Iceland · Northern lights
The solar storm peaked on the night into Tuesday 13 October at Kp 4. Where the sky was clear, parts of Iceland had a chance to watch the northern lights dance.
| City | Chance |
|---|---|
| Reykjavik | Good |
| Akureyri | Good |
| Höfn | Good |
What is happening on the Sun?
Auroras form when electrically charged particles from the Sun hit Earth's magnetic field and are channelled down into the atmosphere around the poles. At 100–300 kilometres up, they collide with oxygen and nitrogen, which light up – oxygen in green and red, nitrogen in blue and violet.
That is not a geomagnetic storm on NOAA's scale, but it is enough to push the aurora some way towards lower latitudes.
The Kp index runs from 0 to 9 and shows how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is. At Kp 3, the northern lights are usually seen only in northern Norway, Lapland and Iceland. From Kp 5 they can reach Denmark, Scotland and northern Germany, and at Kp 8–9 they have been seen as far south as southern Europe.
Missed it this time? Skycastor watches the Sun around the clock and writes when the next chance comes.