Under the Green Sky

I was lying on the snow under the winter night sky. We were in some remote, dark place above the Arctic Circle. The temperature was way below freezing. Lying beside me is my wife.

No, we were not stranded in some horrific place, nor were we in a desperate situation. We were actually enjoying our time watching the ribbon-like glowing pattern in the sky, dance and change shapes right before our eyes. We were beholding the Northern Lights or also known as the Aurora Borealis.

To see the Northern Lights at least once in my lifetime is in my bucket list. After migrating and living in a part of the world that is considered “northern hemisphere” for 30 years and still not seeing it, I was willing to go even in the Arctic just to witness it.

However, several weeks before our scheduled trip to the Arctic, the Aurora Borealis decided to show up where we live, here in Iowa (photo below).

But we cannot cancel our trip to the Arctic Circle anymore, so we still went.

They say that the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle is more vibrant and different. For one, the Aurora I witnessed in Iowa was reddish pink, which is what is seen more in lower latitudes, as the usual green hue of the Aurora Borealis is usually hidden in more southern areas. And green Auroras was what we saw on this trip.

To further improve our chances, we signed up for a ‘Northern Lights tour’ with a small group. If we traveled this far already, why not go all out, right? These tours “almost” guarantee that you’ll see the lights as they were willing to drive 2 to 3 hours deep into the Arctic wilderness where it can be spotted, or find a conducive location without cloud cover, and extend the time up to the wee hours of the morning, just to chase the Aurora.

Unbeknownst to us, with the right condition and with a stroke of luck, the Aurora can be seen even in the heart of the city of Tromso, Norway where we were staying (photo below).

Though seeing the Aurora Borealis in a place where it was dark with minimal light pollution was still a different and surreal experience. On that Northern Light tour we joined, we drove for 40 minutes outside the city, and there we spent about 4 hours just soaking in the majestic beauty of the Aurora.

There is so much science behind the occurrence of the Northern Lights. I will not bore you with the details, but here’s a simple explanation by AI: “when charged particles from the sun, carried by the solar wind, collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere, guided by the planet’s magnetic field towards the poles, these collisions excite atoms (like oxygen and nitrogen), causing them to release energy as colorful light, creating the dancing displays we see, similar to how neon signs work.”

From the above photos, you can see that the Northern Light is greenish in hue. During the tour, as the night deepens, the color became more intense and the green became more brilliant. It really appears like an alien spaceship had landed causing a green radioactive luminescence.

The above photos I took was with an iPhone. Below are photos shot by our tour guide that he shared with us, taken with a DSLR camera. I admit the quality of the photos were better because his camera was nicer. Ok, he’s more skilled too.

Besides taking us to the secluded place to view the Aurora, the tour company also provided us with snow boots and winter overall jackets, so we can stay warm through the night and even lie or sit on the ground which was covered with snow. They also gave us food – hot dogs made from reindeer meat that we cooked over a fire, hot chocolate and tea, and cookies. I guess if in case we did not see the Aurora they can at least console us with the food. Not that night – we got more than generous display of the spectacular light show.

Here’s our group huddled around the fire, trying to keep warm and cooking the hot dogs, which I hope were not from Santa Claus’ reindeers.

It was an unforgettable experience indeed. My only complaint is that there was no toilet facilities in that wilderness, so I had to take a leak a couple of times behind some bushes and leave my mark on the pristine Arctic snow under the Northern Lights. I’m sure after we’re gone, the wild animals in that area were wondering what kind of weird creature was trying to claim territory of their habitat.

Here’s a short time lapse video I took of the “dancing” Aurora Borealis:

From the land of the green sky,

Pinoytransplant

(*we traveled December 2025)