AURORA BOREALIS IN ICELAND Northern lights are also known as Aurora borealis meaning dawn of the north derived from the word Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, the name evoke some of the majestic, otherworldly splendour of Auroral display. The northern lights occurs high above the surface of the earth where the atmosphere layer is extremely thin normally having an attitude of 100-250 km. Auroras can be seen in auroral belts that forms 20-25 degrees around the geomagnetic poles both the north and south. Due to the nature of Earth’s magnetic field, auroras only appear at the poles usually above 60 degree latitude mark in the north and below 60 degree latitude mark in the south. The auroras formed are known as Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis respectively. Thus, Iceland is situated at a perfect position of approximately 64 degrees north for a great view of the northern lights.
HOW THEY ARE FORMED:The northern lights are visual effects of solar particles entering the Earth’s magnetic field at high atmosphere and ionizing. Their intensity depends on the solar activity as well as acceleration speed of the particles. The solar wind’s stream of highly charged particles