A Guide to Spotting the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights)

Seeing the night sky dancing during an aurora is on rightly many people’s bucket lists.

Watching solar activity painting the Earth’s atmosphere shades of purple, green, red and white is an unforgettable experience. Aurora hunters often head to northern countries to glimpse this natural phenomenon, to destinations like Iceland or Canada.

But the north’s Aurora Borealis has an equally spectacular but much lesser-known sibling: the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights.

Skygazers and space tourists take note: Patagonia could be the new destination for Aurora hunters. Here’s why.

What Are the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis)?

The Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, are essentially the same as the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, just in a different hemisphere.

During an aurora, a natural electrical phenomenon makes streams and luminous blobs of colour, like lights, appear in night skies. This event occurs predominantly around the northern and southern magnetic pole.

The Southern Lights appear over the southern magnetic pole and spread outwards, often as far north as Argentina, Chile, and Patagonia.

How Do the Southern Lights Form?

The Earth’s magnetic field is strongest at its magnetic poles, the north and south poles. This magnetic force attracts charged particles that have travelled 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun to our planet.

These atoms, released during solar flares, penetrate the Earth’s magnetic shield. They then interact and collide with particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, some 60-240 miles up (100-400km). During these impacts, the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the upper layers release the luminous emissions we can see from the surface of the Earth.

Aurora hunters can identify the types of molecules hurtling through the atmosphere by the colour of the light burst, called a photon. Oxygen usually creates white, red, or green colours, while nitrogen is typically responsible for the splashes of purple or blue.

Auroras happen daily; we associate them with winter because we can see them better in winter’s long and dark skies. Summer’s long, bright days near the poles obscure the auroras.

What Colours and Shapes Can You See in the Southern Lights?

People lucky enough to see an aurora may see these rainbow colours:

• Pink
• White
• Orange
• Blue
• Violet
• Red
• Green
• Yellow

Furthermore, there are six principal categories of auroral shapes for spotters to identify. These shapes, which continually shift and transform during an aurora display, are:

• Bands
• Coronas
• Patches
• Rays
• Curtains
• Veils

Auroras are one of nature’s most beguiling shows. So why are the Southern Lights relatively unknown?

When Is the Best Time to See the Southern Lights?

The best time to see the Southern Lights, with the longest and darkest night skies, is during the Austral winter. May to September are the prime months, but they may be seen in the southern hemisphere from March to November.