Norðurljós Nights in Iceland 2022

From August to October 2022 I had the amazing pleasure to be in Iceland, a dream I have been working towards for many years. I will put the full trip up as a separate 'Expedition' page on this website soon I hope, but there is enough interest in auroras to warrant its own page... and this is it!

Early in September as the nights got darker I got my first glimpses of aurora borealis or Norðurljós (Northern Lights) from Iceland. I had been excited to see an aurora for the first time the year before in southern Sweden but I knew that those few sightings were quite minor aurora events. The first ones I saw in Iceland were quite minor too - small grey-green arcs above the horizon. During September however, together with two great aurora buddies from Arizona, I witnessed some extraordinary powerful auroras that at times took up the entire sky with incredible moving, shimmering, dancing, curling, ghostly light displays. The auroras on each night had their own characters that were further enhanced by the different locations and conditions. Below are four nights I have selected to present here with a few photo for each night.

I would love you feedback and hear of your aurora experiences or plans. Message me on Messenger or email me at ashley.n.king@gmail.com

Night One

This night's aurora, like many below, I photographed from different locations near the village of Laugarvatn, almost 80kms east of Reykjavik. The photos on this night were from a clearing on the hillside about 20mins hike north from the village.

For me and my two fab aurora companions this was the first powerful aurora we had seen so there was a constant series of gasps and exclamations in the dark as we watched the amazing sights unfolding before us. Myself and one of the companions are photographers and we have never had to spin the cameras around on their tripods so much as we did that evening.

The craziest thing is when the aurora moves right over the top of you and you look up to see it coming down on you as in this next photo.

It had been almost entirely green aurora and at times bright enough for us to see quite well the small clearing and the forest around us but then some purples, reds and yellows started to appear.

Night Two

The aurora forecast looked promising (KP index 6 on a scale to 9) so we set off for a 6 hour drive to an area on the southeast coast called Diamond Beach. Here, a glacial lagoon with icebergs called Jökulsárlón, connects to the sea by a short narrow channel and we hoped to see the Northern Lights over the lagoon. We got what we hoped for.

Like usual from our limited experience, auroras often start with green arch across the northern part of the sky. This is followed by more active ribbons or curtains of patterns in the west and the north of the sky as well as directly overhead at times. We had set ourselves up on the southeast side of the lagoon to take advantage of the these angles. So it was quite a surprise later in the 4 hour event to suddenly find an impressive part of the aurora behind me to the east. I wasn't planning to have a carpark in the foreground of my aurora photos but....

When there were quieter aurora moments during the evening I turned to trying to capture long exposure photos of the icebergs on the lagoon. This was quite tricky because they were barely visible so very difficult to get the right focus. Another challenge is it being a tidal lagoon so there is always some movement of the icebergs due to this. To make matters worse icebergs flip or break on occasions causing varying degrees of disruption to the these big chunks of ice that have broken away from the glacial face a few kilometres away. So, I was a happy that a few photos made it through these challenges.

Because of the location and because the aurora was so varied and beautiful this was my favourite aurora night. Even though the three of us who had only met a few days before had to sleep, unprepared, in the car with temperatures down to 4 degrees Celsius... it was worth it!

Night Three

It wasn't perhaps one of the grandest aurora nights but what was magical about it for me was the presence of the moon and brightly lit up clouds. I had been told, or perhaps just assumed, that auroras would be washed-out by strong light sources such as the moon and light pollution from the ground but it wasn't the case, I found that it actually added another dimension to the lightshow

It started out with a simple but very bright and bold ring almost overhead. The yellow light in the building is my attic room while staying in Laugarvatn.

Then these long thin tendrils of green started to appear from behind the mountain to our west, snaking and shimmering their way slowly across the sky to the east. Here they began to bunch and coil up around the moon. To the right, light from a greenhouse farm lit up the clouds with their warm lights.

This unusual night also produced one of my favourite aurora scenes and photos with its glorious multi-coloured curtain and green bird of prey swooping in.

Night Four

This night was a double surprise. There was only some very minor aurora activity during the evening so we took a break sometime after 11pm thinking we probably won't be seeing anything tonight. We were sitting around the dining table in our cabin at Laugarvatn having a good chat and drink. After many nights of aurora activity keeping us awake we were sort of relieved to be out of the cold and that it will be nice not having to stay up to 3am.

Then the phone rings. Late for someone to be calling we think. All we heard was one word "Aurora!" - the voice of the lovely Icelandic lady that runs the place. We had been caught off-guard. We ran outside to find the sky had exploded into a huge display. There was no time to get away from the town and its lights, we started shooting from right outside our door... hence the streetlights in the photo above..

That night we saw the strongest aurora reds we have seen. The 'curtains' seemed to stretch further into space than we had seen before too - It's incredible to think these can stretch to almost 1000 kilometres.

Another interesting thing of the night was the lines of clouds. I felt they added to spectacle - sometimes interfering and at other times enhancing. Eventually, in small stages, stopping to photograph new features, we migrated away from the town lights to the shore of the lake.

At about 1am the show slowed and seemed to be winding down. We had rushed out of our cabin without getting properly rugged up for the near freezing conditions. One of my aurora buddy's hands were seriously cold so we started to pack up. Then the second surprise of the night... once again the sky exploded with some of the best displays we have seen.

From my experience the auroras have mostly been in the northern and western quadrants of the sky, less so in the east and very little in the south. This night though the eastern quadrant, across the lake and behind the clouds, while not showing any very distinct patterns was flooded with bright green.

The phantom-host has faded quite,
Splendour and Terror gone--
Portent or promise--and gives way
To pale, meek Dawn.

Herman Melville

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