Aurora australis visible in Ushuaia ?

[diego7david]

anyone know more about the abililty to view the Aurora australis or southern lights in the sky from Ushuaia or other southern regions of Argentina? times of year (i presume sometime in winter) ? .......frequency?........common?........uncommon......? from other locations too? i've seen spectacular films about the northern lights and wonder if their opposite are visible down here........thx...

 

[fedecc]

I don't think so, is not south enough. You would have to go to Antartida.

 

[diego7david]

i just found this youtube video of the aurora australis over antarctica

quite something
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icugqEEOgkg

according to wikipedia, some of the giant solar flares have produced auroras visible almost to the equators people in cuba have seen the northern lights people in boston etc. of course those are more rare. anyone from ushuaia read this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgZeqQBXDR8&NR=1
great video of northern lights which are seen all over canada

 

[diego7david]

my gosh this web site, baexpats, is well connected. i'm still looking up northern, southern lights, aurora borealis etc and 30 minutes after i post here my posting on baexpats comes up on google search for aurora australis ! wow! we better watch what we say!

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I think you are probably right when you say it can probably only be seen under exceptional circumstances because places like Tierra del Fuego are not as far south as they feel. For example, in the northern hemisphere, Belfast, Northern Ireland is on the same latitude as Ushuaia is in the southern. In Europe, people who want to see the Aurora Borealis have to travel much further north - half way up Norway at the right time of year. And that's with the northern magnetic pole in roughly the same quadrant: the southern magnetic pole is currently over the other side of Antarctica to Argentina.

 

[wreReynolds]

I understand that the sun (which generates the particles that cause the auroras) is in a quiet phase at the moment, meaning very little auroras. But you certainly see them in the south of Argetina. I have seen the northern version at latitude 46, although admittedly, that is very rare. Either way it takes luck. Even the high arctic (where I have worked) they only happen once in a while.