How is the second week of April to witness the Aurora Borealis from Fairbanks, Alaska?

Question

Is Fairbanks the best place to witness the Aurora Borealis or is there any other vantage point in Alaska?

Answer 1

Yes, it is near the end of season because the nights pretty much go away come June. The sun does set in Fairbanks in summer, but never gets far below the horizon, so the sky never gets dark enough. March 21 is 12 hours of light and 12 of dark everywhere on the planet. So 20-25 days later, Fairbanks will have gained about 20 days x 8 minutes/days more light or about 3 hours. Giving you 15 hours of daylight and 9 hours of night.

4 biggest factors (3 of which you can control):

Time of year (more dark hours in winter)

How much of the night you are out looking at the sky (taking a drive, especially a long drive (e.g. ANC-FAI) helps A LOT!

Which year within the 11-year solar cycle (currently coming up from the minimum, so not at its most likely, but still there are auroras at some point most night that far north. And,

The day-to-day peaks and valleys of solar activity. Those can't be predicted very well until 2-3 days in advance and that is too late for trip planning for most people.

Tips: Look at www.spaceweather.com (they update more frequently) and http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/ (they have more links to background info. Also they have an option for an "aurora alert" email/page that you would want to activate while you are here.

Oh, and always book night flights with a window seat on the north and/or east side of the plane. Several times, I've seen nice auroras that way.

Answer 2

Fairbanks would be a good place in theory but it will be getting near the end of the season by then to see northern lights. Northern Lights viewing is generally best between october and march, when it's darkest.