Northern Lights Dazzle in Appearance Over Northern Greece

The northern lights lit up much of Thessaloniki, Serres, Xanthi, and other cities in northern Greece on Sunday in a rare spectacle so far away from the North Pole.

The rare phenomenon was also observed in neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey.

Ο ουρανός της Θεσσαλονίκης με το "Βόρειο Σέλας" από τη Λεπτοκαρυά Πιερίας. pic.twitter.com/ewpXtnA1KG

— Πίθηκος Τάπας (@PithikosTapas) November 5, 2023

The aurora borealis, dancing green and red lights, have captivated people for millennia, and appear during geomagnetic storms. Disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field result in hours of bright auroras at both high and low latitudes.

The light spectacle is usually most visible near Earth’s magnetic north and south poles, where the lights are called the aurora australis.

They are caused by the interaction of particles coming from the sun, known as the solar wind. The particles can travel millions of miles, and some eventually reach the Earth. They are then channeled to the polar regions by Earth’s magnetic field.

Depending on which gas molecules are hit and where they are in the atmosphere, different amounts of energy are released as different wavelengths of light; oxygen produces green light, while nitrogen causes the sky to glow red.

Son Dakika | Dünya'mıza G3 seviyesinde çok güçlü bir jeomanyetik (solar) fırtına çarptı. Bu jeomanyetik fırtına sebebiyle Avrupa'da birçok yerde kuzey (kutup) ışıkları görüldü. İşte bazı fotoğraflar… pic.twitter.com/xbbtxGWSxh

— Hava Forum (@HavaForum) November 5, 2023

The next years will be the best time to see the northern lights

Space.com explains that their occurrence is dependent on solar activity. The more active the sun, the higher the chance of vibrant aurora shows  — and that’s exactly why we can expect incredible auroras over the next few years.

The sun has been continuously gaining strength since the last solar minimum in December 2019. This “aurora season” is looking particularly impressive as the sun nears its highest rate of activity — solar maximum — during its approximately 11-year solar cycle. The solar cycle describes a period of solar activity driven by the sun’s magnetic field and indicated by the frequency and intensity of sunspots visible on the surface.

Experts previously estimated that the sun’s activity would peak in 2025 but some recent estimations suggest it could perhaps arrive as early as the end of 2023.

Predictions are based on long-term historical records of sunspot numbers, advanced statistics and models of the solar dynamo — the flow of hot, ionized gases within the sun that generate our star’s magnetic field which in turn drives the solar cycle.

As with any prediction, there is a level of uncertainty. Scientists cannot pinpoint exactly when solar maximum will occur but we do know it’s on its way.

Currently for solar cycle 25, by synthesizing all published predictions, the time interval for the cycle maximum ranges from late 2023 to early 2025″ Frédéric Clette, solar physicist, World Data Center Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) and Solar Influence Data analysis Center (SIDC) told Space.com in an email.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) recently issued a revised prediction that suggests solar maximum may occur between January and October 2024.

The current solar cycle is classified as “moderate” by scientists studying the number of sunspots and comparing them to the long-term reference index. The “moderate” ranking means the current cycle is more intense than the previous Solar Cycle 24 but lower than previous cycles (23 and 22).