The Midnight Sun: Fill & Download for Free

Funny enough, I stumbled across the answer to this while looking for aurora forecasts:A Traveler’s Guide to the Aurora BorealisI would pick a place based on frequency of strong aurora, ease of travel, and proximity of places to view with little or no light pollution.They recommend places like Fairbanks Alaska, Fort McMurray Canada, and several places in Russia and Scandanavia though they can be hard to travel to.In Alaska, Fairbanks is not at the location of the greatest occurrence frequency of aurora, but you can see it from there and transportation and accommodation is relatively more available than Bettles, Coldfoot, Wiseman, Fort Yukon, Prudhoe Bay and Point Barrow. Besides, the aurora is brighter and more active the farther equatorward it occurs, so Fairbanks provides a good balance of occurrence frequency and activity.Canadian towns as good as Fairbanks for aurora viewing are Whitehorse, Dawson, Watson Lake, Yellowknife, Fort Nelson, Fort Smith, Fort McMurray, Flin Flon, Grand Rapids, Gillam and Churchill, and around southern Hudson Bay and James Bay. It is possible to drive to many of these areas, but the trip requires significant time, so for those who are time-limited, flying may be the best option. The Canadian rail system has a scheduled train across the auroral zone from Winnipeg to Churchill, Manitoba.The towns in Ontario north of the Great Lakes (Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Matagami and Chibougamau) are equatorward of the zone, but are places with good chances of seeing aurora on roughly five out of 10 clear, dark nights. Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton have about the same probability. Farther east, the weather is the predominant limiting factor. Unfortunately the region known as the Canadian Maritimes, southern Greenland and Iceland are usually cloud-bound and the aurora is not visible. We have had many reports of good viewing from Iceland, however.West of Alaska, the auroral zone follows the northern coast of Russia, where travel and accommodation are difficult at best. Northern Scandinavia offers excellent viewing, especially in the spring of the year. In fact, the only cruise ships with a regularly scheduled route under the auroral zone are the ships of “Hurtiruten,” the Norwegian Coastal Ferries. See hwww.hurtigruten.com/us/norway-voyages/ to plan a trip from September through March, since the skies are lit by the midnight sun from April through August.Where you stay is not as important as arranging for transportation outside town to avoid city lights, and to acquire a clear view of the northern horizon. Dress warmly, plan to watch the sky between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, although an active period can occur anytime during the dark hours. Active periods are typically about 30 minutes long, and occur every two hours, if the activity is high. The aurora is a sporadic phenomenon, occurring randomly for short periods or perhaps not at all. If you can monitor the short term forecast, it will reliably tell you what is expected in the next hour.When you should travel depends on the best chance for clear skies and little or no moonlight. For most destinations, that means December through April, for two weeks around the dark of the moon. The best for clear weather and darkness when there are also interesting daytime activities is February/March/April.If you fancy seeing the Aurora in Alaska, the Aurora forecast should help. Example forecast: