Good news for anyone who’s spent time trying to see a strong display of the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis and been frustrated when the glowing green phenomenon doesn’t show up.
Finland has been operating a service to predict when the elusive displays are more likely, especially in its northern regions, for twenty years, and has now announced a significant upgrade that should make the index both more accurate and easier to read.
The Finnish scientists analyzed data from 146,747 images from their tracking cameras, including 463 hours of aurora displays, and have set new threshhold values.
Another significant change is the introduction of the R-index (Revontuli Index), named after the Finnish word for aurora borealis. It is represented as a number in tens or hundreds. While the data and the index so far are for Finland, the system could be adopted by other countries with northern skies.
