About the Aurora Borealis.
The Physics. Eruptions on the sun send clouds of charged particles into space. When they come close to earth they are caught in its magnetic field, which funnels them in the direction of the geomagnetic North Pole. High up in the atmosphere the particles collide with molecules of the air. This emits light, usually green, but also other colours. Because it happens high up and because of the geometry of the earth’s magnetic field this does not happen above the geomagnetic North Pole, but in a ring around it.
To see the Aurora, there has to be auroral activity, it has to be dark and the weather has to be clear.
Abisko in Sweden, about 100 km inland from Narvik in Norway, seems to have more than its fair share of clear nights. It is on the shore of a large lake and the prevailing winds come over the mountains and clear the clouds. It is a micro-climate effect. Because of this the small town is overrun by tourists chasing the Aurora and accommodation is overpriced, but it may be worth it, if you want to increase your chances. You can check Aurora visibility on the
Abisko webcams page.
Because the sun activity is closely monitored, it is possible to make quite reasonable predictions of Aurora activity on a day to day basis. Several apps are available to show these. Two examples for iPhone:
My Aurora Forecast and Alerts by jRuston Apps.
Northern Lights Aurora Alertsby Letovaltsev Maxim.
The first seems to be better at predicting activity; the second seems to be better at including the weather.
An Aurora prediction map showing the ring of lights. Note that you have to look South from Svalbard!