Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis Viewing in Alaska

The Northern Lights

The Northern Lights. The Aurora Borealis. These mystical glowing auras in the sky have captured the imagination of everyone who’s ever seen them. Here’s what you need to know about them.

What Are The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights?
How Do I See The Aurora?
How Do I Know If It's an Aurora?

What Are They?

The aurora is actually the glow of solar particles blown into the earth’s magnetic field more than 60 miles above the earth’s surface at speeds up to 35,000 miles per hour.
The streams of charged solar particles surge and bulge along bends in the earth’s magnetic field. As they strike atoms in the earth’s atmosphere, they create greenish-yellow, faint blue, or even blood red curtains of color.

With such a dramatic show of force in the sky, it’s easy to see how some Alaska Native groups believed the lights had serious powers. Some believed the lights were the dancing spirits of children who died at birth. Others thought them spirits of the dead playing ball with a walrus skull. Some believed that whistling at the aurora would cause it to sweep down and take you from earth. Still others carried knives to keep it away.

How Do I See Them?

The aurora is unpredictable, and no one’s entirely sure when—or where—it’s going to appear. But here are some tips to give you the best odds of seeing the aurora in Alaska.

Best Months: The sky has to be dark which means the northern lights unfortunately can’t be seen in Alaska in summer. The best months are March and September; that’s when there are: 1) frequent displays, 2) clear skies, and 3) generally mild weather.

Best Time of Day: Start looking about an hour and a half after sunset. But peak auroral activity is between 10pm and 2am solar time. Solar time is 2.5 hours after clock time during daylight saving time (April through October) and 1.5 hours after during standard daylight time (November through March). That means the best time for seeing the aurora during Alaska’s winter is 11:30pm-3:30 am with the peak at 1:30am. During Alaska’s spring and fall (September and March), the best time to view the aurora is 12:30am-4:30am, with the peak falling at 2:30am.

The Right Conditions: If it’s clear and dark enough to see stars, there’s a chance you’ll be able to see the aurora. Get away from city lights and hope for a clear night—if there’s a heavy overcast, you won’t be able to see it. Partly cloudy skies? You have a chance, but it needs to be a strong aurora for you to see it. But even if the sky is crystal clear, auroral activity varies greatly from night to night.

So, here are your two key prediction tools:

Look at the weather forecast for the town you’re in (Use our WeatherPlanner!), for example Anchorage.
Get the aurora forecast from the UAF Geophysical Institute: If you’re really hardcore, sign up for an aurora email alert.

How Do I Know If It's an Aurora I'm Seeing?

It’s often hard to distinguish between the faint glow of city lights, moonlight reflecting off clouds, or a weak aurora. So if you don’t know what to look for, you could be watching the wrong thing. Here’s what will happen:

Auroras start as faintly glowing bands of greenish white light that tend to run in an east-west direction. They start in the northern part of the sky and often appear static and stationary. But as they build in intensity, they become more dynamic in color and position, moving south.

With increased intensity, auroras begin to resemble curtains hung vertically in the sky that are rippling in a light wind. As they reach maximum intensity, these curtains deform into arcs and spirals that can arc dramatically between the visible horizons. At these greater levels of activity, auroras are unmistakable to most all viewers.

However, you must often watch a faint patch of light closely for an extended period of time before it transforms into a more distinctive display. These intense displays tend to last for 20 – 30 minutes. The aurora will begin to fade, but a second peak of activity can occur 1 – 2 hours later.

One other tip: you have a much better chance of seeing the aurora in Alaska if you drink lots of water before you go to bed!

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