Northern Lights?

Question

does anyone know the date of the northern lights? i wanna sit outside and watch them but i dont know the date btw i live in minnesota incase its important

Answer 1

heres a photo of the most amazing aurora ive ever seen. the captions says it happened in Iowa which makes it double amazing.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061218.html
Auroral activity is triggered by large solar flares - an energetic cloud of particles blasted outward from the Sun - as it interacts with Earth's magnetosphere.
This means that if you browse astronomy websites and search specifically for solar activity, a large solar flare will corrospond to aurora up to 2-3 days later. So look on the web and when they measure unusual solar activity, you have a couple of days to set up camp.

Answer 2

The appearance of the Northern Lights depends on activity on the Sun, so doesn't have anything to do with our calendar here on Earth. We are currently close to the minimum of the 11-year cycle of solar activity, so northern lights are rare except close to the north magnetic pole in northern Canada.

Answer 3

They don´t come with dates. They are like the weather. We can predict them somewhat accurately. We can see the sun "sneeze" (errupt violently and cast out matter) and since the lgith from the event reacehs us faster than the actual matter ejected we can tell that ther might be an aurora a few days later. This site keeps tabs on what is happening on the sun:
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Answer 4

They don't have a date, per se. They happen when they happen, but you can find Solar Observatory websites giving you up-to-date information on solar activity and CME (coronal mass ejections). Higher activity = more active auroras.