The northern lights?

Question

the northern lights look so amazing in pictures and never cease to amaze me but when is the best time to see them in london, England?

dang! i alwssy knew england was a cr*phole, off to norway for me =]

Answer 1

The aroura borealis or better known as the northern lights are visible not only in the northern hemisphere but also in the southern hemisphere as well , the are caused by the sun after the sun has a huge eruption and it blows charged particles and they collide with earths magnectic fields in the northern parts as well as the southern parts,, So the araura borealis is not going to happen at a set time but it happens when the sun erupts big emmisions of charged particles, Sometimes these charged particals can even interferre with sattlite and radio waves all over the world,, I dont know about London but they can be seen well from michigan all the way to oregon and washington state,, You can find this out with a bit of search results by looking up aroura borealus,, good luck....

Here is a link to a webcam that you can watch the aroura borealis on when they occur,, You will need to research in places like spaceweather.com to find out when they will be active;

http://www.aurorawebcam.com/

Answer 2

It just won't happen in London, for a couple of reasons.

The Northern Lights tend to form a circle (of varying diameter) around the North Magnetic Pole, which is currently located in northern Canada. From my location in Minnesota (latitiude 45 N) we occasionally see them, but we're not that far from Canada here. On the other side of the Atlantic you're farther away, even though your latitude is higher.

But most importantly, the aurora are DIM in almost all cases. City lights will make them totally invisible. So you need to go north or northwest, and you need to get out of the city lights. I'd try Iceland. I would also wait three or four years to the peak of the sunspot cycle, when aurora are the most prominent.

Answer 3

There are two reasons why you're extremely unlikely to see the northern lights in London. First, you're too far from the north magnetic pole (which is located in northeastern Canada) and secondly you're in the middle of some of the worst light pollution in the world, and dark clear skies are essential in order to see aurora. You're also looking at the wrong time, because we're currently at the minimum of the 11-year solar cycle, so there's very little aurora _anywhere_.

Answer 4

Unless our magnetic field undergoes another extreme shift, the likelihood that you would be able to see them in London is about nil (is that what you say there?). They can only be seen a certain difference from the magnetic pole, which is currently about 200 miles southwest of the geographic north pole (northeast from the geographic south pole). The Aurora borealis (or Aurora australis) is a reaction between the electromagnetic energy from these two parts of the world with photons from the sun. The magnetic field disrupts the path of the photons, breaking up their wave formation and giving us the beautiful colors.

Answer 5

you should be able to see the aurora in london. I've seen it from 45 degrees north, although it is rare (london is about 51 North or something like that right?)

If we have a period of good sunspot activity you should be able to see them if you get out of the city (too much light there).

The most spectacular event I saw involved sheets flashing from the horizon right to straight overhead. It was wild!

you know, I hadn't thought of that but even though I am further south I am a lot closer to the magnetic pole. Good point that guy made.

Answer 6

It is rare that you would be able to see them in London (too far south), and what you did see would not be nearly as spectacular as what you could see from Norway or Greenland.

Answer 7

I always thought the best place to see them was in Alaska. Have fun looking at them, I would really like to see them in real life some day!

Answer 8

well without sounding stupid you're not in the right part of the world, its the way certain particles from the sun that hit the earth's atmosphere, but it only happens at a certain circles of latitude

Answer 9

Come to canada the further north you go the better they get.

Answer 10

don't know don't live there never been there