The Northern Lights Could Be Extra Intense and Appear More This Year — Here's Why

If you’ve noticed more buzz about the northern lights this year, there’s a good reason why. The aurora borealis has indeed been more active than usual, and scientists predict that auroral activity is only going to increase in the coming year as we reach solar maximum, the peak of the solar cycle. Here's everything you need to know about what's going on with the sun — and how it's going to affect the frequency and strength of the northern lights.

What is the solar cycle?

The sun is a fiery ball of electrically charged gas, and as this gas moves, it creates a magnetic field with a north and south pole. Approximately every 11 years, these magnetic poles flip, which causes increased solar activity on the surface of the sun, including sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

"Sometimes people refer to this 11-year cycle as the solar cycle or as the sunspot cycle but the whole cycle takes 22 years for the magnetic field to return to its original orientation," Jason Steffen, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells Travel + Leisure.  "Sunspots do have an 11-year cycle because they form on the sun and migrate toward its equator every 11 years. Sunspots don't care which direction the magnetic field is pointing."

What is solar maximum?

One way scientists like to measure solar activity is by counting the number of sunspots, or temporary areas of high magnetism, on the sun's surface. "The solar maximum is when there is the maximum number of sunspots in the 11-year sunspot cycle," says Steffen. "When sunspots are present, they cause a lot of solar weather — bursts, flares, coronal mass ejections, and the like.  So, there is a lot of 'magnetic activity' or 'solar activity' or 'space weather' during the maximum."

When will we reach solar maximum? 

In 2019, a panel convened by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, and International Space Environment Services (ISES) predicted that we'd reach solar maximum in 2025. But a new model produced by NOAA in October 2023 suggests we might reach solar maximum much sooner: between January 2024 and October 2024. The new model also predicts that solar maximum will see more activity than originally anticipated.

Still, it's likely that the solar maximum for our current solar cycle (Solar Cycle 25), will be on the relatively weak side compared to past solar cycles. Our last solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, was the weakest on record, peaking at 115 sunspots during solar maximum. Solar Cycle 2025 is expected to be stronger, peaking somewhere between 134 and 177 sunspots, according to the latest model. You can track the progression of the solar cycle at swpc.noaa.gov.

How will solar maximum affect the northern lights?

The aurora borealis and the aurora australis (the Southern Hemisphere’s version of the northern lights) occur when energized particles emitted from the sun during periods of high solar activity slam into the Earth's magnetic field. These particles fluoresce as they move toward the magnetic poles, creating the northern and southern lights. Since solar maximum is a period of the highest solar activity within a solar cycle, that means we can expect to see more frequent and more intense auroras.

Related: Northern Lights, Explained: What They Are and How to See Them

How else will the increased solar activity affect us?

Fortunately, we're fairly well protected from solar emissions, thanks to the Earth's magnetic field. But that doesn't mean they won't affect us. "If there are particularly large CMEs, they can affect satellites and some communications systems. It will also affect radio communications that rely on reflecting their signals off of the ionosphere," says Steffen. Some of these technologies may experience short blackouts during intense solar storms. 

Where can you see the northern lights?

The northern lights are best seen in an area called the auroral oval, or roughly 65–70 degrees north or south of the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, aurora hotspots include Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

The northern lights happen year-round, but you need dark skies to see them. Since the destinations that experience the northern lights are so far north, most of them experience 24 hours (or nearly 24 hours) of daylight in the summer, also known as the midnight sun. That means the best time to see the northern lights is from the early fall to the late spring when there are at least a few hours of darkness every night. Given that we're anticipated to reach solar maximum in 2024, it might be time to start planning your trip to a northern lights destination.

Related: 8 Places in the United States Where You May Spot the Northern Lights