Aurora Observed from Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

Photographer: Gísli Már Árnason Summary Author: Gísli Már Árnason Featured above is a panorama  of a lovely aurora taken from Thingvellir National Park, Iceland, on April 9, 2019. April is at the end of the aurora observing season here as the days are getting longer and the nighttime sky not dark enough to easily detect the northern lights. But because of Iceland's location, very close to the north polar aurora oval, we can pretty much see a nice display of the northern lights nearly every clear night during the winter months, even during a solar minimum. The global geomagnetic activity index of this display was listed as kp4 (modest intensity).
Thingvellir is where the first parliament (Althing general assembly) was established 930 and continued to convene until 1798. Today it’s very popular for aurora observing in winter time. Note the light pollution (at left) from Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital, which is approximately 38 miles (60 km) away. Photo taken on April 9, 2019.
Photo Details: NIKON D810A camera; 24 mm lens; f1.4; ƒ/2.2; ISO 3200; 3 second exposure of 5 images. Software: Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows).

Thingvellir National Park, Iceland Coordinates: 64.2558, -21.1299Related Links

North Iceland Aurora and Snowstorm
Gisli’s Flickr page


Student Links

Solar Activity and You!
Space Weather


Earth Observatory

Aurora Colors Skies Over Northern Europe