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The Aurora Borealis – or the Northern Lights as they are also known – are one of nature’s most spectacular phenomena.

The eerie, cloud-like wisps of light, typically appearing in pale shades of green and pink, are the result of charged particles emitted from sun colliding with gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Scientifically speaking, the Aurora Borealis can occur anywhere around the globe. But they are primarily seen in the zone of the Earth that lies 1,550 miles from the magnetic North Pole in late autumn and early winter.

Here we list the five best places in the Northern Hemisphere to see the Aurora Borealis. Each is right in the Northern Lights belt, and well away major urban areas where ambient light (light pollution) dims the vividness of the Aurora Borealis.

The appropriately named Image Editor took the featured image, above.

 

1) The Lofoten Islands – Norway

 

Aurora in Lofoten Islands from Bastien Foucher on Vimeo.

Cheap Flights To Norway

2) Denali National Park – Alaska, USA

 

 

3) Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada – Yukon, Canada

 

 

4) Snaefellsnes peninsula – Iceland

 

 

5) Kangerlussuaq – Greenland

 

 

Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…

About the author

Brett AckroydBrett hopes to one day reach the shores of far-flung Tristan da Cunha, the most remote of all the inhabited archipelagos on Earth…as to what he’ll do when he gets there, he hasn’t a clue. Over the last 10 years, London, New York, Cape Town and Pondicherry have all proudly been referred to as home. Now it’s Copenhagen’s turn, where he lends his travel expertise to momondo.com.

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