Northern Lights

Enjoy the “Northern Lights” as they dance across the sky. They truly are one of nature’s wonders! Best seen between the months of November and March, the spectacular blue, green and white colors swirl together creating a magnificent performance that the whole family will enjoy.

“North of 54” offers a fantastic view of this natural event, and makes our area a great spot to enjoy the show.

Where do “Northern Lights” come from?

It all starts with the sun. The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300-1200 km/second. A cloud of such particles is called plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as a solar wind. As this wind interacts with the edge of the earth’s magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere- the section of the earth’s atmosphere that extends from about 60–600 km above the earth’s surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere, they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, both northern and southern.

Photo credit to Christian Ballard