what time a year can you see the northern lights?

Answer 1

The Aurora are seen as far south as 35 degrees north latitude meaning all but the southernmost parts of the US will get a display. Although the further north you are the more frequent they are. They center around Earth's magnetic north pole not it's geographic north so people of Siberia see them less frequently than North Americans.

Periods following intense solar activity will cause auroral lights. In general, the lights peak in the months of september, march, october, and april.

If you really want to plan ahead, the solar maximum during 2012-2014 should present some good opportunities.

By the way, the southern hemisphere has them too called the southern lights or the aurora australis.

This link will keep you updated on Solar storms.

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/

Answer 2

Although it's true the Aurora is occuring during all times of the year, to see them you need a night sky that's fairly dark and you need to go pretty far north since the magnetic poles of the earth are where the charged ions react with the gas in the atmosphere to generate the aurora.


The further north you go in the northern hemisphere summer, the longer the days and the less dark the nights, so you really have a much better chance of seeing them in the northern hemisphere winter.

Answer 3

Anytime. They happen all the time. Whenever a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) occurs, or a coronal hole lines up with the earth, we tend to get auroras a few days later.

Here is a web-site that charges you about US$5 and gives you phone alerts for when they *are* happening. http://spaceweatherphone.com/signup/phone_sign_up.php

One thing... you generally have to live in the far north (or far south) latutudes to see them.

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