Why the northern lights seem more frequent than ever — from solar science to smartphone snapshots

Yahoo

28-02-2025

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Why did the world suddenly become obsessed with the northern lights? It seems like not a week goes by without news of solar flares and, very often, a forecast for auroras in their wake. So are the northern lights being seen from farther south than usual? Or are people merely noticing them more?
Here's why the northern lights have become more visible and more talked about than ever over the past year.
Auroras happen when charged particles from the sun — the solar wind — interact with Earth's magnetic field. An auroral oval sits permanently over the Arctic and Antarctic circles at 66 degrees north and south, respectively. Locations in these regions — including Alaska, northern Canada, northern Scandinavia and northern Russia — frequently see auroras at night, between about 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. from late August and early April every year when there's enough darkness.
Related: Where and when to see the northern lights in 2025
"The fundamental processes that create them are always occurring," Tom Kerss, author of "The Northern Lights: The Definitive Guide to Auroras (Collins, 2021) and chief aurora hunter for Hurtigruten Astronomy Cruises, told Space.com. "The interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind continuously produces auroral activity in the polar regions."
Solar maximum is one reason the northern lights are big news right now. The sun has a roughly 11-year solar cycle, during which our star's activity waxes and wanes. This activity includes solar flares, which are explosions on the sun; and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are clouds of charged particles that launch into space, sometimes in Earth's direction. During the lull in that cycle, called solar minimum, the sun's surface is blank and little happens.
When solar cycle activity picks up sunspots appear as black areas on the sun's surface. They can be seen through telescopes fitted with solar filters, and even through solar eclipse glasses. (Make sure to view the sun safely with the best solar viewing gear.) These sunspots are cooler areas of the sun's surface, and how many are visible correlates to how active the sun is. Solar maximum is declared when the number of sunspots peaks.
Scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted that the current cycle, Solar Cycle 25 (the 25th since 1755, when regular daily records of sunspots began), would reach its maximum in July 2025. The error bars mean the actual peak — which is measured as the number of sunspots in a calendar month — could occur between November 2024 and March 2026. In October 2024, the same solar scientists announced that solar maximum had arrived. However, they also stated that this solar maximum period could continue for the following year.
Because they experience auroras frequently, regions under the auroral oval are the best places in the world to see the northern lights throughout the solar cycle. However, the intensity and visibility can still vary. Solar maximum periods will produce more spectacular and widespread displays, which can be visible at lower latitudes. In short, the intensity of the solar wind can increase — principally when a few CMEs arrive at Earth simultaneously to trigger a significant geomagnetic storm — causing the auroral oval to shift closer to the equator.
Solar Cycle 25 has outperformed predictions and explains why auroras have been seen farther from the Arctic and Antarctic circles. "With auroras being visible globally in May [2024] and then again in October [2024] and January [2025], it's been a special cycle so far," Kerss said.
There are generally more solar flares and CMEs during solar maximum, which, theoretically, occurs every 11 years. In practice, the sun is highly active on each side for a year or two.
"What's been fascinating about Solar Cycle 25 is that, so far, it's on track to exceed the expected performance of the previous Solar Cycle 24, and perhaps even Solar Cycle 23, which was a pretty good, strong cycle for auroras," Kerss said. In short, it's the best time to see auroras farther south than where the auroral oval is typically positioned for a couple of decades.
Related: What it's like to chase the northern lights along Norway's dramatic coastline
There are photos of the northern lights everywhere you look. Given that the last time the northern lights were seen far from the equator was a couple of years after the solar maximum in 2001, there's an obvious reason for this. Social media and smartphone apps didn't exist back then, and mobile phones had poor-quality cameras. Knowing about potential northern lights displays in advance was far less likely than it is today, when alerts and forecasts are posted on social media and sent out via smartphone notifications. And even if auroras did become visible back then, usually only experienced astrophotographers with expensive cameras had any success in photographing these colorful light displays.
In recent years, however, smartphones' low-light capabilities have improved dramatically; they have effectively doubled in quality with every new generation of phones. Even short exposures of the auroras are possible using a smartphone, as is real-time video. Now, anyone can take excellent images using a smartphone and share them with the world in seconds. Social media has also played a significant role in increasing awareness and interest in the northern lights, with platforms like Instagram driving trends in travel, including aurora viewing.
There is also a new generation of apps, such as the Glendale app, which eschews the often-misunderstood Kp index in favor of real-time solar wind data from satellites and ground stations to predict "substorms" — imminent aurora displays — and send alerts based on a user's location. Although experience in interpreting this real-time solar wind data is a huge help, the dissemination of this information on social media makes people more likely to be in the right place at the right time to witness sudden aurora displays.
Related stories:
—Solar Cycle 25 is still in max phase, so more aurora-boosting sun storms could be coming
—Aurora activity is just getting started. Here's why the best northern lights are yet to come.
—The sun in 2025: How the solar cycle will shape our year ahead
The ease of sharing aurora experiences on social media can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations. "What we see with our eyes is not as vibrant as the camera sees," Kerss noted. The vibrant colors captured by cameras are often more intense than the human eye perceives, which can disappoint some viewers. Aurora hunters now use smartphones to check for suspect shapes in the sky and, in fact, auroras.
Solar maximum, smartphones and social media have fueled a growing interest in space weather, astronomy and Arctic tourism and have democratized aurora viewing and astrophotography. However, these factors have also brought new challenges in managing expectations and providing accurate information.