|
Northern lights in Iceland - Aurora borealis
Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second. On their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles. When the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky. Timing Even though there are aurora all day, all year round on Earth, and even if you are directly below the oval, you need to observe at the right time. Why? Because of the sun. The aurora is light, and compared with sunlight it is weak. In the north, where 90 % of the displays occur, something happens every summer that very few people living further south actually realize: the sun never sets. It never drops below the horizon, effectively outshining any light from the aurora, no matter how strong it is. That is why we have the aurora "season", a period where the sun doesn't outshine the aurora, and it goes from late September/early October to late March. And for some reason not known to scientists yet, the aurora is far more active in late autumn and early spring. Will we be able to observe the lights in Reykjanes? If you stay only for a day, the answer is most likely, "no". The Northern lights isn't constant; it is always on the move. Observing the Northern lights is often a tug of war between your patience and the Northern lights itself. Stay inside the Northern lights oval at least a week, preferably two, and you will be rewarded - unless local weather suddenly decides to obstruct your view with a thick layer of clouds. You can read everything about Northern lights at Nordlys, great web about Northern lights. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Here you can read about Reykjanes and what we have to offer for tourists that come here to stay. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
