurora Borealis can be seen further south, for example in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, and the northern part of the contiguous United States.

Auroras seen within the auroral oval may be directly overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the poleward horizon as a greenish glow, or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. On rare occasion you can see blue lights.

Auroras also occur poleward of the auroral zone as either diffuse patches or arcs, which can be subvisual.

Stunning

You’ve seen the Northern Lights in film and in pictures, but the reality is even more stunning. When they’re faint, your smartphone camera will enhance them. When they’re strong, you don’t need your fun. Just enjoy feeling a minuscule part of the universe.