Is there any way to be notified if the Northern Lights are visible in the north of Scandinavia without having to stay awake all night?
So we all know that there are a ton of places that claim to be the best place to see the Northern Lights and whatnot. However, even if I'm in one of those places, I don't necessarily want to have to stay up all night every day just for a chance at seeing them.
Do text or email services exist?
Or, do any hotels provide a service where someone will come and wake you up if they're visible?
Best Answer
If you want to get up to watch the northern lights, rather than staying out all night I would suggest staying outside of town, otherwise you will have a lot of light pollution. on the topic of light pollution Check the phase of the moon and its location. I used Stellarium for the location and just google 'moon phases' to make sure It's isn't going to be a glaring full moon.
While booking my Trip to Tromsø I found Wikipedia gave a time window for when Tromsø would be in the 'Auroral zone' in this case the window is 1800 to 0000 basically 6 hours so you don't need to stay up all night.
Other options would be to take a group tour overnight, that way others can wait up all night and wake you when the show starts. I have found plenty of these again for Tromsø, though I imagine there would be similar trips all over Scandinavia.
Websites
There are Auroa Forcasts which can give you a good idea if staying up is worth while. and how far north you need to go to get a decent view.
There is also an email subscription for solar events which have the potential to increase Aurora activity.
Live Cam's
Live camera from northern Sweden. This British site has links to camera's in Finland and Norway. Its worth noting the camera's aren't really live as you need a multi second exposure to capture the northern lights.
Solar forecasts on twitter, a KP of 4 is considered active. I can't seem to find a twitter feed for Scandinavia there are ones for Canada and Alaska though.
Pictures about "Is there any way to be notified if the Northern Lights are visible in the north of Scandinavia without having to stay awake all night?"
Can you predict when and where there will be Northern Lights?
It is difficult to predict the Northern Lights over the long term. Coronal mass ejections, which cause most of the solar storms and, therefore, stronger Auroras, are forecast 15 days in advance, but their strength and shape can vary once they get closer to Earth.How do you get notified of the Northern Lights?
Aurora Alerts is an app designed to monitor real-time auroral activity and push alert to let you know if there may be aurora borealis (northern lights) visible tonight. Whenever you are home or away, Aurora Alerts will notify you if the possibility of seeing the northern lights exists.Can the Northern Lights always be seen?
The Northern Lights are actually active all year round. But because they are only typically visible in the aurora zone between 65\xb0 and 72\xb0 North, they are not visible from April through August when the aurora zone experiences nearly 24 hours of daylight.How far in advance can you predict Northern Lights?
As a naturally occurring phenomenon, the appearance of the Northern Lights is notoriously difficult to predict any further in advance than about two hours before it happens.Northern lights: what they don't tell, but you need to know!
More answers regarding is there any way to be notified if the Northern Lights are visible in the north of Scandinavia without having to stay awake all night?
Answer 2
Another fine resource is SpaceWeather - with Aurora forecast maps for all over the world (it happens down under too), as well as recent photos of Auroras that people have spotted, images of the sun, info about the newest sunspots and predictions of the chance of a flare or an aurora.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Pixabay, Tobias Bjørkli, Bernd Feurich, Bernd Feurich