The Aurora Zone Blog

Photos to inspire you to Aurora hunt this autumn

Markku Inkila Nellim

The Northern Lights season may be at a close as summer draws nearer, but fear not the Auroras will not be gone forever. In fact, here at The Aurora Zone, we think that the beginning of the Northern Lights season in autumn is a pretty special time of year and arguably one of the best times to go on an Aurora hunting adventure.

The scientific reason…

One of the reasons that autumn is a great time to see the Northern Lights is because around the autumnal equinox in late September there is an increased chance of seeing the elusive Aurora. This is because around this time of year cracks open in the Earth’s magnetic field. This is something known as the ‘Russel-McPherron effect’, named after the researchers who discovered the phenomenon. These ‘equinox cracks’ draw solar winds towards the Earth which in turn causes increased geomagnetic activity and bright Auroras around the Arctic Circle even when solar activity isn’t at its strongest. In simple terms, more geomagnetic storms mean more chance of Auroral displays and there are a lot more geomagnetic storms around the autumnal equinox.

The simple reason…

Although we love all the science behind the Northern Lights there is another, much simpler reason we think that autumn is a great time of year to see the Northern Lights, we have seen the evidence! So rather than rambling on for too long, we have compiled some of our favourite autumnal Northern Lights images to inspire you to get out there and go Aurora hunting for yourself in Finland this September! Enjoy!

1) Menesjärvi

Timo Menejsarvi

2) Saariselkä

Markku Inkila saariselka

3) Inari

Nellim Markku Inkila 7 20Sept14 1

4) Torassieppi

Credit Antti PietikainenTorassieppi

5) Luosto

Graham Greenway Luosto

6) Muotka

Markku Inkila Muotka

Find out more about our autumn Northern Lights holidays here


 Image Credits: Antti Pietikainen, Graham Greenway, Markku Inkila & Timo Halonen
Read 2649 times Last modified on Friday, 07 May 2021

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