Aurora watching

The lights dancing over the mighty snow-covered Esja

Ask anyone what’s on their bucket list and the chances are that seeing the Northern Lights will be up there.  The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, is one of the world’s most magical sights, and the chance of seeing them is one of the reasons that many people come to Iceland during the winter.  Now, I’m not one to dissuade anyone from visiting Iceland and, if you’ve read any of my other blog posts, you will know that I love this place and think it is one of the most amazing countries to visit.  However, I would say - come for Iceland itself, don’t come here just for the Northern Lights, as seeing them can never be guaranteed, and I’ve met people who have returned home disappointed after spending a fortune to come out here just to see the Northern Lights.  Indeed, I have managed to be here for over 7 months before even catching a glimpse!  To be fair, I came out in the summer and it is impossible to see them here in the summer as you need a dark, clear night to have a chance of catching the aurora.  It may well be there, shimmering in all its glory, but unless it’s dark we can’t see it.  And in the summer it never gets dark, not properly, so there’s no chance.

However, having said that, I still managed to get through half of this winter without catching sight of the lights…  they either turned up when I was in the UK for a few days, or I would decide to have an early night and then find I’d missed them, only seeing other people’s photos in the morning (so, so frustrating!).  I have had several encounters with tourists who had only been here for a couple of days who said “Oh, did you see the lights last night, they were amazing!” only to have to admit, through gritted teeth, that actually no, no I hadn’t!

This winter has been a particularly harsh one with far more snow than we normally get out here, and so many more nights have been cloudy or overcast than would normally be the case, so catching the aurora has been a challenge.  However, patience pays off eventually and at the weekend I finally saw the lights for myself.  Having downloaded the Aurora app on my phone, I had become far better at remembering to check each evening to see the likelihood of seeing them and Saturday night was set for us to have a fair chance.  So every now and then I went out onto the balcony for a look.  The other trick I’d been advised to use was to always take my phone with me and to look through the camera of the phone, as a camera can pick up the lights more effectively than the naked eye.  And suddenly – there it was, a bright green streak right across the sky, right above the square that our apartment looks out onto.  Somehow, once I’d seen them using the camera, I found I could see them just by looking – although had I not done it that way I could easily have missed them as at times the green can be very faint to the naked eye and it’s easy to mistake it for streaks of cloud.  But somehow, once you’ve seen them once it becomes easier to know what is cloud and what is aurora.

Despite the amount of light in the heart of Reykjavík there are times when the aurora is clearly visible

 So I posted a photo onto our group chat to let the others in the team know they were out, and shot off to the bay to try to get away from the bright lights and streetlamps, in order to get a better view.  When I say ‘shot off’, it was more a case of hobbling off, as I am still on crutches after damaging the ligaments in my knee but after this long a wait there was no way I was letting that stop me! 

The waves of light looking as though they are converging on Esja

After taking a few pictures of the lights over Esja, the flat-topped mountain across the bay from Reykjavík, I heard from a couple of my workmates that they were heading out to the lighthouse at Grótta where there is less light pollution than in the centre of the city and did I want to join them?  Absolutely I did, so having told them where I was and suggested they just look for the nutter out in the snow on crutches, it seems they were able to find me without any difficulty!  By this time, the lights had got brighter and it was much easier to see them with the naked eye, without having to use a camera or phone and we were treated to a bit of a show as we drove out to the lighthouse.  When we arrived, there was quite a crowd already there, as the locals know to head out that way when the aurora forecast is good as your chances of getting a good view of them are that much better away from the heart of the city. 

Crowds gather near Grótta lighthouse to watch the show

We parked up among the many other cars that were there and got out to look.  And there they were, shimmering and moving, suddenly fading from one spot to grow brighter in another, never staying still.  It is a sight like no other and it’s easy to see why it is so special to so many people.  Let’s face it – we can all use a little magic every so often, and watching the aurora is one of the closest experiences I’ve ever had to magic.

Deep green lights across the sky with the lighthouse visible in the background

So much so, that I got carried away and ended up face down in the snow!  You see, I’d realised that I was going to struggle with using crutches and also being able to take pictures using my phone (every time I tried to take a pic, I’d drop one of the crutches and struggle to pick it up again) so I left the crutches in the car, thinking I’d just lean on the car for support.  Well, of course as soon as I started seeing the lights I got over-excited and found myself shuffling just a little bit more this way… and a little bit more over here… etc etc.  Before long I was nowhere near the car and had decided if I could just get to the rocks by the sea wall I’d be able to set up my mini phone tripod.  Unfortunately the snow was very thick by the rocks… I took a step with my bad leg, instantly sank down into the snow, knee buckling beneath me with the sudden movement and ended up lying in all sorts of pain in the snow with my leg stuck beneath me.  Even with help, the only way I could get up was to roll over so I was face-down, kneel in the deep snow on my good knee and clamber up that way with the assistance of my colleagues – who weren’t terribly impressed with me for rushing off into the snow!!  I do have to say that despite the teasing I’ve had from the team since my undignified collapse, it was still worth it to finally see the magic of the Icelandic aurora.  Now I just have to work out how to use my proper camera, set up on a tripod, with the right settings and next time I may get even better shots, hopefully without injury!!

Beautiful patterns in the sky

So what actually is the aurora?

I am no expert so have resorted to Google and a very helpful page from the Royal Museums, Greenwich for the following information:

The aurora can be seen near the poles of both the northern and southern hemisphere. In the north the display is known as the aurora borealis; in the south it is called the aurora australis (Iceland sits at a latitude of approximately 64 degrees north, making it the perfect place to see the northern lights).  These 'northern' and 'southern lights' have fascinated, frightened and inspired humans for centuries. 

The lights we see in the night sky are in actual fact caused by activity on the surface of the sun. Solar storms on our star's surface give out huge clouds of electrically charged particles. These particles can travel millions of miles, and some may eventually collide with the Earth.  Most of these particles are deflected away, but some become captured in the Earth’s magnetic field, accelerating down towards the north and south poles into the atmosphere. This is why aurora activity is concentrated at the magnetic poles.

These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially heat them up, a bit like heating a gas and making it glow, so what we actually see are atoms and molecules in our atmosphere colliding with particles from the Sun.

The lowest part of an aurora is typically around 80 miles above the Earth's surface. However, the top of a display may extend several thousand miles above the Earth.

So there you have it – the proper scientific explanation.  And yet, when you see the lights dancing away above you all the science seems to go out of the window  (for me, at least) and somehow you are just left with the magic…