Alaska

Aurora borealis or Northern lights (for us in the northern hemisphere) is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow. The northern lights can range from a simple green faint flow over the horizon to a bright “curtain” of lights dancing above you (and bright enough to cast a shadow like full moon). I did not realize until recently that this is a bucket list item for many people, so in this post I’m going to share my experience chasing aurora. First to see the aurora, you need to have a clear, dark night. It implies being far away from civilization to avoid any light pollution. The dark night is a bit tricky since...