THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * Saturday/Sunday, November 18 - 19, 2017 | D7

The northern lights don’t always appearon demand. Here’s how to up your

chances of getting an eyeful

Perhaps it’s the thrill ofthe chase: The lights are no-toriously hard to predict,which only adds to the quix-otic nature of the quest. Andthey can be fleeting—some-times lasting mere minutes.

For those who tended tonod off during Earth Scienceclass, a quick refresher: Thenorthern lights are causedwhen charged particles fromthe sun crash into atoms inthe Earth’s atmosphere. Thecolor of the aurora dependson the kind of atoms in-volved, and the altitude atwhich they collide.

The lights are most com-monly seen at the 60th paral-lel and above, latitudes thatspan Scandinavia, Canada,southern Greenland andnorthern Russia. In the U.S.,Alaska offers the best odds, al-though northern states, from

Minnesota to Maine, often geta glimpse. But even withinthose areas, the lights only oc-cur within the auroral oval, anarrow belt that encircles themagnetic north pole. Theoval’s contours change con-stantly, expanding and con-tracting—“like dough,” saidJan Sortland of the travel firm

Norwegian Adventures. Andthey do so at the speed of you-know-what. At one point lastfall the oval extended as far asnorthern Italy. But soon, in itsflitting way, it retracted again.

Be warned: Many tour op-erators that promise a seat atnature’s light show may notbe able to deliver, cautioned

Mr. Sortland. The Aurorawon’t appear unless specificcriteria are met. True dark isthe first requirement; ambi-ent light is the enemy. Youneed to stay far from citiesand roads. The next? Clearskies. These are harder to ar-range. Sites such as Canada’sNorthwest Territories and

northern Norway, where theweather tends to be crisp andclear, are ideal. Cloudierplaces can be iffy.

Here, a brief guide to view-ing the lights, zeroing inplaces and tours that offerworthy diversions other thanlightpeeping—in case a cer-tain diva doesn’t show.

Lodging—Hot and ColdLuxury and the Arctic Circle are, for themost part, mutually exclusive. One key ex-ception: Loggers Lodge, deep in the woodsof Swedish Lapland. A large, elegantly fur-nished one-bedroom cabin, it comes with aprivate chef (housed nearby). It’s alsoequipped with an outdoor hot tub, whichmakes a tough-to-beat lightpeeping perch(from about $1,780 a night, logger-slodge.com). Over on the west coast ofGreenland, the Hotel Arctic, while decidedlymore austere, offers something no land-locked facility could: a humbling view of thelooming icebergs of Disko Bay (from about$230 a night, hotelarctic.com). Surely the

widest-angle perspective on the aurora canbe found on Scotland’s Shetland Isles,where guests at a cottage just in front ofthe recently restored Sumburgh Lighthousecan watch the Merry Dancers, as the lightsare locally known, streak above the inter-secting waters of the Atlantic and theNorth Sea (from about $730 a night, shet-landlighthouse.com). And at the Iso-Syotehotel, in Finnish Lapland, you can bunkdown in a large glass-walled igloo (fromabout $94 a night, hotelli-isosyote.fi). An-other literally cool shelter is the SorrisnivaIgloo Hotel, in Alta, Norway. Carved fromice, this surprisingly intricate structureopens in January before disappearing, drip

by drip, in the spring (from about $300 anight, sorrisniva.no). The Icehotel in Jukkas-jarvi, also in Swedish Lapland, is even morewhimsical; every year dozens of artistssculpt an elaborate dwelling out of hugeblocks of ice. As at the Sorrisniva Igloo Ho-tel, overnight guests are outfitted with ex-pedition-level sleeping bags to ward off thechill. Still not persuaded? The Icehotel re-cently expanded, adding Icehotel 365, aheated structure which, as its name implies,is available year round. No thermal sleepingbags here—the new suites at 365 even in-clude toasty bathrooms with saunas (fromabout $170 for a heated room and about$250 for a cold room, icehotel.com).

Cold-Comfort CampingThe Arctic camps set up by Nordic Luxury, anIcelandic tour company, provide a thrillingly at-mospheric way to experience the lights. Thesetemporary villages of plush tents—completewith sheepskin rugs and heaters—are designedfor private groups of up to 15 and can be in-stalled in various parts of the country. Glampers

can explore on horseback, fat bikes or buggiesor, if there’s a river in the neighborhood, dosome fishing (Nordic Luxury supplies all thegear). And while these mobile camps pack it income winter, there’s still a good chance for au-rora sightings from August through October(from about $7,070 a night for up to 4 people,nordicluxury.is).

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A private encampment beneath Langjokull Glacier in Iceland arranged by operator Nordic Luxury.

THE LATE SHOW An 11 p.m. view ofThingvellir National Park, in Iceland, where

the northern lights make an immodestspectacle in the winter months.

Aurora-Stalking ToursSeveral hotels in the far north offer nocturnal excursions, usinghorses, dogsleds, snowmobiles, and other conveyances to tote theirguests deep into the snowy wilderness. At least one hotel, the Finn-ish Iso-Syöte (see “Lodging—Hot and Cold”), relies on a team offleet-footed reindeer. A number of touring companies also build en-tire itineraries around the lights: for instance, Chasing Aurora, afour-night tour organized by the Canadian firm of Entrée Destina-tions. The journey begins with a skiplane flight to the northern cityof Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon territory, then continues, via dog-sled, from one lodge to the next. On day three, guests are taught totake charge of a canine team—a skill rarely needed but sure to im-press your French bulldog back home—then let loose on their ownsleds (from about $4,302 a person, entreedestinations.com).

If a trip to the Yukon greatly improves your prospects of seeingthe lights, Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Barents Sea,makes it a near shoo-in: It’s so far north that it experiences polarnight—known locally as “the dark season”—from September toMay, when the aurora can shine for 24 hours a day. Norway’s Hur-tigruten Svalbard (formerly Spitsbergen Travel) offers several tours,including one that lets you track the lights from the deep comfort ofheated Snowcat vehicles (from about $2,093 a person, spitsbergen-travel.com).

Mushing with Entrée Destinations in the Yukon, a prime spotin Canada to see the northern lights.

Forecasting theFlickerMost countries in Light-landoffer aurora forecasts of onesort or another. In Iceland,where the weather can turnon the proverbial Icelandickroná, there’s one online fore-cast for aurora sightings, an-other for cloud cover (en.ve-dur.is). In Minnesota, radiostations sound “northernlights” alerts when the aurorais near. Some hotels, includingFinland’s Santa’s Hotel Au-rora, even send alerts to theirguests via text message. Butbe prepared to sprint—by thetime you’ve raced out to seethe lights, the sky may beblue-black again. Good thing,then, that the hotel offersother diversions, too, includingcross-country skiing, ice fish-ing and nighttime snowshoe-ing excursions, where you canstomp around in the dark,ever hopeful, that the lightsmight appear (from about$190 a night, santashotels.fi).

WINTERdoesn’thave toequalgloom. At

least not above the Arctic Cir-cle when the northern lights,also known as the aurora bore-alis (or simply aurora), turnup. When these neon-brightstreaks of color—green, pink,violet—zip across the skies,the season becomes distinctlylively. Between August andMarch each year, lightpeepersfrom Texas to Thailand maketheir way north to witness theshow. “Northern light tours areour most requested tours rightnow,” said Marc Télio, ownerof Vancouver-based EntréeDestinations. “There’s a crazyamount of interest in them.”

BY PENELOPE ROWLANDS

KAYA SURVIVED!She was born 4 monthsearly and spent more than5 months in the hospital.

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