The northern lights

The finnish name for the northern lights "revontulet" comes from a word "repo", which means fox. Old folktale says, that the northern lights are born, when the fox runs in the hills and its tail hits the snow. The touch between tail and snow produces so much sparks, that the colorful phenomenon can be seen in the sky. Nowadays we know, that these dancing lights are created when the electric rays emitted by the sun hits the Earth's atmosphere. 

The northern lights can be seen in different kind of colors and shapes. Sometimes the northern lights develop as breathtaking show, and you can see dancing and quickly changing colourful patterns dancing in the sky. The most common forms of the northern lights are arc and drapery auroras. Other forms are corona (the auroras appear as a 'crown' of diverging rays of light) and diffuse (auroras have a featureless glow and they are difficult to spot).

The northern lights dancing in the sky can be seen in colours of red, green, blue and purple. The colour of the northern lights depends on which atoms the particles collisions. When the particles collision with oxygen atoms the northern lights are seen in colours of green and red, but when the particles collision with nitrogen atoms lights are seen in colours of blue, purple and red.

A common belief is that the northern lights appear only during the winter, but the truth is that the northern lights can occur throughout the year, but we can only see them when it is dark enough. Consequently the best time to see this magical phenomenon is from the autumn to the early spring.

You can not forecast whether when and where the northern lights are seen, so the common belief is that when you see this phenomenon it brings you a lot of luck. In the city of Kemijärvi we have three marked places to admire the northern lights: Salmenniemi, Vitsaniemi and the shore nearby the art center Puustelli. However, you can admire the northern lights where ever you want - the best place to admire them is further away from the city lights at midnight. If the weather is cloudy and the phenomenon is impossible to see, you can visit Vesa Särkelä's photographer's studio and admire his shots from the magical northern lights. 

You can check Aurora forecast from here.