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When, Where & How to See the Aurora Borealis. Photos don't do the northern lights justice. To fully appreciate the glory and grandeur of this celestial display, which is also known as the aurora borealis, you have to settle beneath the ever- changing lights and watch them curve and curl, slither and flicker. I was camping, just lying out in a field in a sleeping bag on a late September night and looking up at the stars," said Terry Onsager, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. Amazing Auroras: Stunning Northern Lights Photos]Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE. Contributor. "All of a sudden, the most spectacular lights and swirls and rays just filled the sky, dancing and darting here and there," Onsager told Space. It was just unbelievable.".

Onsager had his aurora experience in northern Norway — one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. You could follow in his footsteps, or blaze your own trail somewhere along the "auroral zone" that encircles Earth's northern reaches.

But you need to know when and where to go. For example, the summer of 2.

Read on to find out when and where to see the northern lights, and what powers this dazzling display. If you're planning an aurora- viewing trip, make sure not to schedule it in the middle of summer. You need darkness to see the northern lights, and places in the auroral zone have precious little of it during the summer months. You also want clear skies. Winter and springtime are generally less cloudy than autumn in and around the northern auroral zone, so a trip between December and April makes sense, said Charles Deehr, a professor emeritus and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute. Ideally, time your trip to coincide with the new moon, and make sure to get away from city lights when it's time to look up, he added.

Dress warmly, plan to watch the sky between 1. Deehr wrote in the Geophysical Institute's guide to aurora viewing, which has lots of great information. Active periods are typically about 3. The aurora is a sporadic phenomenon, occurring randomly for short periods or perhaps not at all.". You can get an idea of how active the northern lights are likely to be in your area by keeping tabs on a short- term aurora forecast, such as the one provided by the Geophysical Institute here: http: //www.

Aurora. Forecast. And you can have an aurora experience without even leaving your house if you so choose. The Canadian Space Agency offers a live feed of the skies above Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories: http: //www. Where to go in Europe. Have You Ever Seen the Northern Lights or Southern Auroras? Yes! I'll never forget Earth's dancing northern lights displays.

Not Sure - I've seen some strange lights in the sky that may have been auroras. No - Seeing the dazzling auroras of Earth is my lifetime to- do list. Get Results. Share This. So where should you go?

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If you live in Europe, the easiest thing to do is head to the far northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. In general, Scandinavia is set up," Deehr told Space.

They're in good shape for this.". Northern Norway, especially the area around Tromso, is a particularly popular destination, he added.

Visit Tromso's 2. Northern Lights Info]. There are a lot of tours, and a lot of English- speaking people who are willing to take you out," Deehr said, adding that the scenery in the region is "fantastic.".

Or you could check out a number of other locations, such as northern Sweden's Abisko National Park. Abisko has developed a reputation for being the No. Earth that is located within the aurora zone," photographer Chad Blakley told Space. Watch Online Watch Ashanti Full Movie Online Film. The company Blakley co- founded, Lights Over Lapland, has been offering aurora tours in Abisko for more than five years.) [Lights Over Lapland's 2. Abisko Aurora Tours]. Iceland is also a good choice, Deehr said, as long as you make sure to set aside enough time to compensate for cloudy skies.

The island nation's weather can be uncooperative.) [Iceland 2. Northern Lights Tours]. Russia, by contrast, "is pretty much out," Deehr said. While a decent swathe of the auroral zone lies in northern Russia, such areas are relatively hard to get to and lack the tourism infrastructure most travelers are after, he explained. Where to go in North America.

There are also plenty of options for good aurora viewing in North America. But you should probably steer clear of far eastern Canada, which tends to be quite cloudy, Deehr said. Between James Bay and the west coast of Alaska — anywhere along that auroral zone is a good place to be," he said. James Bay is the far southern portion of Canada's huge Hudson Bay.) [Northern Tales Yukon 2. Aurora Tours]. For example, he said, a northern lights trip could center on Yellowknife or Whitehorse, in the Canadian Yukon. Or a traveler could take a train across the auroral zone to the town of Churchill, on the western shore of Hudson Bay — an area famous for its polar bear population. It's great, adventurous country," Deehr said of the Canadian auroral region.

In Alaska, anywhere from Fairbanks north offers good viewing. In Fairbanks itself, residents see the northern lights on about eight of every 1. Deehr said. [Alaska Tours' 2. Aurora Tours]. Otherworldly fireworks. The northern lights result when charged particles streaming from the sun collide with molecules high up in Earth's atmosphere, exciting these molecules and causing them to glow.

It's like the fluorescent lights in our offices — they've got current running through them that excites the atoms, and the atoms glow," Onsager said. The auroras occur at high latitudes, unless a strong solar storm expands their reach. Credit: University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute / Charles Deehr. The different colors of the northern lights come from different molecules: Oxygen emits yellow, green and red light, while nitrogen is responsible for blue and purplish- red hues. Earth's magnetic field lines channel these solar particles toward the planet's north and south magnetic poles, which explains why auroras — the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis — are high- latitude phenomena. Indeed, the aurora borealis is visible most nights, weather permitting, within a band several hundred miles wide that's centered at about 6. Arctic Circle. This "standard" aurora is generated by the solar wind — the particles streaming constantly from the sun.

But solar storms known as coronal mass ejections (CME) can ramp up the northern lights considerably and make them visible over much wider areas. Last year, for example, a CME allowed skywatchers as far south as Illinois and Ohio to get a glimpse. However, if you're planning an aurora- viewing trip weeks or months in advance, you can't count on any help from a solar storm and should therefore head to a destination somewhere near the northern ring. The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History].

The southern auroral ring lies above Antarctica and is very difficult for skywatchers, or anyone else, to get to. That's why this article focuses on the northern lights — for reasons of practicality, not antipodean antipathy. Southern Hemisphere dwellers take heart: The aurora australis can sometimes be viewed from New Zealand and Tasmania.)Editor's note: If you capture an amazing photo of the northern lights and would like to share it with Space. Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space. This story, originally posted in April 2. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.

Originally published on Space.

Northern Lights Possible in New England Sunday Night. PM Sunday update:  The solar storm has weakened considerably. Chances for Northern Lights in RI and Southeast Massachusetts is very low.======================PREVIOUS BLOG: We have another storm on the way.  Before you get the raincoats ready and put the umbrella by the door, this is not a rain storm.  This one could be a really good storm.  A solar storm is headed our way and we have the opportunity to see the Northern Lights here in New England.  Of course the weather will need to cooperate to see this spectacle, but we’ll get into that a little bit later.

Courtesy: NOAAWe’ve had a number of chances to see the Northern Lights in recent years.  Folks in Northern New England usually had the best chance of seeing the lights, and only someone with a trained eye could pick up the faint lights in the sky over Southern New England during the last few chances.  We don’t get many chances to see the lights in Rhode Island, mostly due to our position on the Earth and the amount of light pollution in our sky (from city lights).  Every once in awhile we get an opportunity to see the Aurora, and our next decent chance is Sunday night. The Sun has been fairly quiet as of late…there haven’t been many sun spots on our star.  Sun spots often help create explosions on the sun which can sometimes send streams of charged particles out into space.  When these charged particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere, the Aurora Borealis can form.  A large sun spot labeled 2. Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).  Watch the explosion on the sun in this coronagraph video from the National Weather Service (below). These particles are expected to reach Earth Sunday night and early Monday, creating the Northern Lights.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Sunday night.  The storm could be of moderate strength.  Sometimes, these solar storms can affect communication satellites and power grids, but this storm will likely not be strong enough for that. If you’d like to see the Northern Lights, you’d be better off heading north in central and Northern New England.  The farthest south NOAA space weather forecasters expect the lights to be seen is southern Vermont and New Hampshire.  So, if you’re on vacation in Northern New England you have a good chance of seeing the Aurora!  In Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, find the darkest sky you can and look north. When you are outside looking for the lights, let your eyes adjust to the darkness.  The longer you stay outside the better.  If you are going to be taking pictures, take long exposure pictures; that is leave your camera’s shutter open.

Of course, we’ll need clear skies to see the Northern Lights and there could be some low clouds around but skies should cooperate. Good luck!- Meteorologist T. J. Del Santo. Know Before You Go: Latest 7- Day Forecast Pinpoint Weather Blog Live Pinpoint Doppler 1. Radar Threat Tracker Pinpoint Traffic WPRI. Flight Tracker Closings & Delays Download: Pinpoint Weather App Download: Eyewitness News App Sign Up: Weather Alerts.