What Are the Northern Lights? Where to See Aurora Borealis in the US? Breathtaking Pics & Everything You Want to Know About the Beautiful Sight of Nature

Northern lights or Aurora Borealis is probably in every traveller's bucket list! These are breathtaking beautiful green and red light that shines in the night and day, covering the sky towards the North Pole and the South Pole. This light can be easily seen in countries like Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway, however, this year the US is supposed to get the rare sighting of the northern lights today, as per NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. It is being predicted that  Northern lights or Aurora Borealis could be visible in regions such as in the northern parts of Illinois and Pennsylvania in the US. It was being said that this is happening due to a solar flare, which emerged from a Sunspot on Monday. The flare is accompanied by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) — a large bubble of radiation and particles emitted by the Sun that explodes into space at high speed.

The history of Northern Lights says that local people earlier believed that this light is the soul of their ancestors, which appears to be moving in the sky. But the reason for this is the solar wind of the sun and completely scientific. Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, are usually witnessed far up in the polar regions or the high latitude regions of Europe, like in Norway but if you are wondering how to watch it in the US, here are the deets. The common questions asked about the Northern lights are "Where to see Northern Lights?", "Can I see the Northern Lights tonight?", "What are the Northern Lights?", "How to see the Northern Lights?", "What time will the Northern Lights be visible tonight?" Everything you want to know:

Where to see Northern Lights in the US?

Normally Northern Lights are seen in places like Tromso, Norway, Swedish Lapland, Reykjavik, Iceland, Yukon, Canada, Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, Ilulissat, Greenland, US (Alaska), Sweden. However, according to the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, a Level G3 which is understood as "strong" storm on our planet on Thursday, might make it possible for auroral displays to be visible in the lower latitudes, such as in the US cities of Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Seattle.

What are the Northern Lights?

Northern Lights is an act of nature created by a collision between the Earth's gas particles and the particles in the Sun's atmosphere. The variations in colour depending on the type of gases that collide. Among these natural colours, the most common colour pale is yellowish-green, which is produced from molecules of oxygen 60 miles above the earth.

How to see the Northern Lights?

The Northern Lights are unpredictable, therefore to see the Northern Lights, you need a dark, clear night. While in other places, they are visible from late August to early April anytime during dark hours, in the US you can see in similar circumstances too. It is said that there also needs to be solar flares on the sun or solar wind which has been predicted to be in the US skies. The Aurora Borealis happens when particles from the sun enter Earth’s atmosphere and collide violently with gas atoms and usually Aurora forecasts or even the Aurora Forecast app for iPhone that can predict the aurora activity level.

Breathtaking Pics of the Northern Lights

In Alaska

Beautiful

However, despite the prediction, earlier this week that the states may get a view of the northern lights, it may now be possible that they do not get to witness the rare sight at all as according to the officials, the lights will not occur far enough south for the people to even see it properly.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 11, 2020 09:08 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).