Whether they're heli-skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, dog sledding, ice fishing, ice climbing, cross-country skiing, ice skating, ice carving, snowshoeing or skijoring, travelers will find Alaskans outside - and loving it! Winter enthusiasts can plan an action-packed itinerary on www.travelalaska.com.

 Northern Lights Viewing Can’t be Beat in Interior Alaska
By Melissa DeVaughn (Courtesy ATIA)

When my husband was a boy growing up in Denali National Park, he used to be spooked by the aurora borealis, those mysterious-looking lights that fill the northern skies like paint over a canvas. When the soft glow of lights would begin to flicker across the sky, fading in and out of focus in greens, pinks and whites, he swore they were specters. In fact, no matter how much his parents tried to explain to him, he thought they were shadowy ghosts, hovering above in the darkness. 

But he was equally as fascinated by the aurora or “northern lights,” as they’re more commonly called. This Far North phenomenon turns an average winter, fall or spring night into a widescreen extravaganza like nothing else. When you see the lights for the first time, there is often no words, no description that can match their magnificence. You say nothing; do nothing. You can only watch and wonder. Such beauty is a rare and oft-admired thing. 

So, we Alaskans are lucky to count the northern lights as one of our winter “attractions.” Searching for them is not quite like wildlife-viewing, in which if you look long enough you will definitely see an animal — a beaver, a rabbit, a moose or bear. No, the northern lights are on their own timetable, coming when atmospheric conditions align in such a way as to make their activity more predictable. The northern-lights watcher can only hope to be in Alaska when those conditions are right, and to be thankful for it when the aurora does comes. 

Auroras most often occur in the spring and fall because of Earth’s tilt in relation to the sun. But in the winter, when darkness prevails, the lights stand out even brighter and can be seen longer. 

In fact, the aurora borealis will dance stronger this year over Alaska, according to Aurora forecasters. Sunspots and solar flares are the root of the aurora, according to Charles Deehr, aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, who says the northern lights are caused by solar flares that ionize particles in the upper atmosphere. The charged particles are drawn through space to the magnetic north (and south) poles, where they travel down the poles like beads on a wire. When the particles hit the earth’s atmosphere, ribbons of purple, blue, red and green weave together, turning the winter sky into a celestial kaleidoscope.

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