This is very well known phenomena, which can be seen usually in Alaska, Yukon, North Europe, Greenland or Siberia. Canadian Rockies are quite on the south of these location. however because of position of north magnetic pole, which is a bit more closer to Canada than to Europe, we are lucky here in the Rockies, that we don’t need to be that far on the North and we can still enjoy this show.
When and how to see it?
Now the tricky part is coming. It’s never 100% chance that you will see it, even if all conditions are great. Several important conditions must be met at once. Let’s have a look on these.
It must be dark of course. Better possibility to see northern lights (Aurora Borealis) is in the fall, winter, or early spring, because the nights are longer. And yeah, the clear sky and no moon if possible.
Than you will need increased solar activity, which can cause solar wind. The solar wind interact with magnetic field of our Earth and react with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the higher atmosphere. This is all happening in altitudes approximately between 60 – 600km. There is a prediction of solar wind, where you can see it in advance of 3 days quite precisely. But every solar wind has a little bit different composition and not every time is interacting with our magnetic field in visible way. However there are few quantities in prediction, which are increasing the chance to see the show.
- KP (0-9) is complex index which can tells us how far on the south can the northern light be visible. For the Rockies we need at least KP 4
- Density and velocity of solar wind must be a bit higher. The average solar wind consists of a strongly ionized gas having a proton and electron density of about 3 – 10 particles per cubic centimeter, with an average flow velocity of approximately 400 km/s. For better chances we would look somewhere above these averages levels. For example density around 20ppcm and velocity 600 km/s +.
- Also there is important thing of Bz index to have south orientation, it must be in negative numbers.
But even with all that, we can still see nothing. We need a bit of luck as well. Northern lights can appear in few seconds, glow for one minute like crazy and then disappear for rest of the night. Now it’s up to you how patient you will be with hunting. You might be lucky enough to catch one which glows the whole night, but usually it’s not like the in the Rockies.
How to photograph Northern lights?
Actually, you can capture it on the phone with good night mode, but it will have a very very poor quality. The basic rule of the night photography is the tripod! Without that you are screwed. On the camera settings you can use shutter speed between 2 – 20s. Your aperture as low as possible. And your ISO on high level. But be careful with ISO, because every camera has it’s own limit. Even if you can set ISO as high as 20 000 and more, most likely the photo will be super noisy. It is important to know your camera. Some better models can still take good pictures with ISO 12600, but the other ones can be noisy even with ISO 3200.
Where are good spots?
Anywhere away from the town or city lights and with good view on the north direction. Especially when the KP index is around 4-5, northern lights will be most likely just a bit above the horizon, so you don’t want have a big mountain in your view. With KP 7-9, you can experience overhead show. For example good locations are Lake Minewanka, Cascade Ponds, Abraham lake, Peyto lake viewing platform, etc.
