Northern lights (or aurora) - natural phenomenon when night sky is illuminated by colourful dancing lights. I'm sure that everyone desires to see them at least once in his/her lifetime.
What are the Northen Lights?
The Northern Lights are the visual result of solar particles entering the earth’s magnetic field at high atmosphere, and ionising. Their intensity depends on the activity of the sun, and the acceleration speed of these particles.
They appear as dancing lights high in the sky and vary in colour, usually being green, but occasionally also purple, red, pink, orange and blue. Their colours depend on the elements being ionised.
Where to see?
Usually this phenomenon is typical for northern parts of the world (how unexpected!). To tick seeing the Northern Lights off of your bucket list is possible during your visit to Norway, Finland, Iceland, Canada and Alaska, but remember that to see the full of this magic Nature's creation you need dark skies so firstly, choose time from November till March for your journey and secondly, the norther you go, the more your chances to see beautiful green swirls.
What about Turku?
I have two news for you. First - there is a possibility of seeing Northern Lights in Turku (maybe, someone of you have already seen them). Here is a photo-proof.
The photo was taken 1,5 weeks ago. But, second - Northern Light occur only 4-5 times a year, so don't miss the chance (as I did 😭)!
How can I know that Northern Lights are coming?
It's hard. It's hard because the variables of this phenomenon always vary: the Sun's activity varies, cloud cover varies, solar winds vary and these and other factors can all influence the likelihood of seeing the Aurora. Specialists say that the most accurate prediction can be given only a few hours at best before an Aurora display. But still there is a possibility to trace the activity of indicators via an app. Download it to always be aware of Northern Lights displays!