Cloudy? Too Far South? How to See the Aurora No Matter Where you Live

By Nancy Atkinson - January 24, 2012 at 10:41 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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With the recent solar activity producing blasts of subatomic particles from the Sun to Earth's magnetic field, the social media outlets are buzzing with those who are seeing auroral activity in their region. But what if it's cloudy where you are, or you don't live in a latitude conducive to seeing aurorae? The internet and webcams to the rescue! As I write this, the Aurora Sky Station webcam is broadcasting stunning views of the aurora in Sweden, like the screenshot above. But there are more webcams dedicated to capturing and sharing the aurora experience.

There's

AuroraMAX,

from Yellowknife, Canada, which

we've featured before on Universe Today

. AuroraMAX is an online observatory which began streaming Canada's northern lights live over the Internet in 2010.

In addition to nightly broadcasts of the aurora, AuroraMAX offers tips for seeing and photographing auroras, and includes an image gallery with still photos and movies from previous nights.

The Nature of Jokkmokk website

from Lapland offers several different views of the night sky.

Virtual Tromsø

offers an all-sky camera from Tromsø, Norway (and as I write this, the sky is covered with green auroral activity!)

The Aurora Live

website is from the Poker Flat Research Range, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

All these webcams are active only when it is dark in their respective locations.

Check out NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which has maps for both the northern and southern hemispheres which shows regions of potential auroral activity.

If your skies are clear and you're in a good location,

read our guide

on how best to view the aurora.

Enjoy the views!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com