Northern lights webcams: how to use live aurora cams to check the sky

Live northern lights webcams are the quickest honest check of what is happening in the sky right now. If cameras near you or slightly poleward of you show green arcs and stars, conditions are real; if they show cloud, the Kp number does not matter. Our webcams page collects scientific all-sky cameras, open road cameras and tourism live streams from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, the UK and the southern hemisphere.

This guide explains the three kinds of camera, how to read them, and how to combine them with the forecast. It is the visual half of our forecast routine.

Three kinds of aurora camera

We only show an image or embedded player when the operator's licence allows it, such as Norway's road cameras under the Norwegian Licence for Open Government Data or the University of Calgary's open all-sky data. Other cameras are listed as links to the operator's own page.

How to read an all-sky image

All-sky cameras such as the University of Calgary's TREx RGB imager in Yellowknife, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Poker Flat camera or the Swedish Institute of Space Physics Kiruna camera photograph the whole sky through a fisheye lens.

• The centre is straight up. The edge of the circle is the horizon all the way round.
• Check the orientation label. Many all-sky images are drawn as if you were lying on your back looking up, so east and west can be swapped compared with a map. The operator's page says which way north is.
• Aurora shows as arcs or bands across the circle, usually stretched east to west. A bright arc close to the poleward edge means the aurora is there but low for that site; an arc through the centre means it is overhead.
• Stars mean clear sky. A smooth grey or orange glow without stars is cloud lit by town lights. A huge white blob is the Moon.
• Read the timestamp. Images are usually labelled in UTC. A frozen image from three hours ago tells you nothing about now.

Road cameras: an underrated tool

Norway's public roads administration publishes open images from hundreds of road cameras, and Finland's Fintraffic does the same. They are aimed at the road, not the sky, but on strong nights they catch the aurora over passes and fjords. They are excellent for one question that matters a lot: is it clear there?

Near Tromsø, the E8 Skibotn camera looks along the inland valley that tour operators drive to when the coast is cloudy. Near Abisko, E10 Bjørnfjell sits on the border pass. In Finland the Kilpisjärvi Saana and Saariselkä Kaunispää road cameras face fells that are popular viewing spots.

Live streams by region

These are some of the cameras we list. Each link opens the camera page with a live image, a player or a link to the operator.

Norway and Svalbard

• Lyngen North: a north-facing stream near the Lyngen Alps.
• Tromsø Geophysical Observatory all-sky camera at Skibotn.
• Kjell Henriksen Observatory, Svalbard: in the polar night it can show daytime aurora.

Sweden and Finland

• Lights Over Lapland, Abisko National Park.
• Starlapland Levi and Starlapland Kilpisjärvi: north-facing streams.
• Apukka Resort, Rovaniemi.
• FMI Auroras Now!: the Finnish Meteorological Institute's all-sky camera network, alongside its magnetometer readings.

Iceland and Greenland

• Aðaldalshraun real-time sky camera in north Iceland, near Mývatn.
• Kangerlussuaq Airport West, Greenland.

Canada and Alaska

• AuroraMAX, the Canadian Space Agency's long-running Yellowknife camera.
• Churchill Northern Lights Cam by explore.org.
• Fairbanks Aurora Camera by explore.org.

Mid-latitudes

• Keweenaw Mountain Lodge all-sky camera and the Marquette aurora cam in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
• Eshaness Lighthouse, Shetland, and Embleton, Northumberland.
• In the south: Mt John, Lake Tekapo and Beaumaris, Tasmania.

The full list, with a map, is on the webcams page.

Using cameras with the forecast

1. Start with the oval. Open the live map. Cameras are plotted on top of NOAA's OVATION forecast.
2. Look poleward of you. If you are in southern Finland, check cameras in Lapland. If you are in Montana, check Alberta and Saskatchewan. Aurora usually appears there first, then moves equatorward as activity grows.
3. Look for clear sky near you. A nearby road camera with stars beats any cloud forecast.
4. Go when both agree. Aurora on the poleward cameras plus clear sky near you is the best signal you will get.
5. Do not wait for a camera to show it overhead. By the time a mid-latitude camera shows a strong display, the best of it may be passing. Leave when the poleward cameras light up.

What a camera cannot tell you

A camera exposes for seconds and often boosts colour, so it can show a green arc that looks like grey haze to your eyes. That is not fakery; the light is there, and your phone will usually record it too (see how to photograph the northern lights with a phone). But it means a dramatic webcam frame does not promise a dramatic view by eye, especially at mid-latitudes.

Cameras also go dark: scientific imagers switch off in daylight, in the bright summer months and often around full moon, and live streams restart. If a camera looks wrong, check its timestamp and try a neighbour.

When you see aurora on the cameras and want to know your own odds, open your place on the tonight page or set an alert so the next clear, active night comes to you.