The Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis are caused when a solar storm lets off gasses and some of the energy and particles travel through the magnetic fields at the north pole into the earth's atmosphere and interact with gasses in our atmosphere. The result is colorful displays of light in our sky. Different colors are created by different gasses. The same phenomena occurs at the south pole and is called the Southern Lights or Aurora Australis

One factor in predicting the potential for seeing the Northern Lights is geomagnetic activity. Geomagnetic activity is based on solar activity and varies s...