# Can I see the aurora tonight? > The northern lights right now: NOAA's live aurora power and the latest Kp, how far from the pole each storm level reaches, and what makes a good night to look. HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/space-weather/aurora Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:42 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page. The latest storm reading is “No storm”, at Kp 3. Right now NOAA estimates that 35 billion watts are pouring into the northern aurora. The higher the Kp, the farther from the pole the lights reach. Whether you can see them tonight depends on three things: how far you are from the magnetic pole, how strong the storm is, and how dark and clear your sky is. - Planetary K-index (Kp), latest 3-hour value: 3 - Power flowing into the northern aurora (NOAA OVATION hemispheric power): 35,000,000,000 W - Solar wind speed measured upstream of Earth: 350 km/s - Time since Earth's last geomagnetic storm (Kp 5- or higher): 0 y 9 d 3 h ## Lights from the Sun What is the aurora? The Sun is a star, a ball of hot gas held together by its own gravity and lit by fusion in its core. It never stops blowing charged gas out into space, the solar wind. Earth has a shield against it: its magnetic field, a vast bubble we live inside. Some of the energy in the wind still gets in. It speeds up electrons, and Earth's magnetic field steers them down towards the polar regions. There they crash into oxygen and nitrogen high in the air. The gas lights up, much as a neon lamp does. That glow is the aurora: the northern lights in the north, the southern lights in the south. It shines between between 80 and 500 kilometres up. Oxygen gives green, and red higher up. Nitrogen adds blue and pink. Right now NOAA's model puts the power flowing into the northern aurora at 35 billion watts. ## Two rings around the poles The auroral oval The aurora does not cover the whole sky. It forms two rings, called ovals, one around each magnetic pole. They are centred on Earth's magnetic poles, not on the North and South Poles of the map. On a quiet night the edge of the northern oval lies at about 66 degrees of geomagnetic latitude. That is NOAA's rule of thumb. Each step up the Kp scale pushes the edge about 2 degrees further from the pole. In a moderate storm, aurora have been seen down to about 55 degrees, and in an extreme one down to about 40. You don't have to stand under the oval. From a hill with a clear view towards the pole, a bright aurora can be seen from as far as 1,000 kilometres away, low on the horizon. NOAA calls these relationships approximate. They are averages, and some nights don't follow them. ## What makes a good night Tips for looking It must be dark. The aurora may be there by day, but only the night shows it. That rules out the white summer nights in the far north. Get away from city lights. A full Moon makes the aurora look fainter too. The best hours are usually within an hour or two of midnight, NOAA says, between about 10 pm and 2 am local time. When the storm is strong, the active hours spread into the evening and the early morning. Look towards the pole: north in the northern half of the world, south in the southern half. A camera helps. Phone and camera sensors are sensitive enough to record aurora too faint for our eyes. Far from the pole, the lights often show first as a red glow, because the oxygen that glows red sits highest in the air and can be seen from farthest away. ## Nights to remember 10 May 2024 · 10 October 2024 On 10 May 2024 NOAA observed an extreme geomagnetic storm, the first since October 2003. Kp reached 9, the top of the scale. Aurora were seen far from the poles. Five months later, on 10 and 11 October 2024, a cloud from an X-class flare struck and NOAA observed a severe storm, one level below extreme. The aurora reached far from the poles again. Both came near the peak of Solar Cycle 25, when the Sun throws out the most eruptions. Sunspots have grown fewer since then: the latest monthly sunspot number is about 60. The last storm of any size ended 9.2 days ago. ## FAQ ### Can I see the aurora tonight? Look at the latest Kp, “No storm” right now, and at how far you are from the magnetic pole. Under the oval you can see aurora on most dark, clear nights. Far from it, you need a storm. NOAA's 30-minute aurora forecast shows where the oval is now. ### What time can I see the northern lights? Usually within an hour or two of local midnight, between about 10 pm and 2 am, NOAA says. In a strong storm the aurora can start earlier in the evening and last into the morning. It must be dark, so summer nights near the pole don't work. ### What Kp do I need to see the aurora? It depends on your geomagnetic latitude. At Kp 0 the oval's edge lies around 66 degrees, and each Kp step moves it about 2 degrees towards the equator. A storm starts at Kp 5. Most people far from the Arctic need a storm. ### Why is the aurora green? Green is the most common colour. It comes from oxygen about 100 kilometres up, glowing when electrons strike it. Oxygen higher up glows red, and nitrogen adds blue and pink. ### Why do photos show more colour than my eyes? Camera and phone sensors are more sensitive than our eyes in the dark. They can record aurora too faint for us to see, and its colours too. ## Related - [Geomagnetic storms](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/space-weather/geomagnetic-storms.md) - [What is the Sun doing right now?](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/the-sun/what-is-the-sun-doing-now.md) - [The Sun](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/the-sun.md) - [The solar wind](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/space-weather/solar-wind.md) The light you might see tonight began as a gust of wind from the Sun, days ago. Where would you go to wait for it? ## Sources - Diameter of a regulation football (size 5) (Measured, with error): [The IFAB: Laws of the Game, Law 2 – The Ball](https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/the-ball/) - Earth's circumference at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Equatorward edge of the auroral oval at Kp 0 (geomagnetic latitude) (Measured, with error): [NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: Tips on Viewing the Aurora](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora) - Geomagnetic latitude aurora have reached in a moderate (G2) storm (Estimated): [NOAA SWPC: NOAA Space Weather Scales](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation) - Geomagnetic latitude aurora have reached in an extreme (G5) storm (Estimated): [NOAA SWPC: NOAA Space Weather Scales](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation) - Great-circle distance between London and Sydney (Measured, with error): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Height of the aurora above Earth's surface (Measured): [NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: Aurora](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora); [NASA Science: Auroras](https://science.nasa.gov/sun/auroras/) - How far from under a bright aurora it can still be seen, low on the horizon (Measured, with error): [NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: Tips on Viewing the Aurora](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora) - How far the auroral oval's edge moves towards the equator per step of Kp (Measured, with error): [NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center: Tips on Viewing the Aurora](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora) - Kp level at which a geomagnetic storm begins (G1) (Measured): [NOAA SWPC: NOAA Space Weather Scales](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation); [NOAA SWPC: Planetary K-index](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index) - Kp level of an extreme geomagnetic storm (G5) (Measured): [NOAA SWPC: NOAA Space Weather Scales](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation) - Planetary K-index (Kp), latest 3-hour value (Measured, with error): [NOAA SWPC: Planetary K-index](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index); [NOAA SWPC: NOAA Space Weather Scales](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation) - Power flowing into the northern aurora (NOAA OVATION hemispheric power) (Measured, with error): [NOAA SWPC: Aurora - 30 Minute Forecast](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast) - Solar wind speed measured upstream of Earth (Measured): [NOAA SWPC: Solar Wind Data and Display Changes (30 June 2026)](https://www.spaceweather.gov/news/solar-wind-data-and-display-changes); [NOAA SWPC: SWPC home-page summary bar script (shows this file as "Solar Wind Speed ... km/sec")](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/modules/custom/swpc_summary/swpc_summary.js); [The Astrophysical Journal: Extremely Slow (Vsw < 300 km/s) Solar Winds (ESSWs) at 1 au: Causes of Extreme Geomagnetic Quiet at Earth (Tsurutani & Hajra 2022, ApJ 936, 155)](https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7444); [Journal of Geophysical Research: Extremely high speed solar wind: 29-30 October 2003 (Skoug et al. 2004, JGR 109, A09102)](https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JA010494); [Space Weather (AGU): On the Little-Known Consequences of the 4 August 1972 Ultra-Fast Coronal Mass Ejecta (Knipp et al. 2018, Space Weather 16)](https://doi.org/10.1029/2018SW002024) - Sunspot number, monthly mean (latest month) (Measured, with error): [NOAA SWPC: Observed solar cycle indices](https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/json/solar-cycle/observed-solar-cycle-indices.json); [SILSO, Royal Observatory of Belgium: SILSO data files](https://www.sidc.be/SILSO/datafiles) - The International Space Station's orbital speed (Measured): [NASA: Station Facts](https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/) - The Moon's average distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/) - The Sun's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Sun Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html) - Time since Earth's last geomagnetic storm (Kp 5- or higher) (Measured, with error): [GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam: Geomagnetic Kp index](https://kp.gfz.de/en/) - Time since the May 2024 storm reached G5 (Measured): [NOAA SWPC: G5 Conditions Observed!](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g5-conditions-observed)