Why You Should See The Northern Lights This Year

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The Sun is almost about to enter the Solar Minimum phase which will mean the Northern Lights will be dimmer and occur less frequently over the next decade. This year is the last year you’ll be able to see the Northern Lights before the Sun enters its dormant phase . So, start planning your trips now.


The Solar Minimum is a period in the solar cycle where the Sun enters a dormant phase and energy ejected from the solar surface is at an all-time low. During this phase, the Northern Lights are dimmer and will appear less frequently, but never fear they won’t disappear. They’ll be back to their bright selves within a decade.

So how are the Northern Lights formed? The Northern Lights are swirls of beautiful greens, reds, and violets that are seen in the atmosphere at the poles of our beautiful planet and also on other planets too. In the north, these dancing lights are known as Aurora borealis and in the south pole as Aurora australis. These beautiful, colorful patterns in the sky are actually a beautiful way of nature telling us that our planet is being protected by the harmful particles that are being thrown at us by the Sun. The Sun is a very violent environment where magnetic fields are constantly being reshaped and as a result of this lots of very energetic particles can be ejected from the Sun’s surface. These energetic particles then make their way towards us and collide with our atmosphere. Luckily for us, the Earth has a strong enough magnetic field to deflect the energetic, charged particles. Due to something called the Lorentz force, the charged particles actually follow a helical path along the magnetic field lines towards the poles. When they reach the poles, they collide with the atmosphere and release energy in the form of light.

Mars, on the other hand, was not so lucky because it does not have a strong enough magnetic field to deflect these particles and instead its atmosphere took a hit. This is one of the prime reasons why Mars does not have an atmosphere. NASA scientists have been thinking of ways to add a magnetic field to Mars so that its atmosphere can be rebuilt, find out more in my previous Forbes article here.

Depending on the type of gas that the particles collide with determines the colors that are seen. Different gases are made up of different elements or molecules which ‘jiggle’ at a different rate when hit. Nitrogen in our atmosphere produces blue or violet aurora, oxygen produces the commonly seen green aurora and high-altitude oxygen gives off red aurora which is quite rare. The Sun goes through an 11-year period of high activity, followed by low activity, where the Sun's active phase peaked in 2014 and the Solar Minimum will begin in 2019. This is why you need to see the aurora this year before the phase of low activity begins and you'll have to wait a decade for the Sun to enter its active phase. Check out this link to find out the best places to view the aurora. I hope you get to see them before the next decade of dim aurora begins.

I’m a curious and keen physicist that is currently studying for an MRes in Photonics at Imperial College London where I've completed research at SLAC National Accelerato...