Lukas: The Northern Lights

This happened to me in October during my first year in Örebro. I had always associated the northern lights with the northern Sweden and Norway, or Iceland, and didn’t expect to see them during my time here. But when the circumstances are right, Örebro can be almost as good. Since I saw them the first time, there have been two more occasions to see the lights from within the city, and a few more from just outside. Today I’ll some tips to increase your chances of seeing the phenomenon.

The northern lights, also called aurora borealis, can appear when energy from solar winds changes the trajectories of charged particles in the earth’s atmosphere. When these particles collide with certain molecules, colored (often green) light is emitted, resulting in the famous lit-up sky. That is at least my translation of what strangers have written on Wikipedia. In any case, pretty lights in the sky sometimes appear and you’ll want to see them. How? Two things:

First, you’re gonna want to install an aurora tracking app on your phone. There are many, but “My Aurora Forecast” works great. The app keeps track of how high the solar wind activity is, i.e. how high the chances are for the northern lights to be visible in your area. A higher “KP index” means a higher chance of seeing the lights. The map option in the app also gives you a good idea of the visibility. If you’re in the orange or red zone, go outside!

My second tip would be to join the Facebook group “Norrsken i Örebro Län”. People living in and around Örebro love (over)sharing their sightings of the aurora and will often post pictures in this group right away when they see it. So when you get a notification from your app, keep your eyes peeled for posts in this group to verify if it’s worth putting on your jacket.

Some final tips are to make sure that there are no clouds outside. The most bombastic aurora will be invisible if it’s cloudy, so don’t even bother going outside if the sky isn’t clear. Secondly, oftentimes the lights will be barely visible with the naked eye, while the night shot option on your phone’s camera can catch them. Using your phone can be a good way to check whether faint beginnings of the aurora are present at all. If so, stick around and with some luck it will appear to the naked eye too.

I had my sighting from Tybblekullen, but anywhere with a good view of the sky and as little artificial light as possible will do.

Good luck!