Nortern Lights Cruise

Imagine yourself standing on the cruise ship’s deck as a spectacular show of green and purple lights dances over the starry Arctic night sky. If you go on a cruise above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway or Svalbard Island between late fall and early spring, you are more likely to see the northern lights, also called the aurora borealis.

Cruise in the heart of the Northern Lights belt

From the Lofoten Islands to the North Cape, the coast of Northern Norway is covered by a belt of aurora borealis. This makes Northern Norway an ideal location to witness this occurrence. In fact, this is the best place on Earth to watch the Northern Lights. You can view the Northern Lights during the day in the middle of winter on Svalbard (Spitsbergen), which lies a little further from this belt. The coasts of the Norwegian counties of Tromso and Finnmark have the highest occurrence due to their proximity to the Arctic Circle and relatively warm winter climate, making northern Norway an appealing destination for anyone interested in seeing this meteorological phenomenon.

What are the Northern Lights?

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, begin their lives on the sun. After severe solar storms, the sun’s surface is showered with electrically charged particles. There are several that head in Earth’s direction. When they do, they are guided to the North and South Poles by the planet’s magnetic fields. The particles hit the upper atmosphere in a ring pattern that revolves around the magnetic poles. Energy is released as light that we can see from Earth in a process that is comparable to what happens inside a fluorescent lamp. The average altitude at which the Northern Lights can be seen is about 100 kilometers.

Where can you see the Northern Lights?

The Northern Lights, as the name implies, are particularly associated with the arctic regions. The zone with the highest concentration of these events is a 2500 km-wide ring that centers on the magnetic north pole. The so-called auroral zone encompasses much of the northern hemisphere, beginning in the Arctic and extending southward across northern Scandinavia, the island of Iceland, the southern tip of Greenland, and on into northern Canada, Alaska, and the northern coast of Siberia.

Explore Northern Lights cruise

Look up at the Northern Lights, the most beautiful light show on Earth, while you admire Norway’s beautiful fjords and winding waterways.