Just how often IS aurora seen from the Fairbanks Alaska area?

One smarty pants in a Fairbanks Facebook group told me to shut up, that I am embarrassing myself by saying that and misleading tourists. I laughed to myself because it only made me realize that he knows nothing about space weather. So, here I am clarifying for those that disagree.

Fairbanks Alaska REGION, meaning, the entire region surrounding Fairbanks, interior Alaska, can see the aurora on a nightly basis IF……

The Fairbanks AK region, interior Alaska, includes all towns surrounding Fairbanks, all the way to Healy and Denali, all the way to Delta Jct and Paxson, and north to Circle, Livengood and up the Dalton Hwy to Coldfoot and Wiseman, off the road system to Fort Yukon, Rampart, and Tanana and beyond.

The number one reason people don’t see the aurora is of course, weather. Poor weather conditions such as overcast skies will block the aurora. If it is only partly cloudy you can see aurora through the clouds. If the clouds are thin, you can see aurora glowing through the clouds. A camera can pick up dim light better than our eyes can, and that is why sometimes you will see aurora on some webcams but when you go outside, you do not see anything. The camera picked up the dim light.

What does it mean “the IMF is in alignment”?

This means that the Bz is negative and the Bt preferably has some strength to it. You can see aurora with a positive Bz, but the solar winds need to be a bit faster, and the Bt needs to be higher. In other words, to see aurora with a positive Bz, we need a solar (storm level) event. Now, I am not going to reinvent the wheel, so I will link to a more in depth explanation here at Space Weather Live, a high quality space weather website.

Second, people like to sleep, especially at night. If you are a visitor from a different time zone, staying up all night in Alaska time zone can be a challenge. People go to bed before midnight, then miss the lights. Aurora tours are happening, and people fall asleep on the drive. People do fun things all day and expect to stay awake all night. Stop! Don’t pack your day full, give time to rest, do not plan on doing anything early in the morning!

In arctic regions, the midnight sun shines bright from late April to early August. Plan your trip to the aurora oval locations from mid August to mid April. The further into winter you go, the more dark sky there is and therefore, a longer chance of seeing aurora. Aurora can be seen anytime it is dark but when there is no significant solar event, the typical time is close to midnight and later.

Are amazing shows seen all the time? No. Sometimes the aurora is very faint. Sometimes it is fleeting, meaning it can last a very short time. And sometimes the aurora dances all night long in brilliant brightness and color!

To repeat, the aurora is always there, sometimes faint and sometimes bright. If anyone tells you otherwise, question their knowledge of aurora.

The Aurora Borealis (northern lights) and Aurora Australis (southern lights) are the result of electrons colliding with Earth’s magnetic field. . The aurora typically forms 80 to 500 km (50 to 300 mi) above Earth. This means that when aurora is being seen, it can be seen from a wide area within a few hundred miles. If you are not seeing aurora in one location, driving to another spot 30 miles away will not change the aurora view, unless you are getting away from poor weather or tall trees that may be blocking the view. This is a common misconception with tourism, where people think they need to drive to all the “best spots” to see aurora, when in fact, you could stay in place and have the same view (assuming no light pollution, tall trees, and terrain blocking the sky).

If you see of list of “best spots”, it is most likely marketing tourism, or someone made a list and they are not well versed with space weather, or have no actual experience with aurora watching.

On a typical night in the Aurora Zone underneath the aurora oval, the aurora will appear in a long band from one side of the sky to the other. Depending on space weather conditions, the band may be broken or appear in small streaks. As the night progresses, the band will shift and move, and tall rays may form. The aurora can move as if it were a wave on the ocean, or being blown by the wind. It is truly magical, and that is why so many love watching it. As the night goes on, the rays may calm down, and you’ll see what looks like clouds, pulsing in the sky. Time lapse photography really picks up the pulsing, where as our eyes, standing outside watching for several minutes, may only see slight movement of color. Again, depending on space weather conditions, is what we will see. At times the green clouds look dim, and sometimes pick up the appearance of an ashen gray-green color. Against the dark night sky, clear lines are defined between the color and the starry sky.