How to increase your chances of seeing the northern lights as the current solar cycle peaks

If you’re a stargazer, prepare yourself for an uptick in northern lights activity amid the peak of the current solar cycle.

For the next year or more, the likelihood of seeing the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, will increase as Earth remains in the solar maximum of the current solar cycle, when more sunspots with the intense magnetic activity are expected, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center.

These sunspots have the capability of producing the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) that manifest in a dazzling light show when they reach Earth.

What are the northern lights?

The northern lights, or aurora borealis – and their southern hemisphere counterpart, the southern lights, or aurora australis – are “the last step of processes” from energy that originates from the sun, Elizabeth Macdonald, a space physicist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told ABC News.

Aurora borealis events occur when a “blast of solar material and strong magnetic fields” from the sun interact with the atoms and molecules in Earth’s outer atmosphere, Shawn Dahl, coordinator for NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News. This interaction causes the atoms in Earth’s atmosphere to glow, creating a spectrum of color in the night sky.

“As part of that interaction, light gets released, and that’s what we see as this shimmering beauty of the aurora,” Dahl said.

Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic field reaches its solar maximum, during which time the number of solar flares is at its highest, according to NOAA. The current solar cycle is expected to peak between November 2024 and March 2026, NOAA says, during which time northern lights activity will be heightened.

The best places to see the northern lights in the US and around the world

In the continental U.S., the best places to see the northern lights include the upper Midwest, such as the upper Michigan peninsula and North Dakota, Dahl said.

“That’s where the area of the country is more favorable to a more southward progression of the aurora,” he said.

The travel company Expedia Group recommended April, October and November as the best times to see the northern lights in Michigan. In Minnesota, Voyageurs National Park along the Canadian border in the fall or winter months is the best time to chase auroras, according to Expedia.

Around the world, Alaska, Canada, Finland and Norway get front-row seats to the northern lights, according to Expedia.

Sometimes the lights can extend farther south than usual. The stronger the geomagnetic storm, the farther south the northern lights can be seen, Macdonald said.

“They are visible in more places than ever before,” Melanie Fish, a travel expert at Expedia Group, told ABC News.

However, the farther south you go, the more red the lights will appear rather than as the usual green curtains, according to the National Park Service. That’s because the curvature of the Earth causes the particles to interact higher in the atmosphere, where oxygen is less plentiful, resulting in a more reddish hue.

The Great Wall of China has emerged as one of the top places to see the northern lights, according to Expedia.

When is the best time to see the northern lights?

Ensuring a dark setting is the best way to see the aurora, the experts said, with the best time to see the northern lights typically two hours before and after midnight, according to Dahl.

In winter months, that window can increase to four hours before and after midnight, as the skies get dark earlier, Dahl added.

Getting away from light pollution, and even the bright light of a full moon, will also enhance the viewing experience, Dahl said.

Dahl also reminded star-gazers to keep their eyes dark-adapted and avoid constant interactions with the bright screens of their cell phones.

Why is it difficult to predict the northern lights?

Space weather prediction is an extremely complex field, in part because the sun is about 93 million miles away, Macdonald said.

That tremendous distance makes it difficult to predict the intensity of CMEs, Dahl said.

Scientist don’t know that composition of a CME is composed, or the strength of its magnetic field, until it’s about one million miles from Earth, where a spacecraft stationed there can take measurements, Dahl said. At that point, the CME is practically on Earth’s doorstep.

“That gives us a couple hours of warning of how strong and how much that activity from the sun is going to come into the Earth’s magnetic field region out in space, and how well that will drive the aurora,” Macdonald said.

Further complicating the ability to forecast the strength of a CME is the possibility that it could be affected by substorms on its long journey toward Earth, Dahl said.

How to increase your chances of seeing the northern lights

Macdonald runs a citizen science platform called Aurorasaurus that allows people to sign up for alerts that an aurora may be visible in their area.

Users are also able to report back to the website about whether they saw an aurora, which helps the platform send alerts that the northern lights are being seen in real time – especially in places where they are typically not visible. The information also helps researchers build better models for forecasting, MacDonald said.

“All of this citizen science is really useful, especially during this solar maximum, which is the first when people have all kinds of cell phones that can take images very easily,” Macdonald said.

Ultimately, Dahl urged people to practice patience when looking for the northern lights.

“It may not be fully developed yet or be weak, but then it may be suddenly escalate because a substorm kicked in,” he said. “So just be patient and take advantage of that.”