Lapland Aurora Cams: Finland & Swedish Lapland

How much Kp does Lapland need?

Less than almost anywhere people actually travel to. The auroral oval, the ring where aurora is most frequent, lies over northern Scandinavia even when the geomagnetic field is calm. The further north you are inside Lapland, the lower the Kp you need:

The Finnish Meteorological Institute puts it in plainer terms: in northern Lapland aurora shows on roughly three out of four clear, dark nights, while southern Finland gets perhaps 10–20 aurora nights a year. In Lapland the question is almost never “is there aurora?” and almost always “is it clear?”.

When to watch

Season: late August to mid-April. From late May to mid-July the sun barely sets north of the Arctic Circle, and none of these cameras gets dark at all; the ranking above will say “Sun does not reach −12°”. The equinox months, September–October and March, are often the most active geomagnetically, and autumn adds unfrozen lakes that mirror the sky.

Time of night: local magnetic midnight in Lapland falls around 23:00–00:30 local time, and the most active stretch of a typical night is roughly 21:00–02:00. Substorms come in bursts of 10–30 minutes, so a camera that looks empty at 22:00 can be full of light at 22:20.

Polar night: around Kilpisjärvi and Utsjoki the sun does not rise for several weeks from early December, so the cameras there can show aurora in the middle of the afternoon on an active day.

Where the cameras are, and what each one is good for

• Kilpisjärvi is the most northerly camera here (69°N), between Saana fell and the Norwegian border. If any Lapland camera shows aurora on a quiet night, it is this one.
• Levi and Sodankylä are north-facing sky cams by the same operator (Starlapland). Comparing them shows how far south an arc reaches.
• Luosto fell looks over Pyhä-Luosto National Park from a fell top, well away from town light.
• Posio runs from the roof of Hotel Lapin Satu, just south of the Arctic Circle.
• Abisko is a science all-sky camera: a fisheye image of the whole sky, refreshed every minute or so, from one of the stations around the EISCAT 3D radar. It is the camera to check for the Swedish mountains, and the one most likely to show aurora overhead.
• The Arctic Circle camera is a family’s live view over a lake on the line itself in Swedish Lapland, where they also measure snow depth for the Swedish weather service.
• Överkalix and Arjeplog are further south on the Swedish side. Arjeplog is a lake view over Hornavan rather than a sky camera, so it shows bright displays over the hills best.

Abisko and Kiruna: the Swedish side

Abisko sits on the south shore of Lake Torneträsk, about 40 km from the Norwegian border, at 68.4°N. Mountains to the west wring the moisture out of Atlantic weather before it arrives, leaving a patch of sky over the lake that is clear noticeably more often than the land around it; locals call it the blue hole. The Abisko Scientific Research Station has studied the northern sky here for more than a century, and the Aurora Sky Station chairlift takes visitors up Nuolja for a view above the valley. Kiruna, about 95 km east by road or the iron-ore railway, is the gateway: it has the airport, the Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi, and the Esrange rocket range, and needs about Kp 1–2 for overhead aurora.

If you are choosing between Finnish and Swedish Lapland, the aurora is the same; the weather is what differs from night to night. Comparing the Abisko image with Kilpisjärvi, about 110 km away across the border, shows whether a clear patch is local or covers the whole fell country.

Where to watch in person

Get away from town light and look north. Good, well-known spots: the shore of Lake Kilpisjärvi below Saana; Kaunispää fell top at Saariselkä; the Ounasvaara hill in Rovaniemi; the fell tops at Luosto and Pyhä; and on the Swedish side the Aurora Sky Station on Nuolja above Abisko, where the rain shadow of the mountains around Lake Torneträsk gives clearer skies than the surrounding area. Inland Lapland is generally drier than the Norwegian coast, which is one reason aurora tours from Tromsø often drive toward the Finnish border.

Cloud is the real forecast

Check cloud before Kp. Use the cloud percentage in the list above, then the radar and cloud maps from the Finnish Meteorological Institute or SMHI. Breaks in cloud are common behind a passing front, and the cameras let you see whether one has opened up before you go outside.