What Causes the Colors of the Northern Lights?
The colors of the northern lights are determined by which gas is excited, at what altitude, and how energetically solar particles react with it. The aurora borealis and aurora australis produce different colors because different gases emit different wavelengths — this is how aurora colors form. Understanding the northern lights altitude map changes how you […]
What To Expect When Seeing The Northern Lights: A Fairbanks Guide From Someone Who’s Watched Thousands of Guests React
Northern lights Fairbanks — what you see in person ranges from a faint green glow on the horizon to a full-sky explosion of colour, and almost always looks different from what photographs led you to expect. What you see depends on Kp level, cloud cover, and dark adaptation. As a Fairbanks aurora guide who has […]
Why the Northern Lights Look Different in Photos Than Real Life (And What That Means for Your Photography)
Why do northern lights look different in photos? The answer comes down to biology and physics. Cameras use slow shutter speeds of 10–25 seconds that accumulate far more light — gathering light and collecting light the human eye can collect in real time. Human vision shifts in low light conditions to rod-dominant scotopic mode — […]