Where to see the northern lights?

Technically, if the activity is strong enough, the northern lights can be seen virtually anywhere in the world.
This does not mean that you can just look out of your window in Rome and see a northern light, not at all. There have been some extreme solar events that have brought northern lights as far south as Andalusia, in southern Spain (in the year 1938, during the Spanish civil war). However, the real chances to see a northern light are roughly above the Polar Arctic Circle, or around it.


As a part of a previous post, I explained that we need to get rid of light pollution, landscape obstacles (we need to see as much sky as possible) and we need to try to see northern lights at night. During daytime, the chances of seeing northern lights are none.

If you live in the U.S., Anchorage or Fairbanks are among the best places to see them
If you live in Canada, Ontario or the Yukon territory are the best places
In Russia, you need to be in northern territories, such as the Kola peninsula or Murmansk 
In Europe, on the other hand, there are several places where you can see the northern lights:

• Iceland: Roughly any part of the country is good enough
• Scotland: the northern tip of Scotland
• Scandinavia: roughly anywhere in the Lapland, which comprises Norway, Sweden and Finland. The best places to chase the northern lights are near Abisko (Sweden), the Inari lake (Finland) and Tromsø.

Tromsø, being one of the largest cities above the Polar Arctic Circle (together with Murmansk), is considered the best place in the world to see the northern lights. The mild climate given by the Gulf stream (note that "mild" means "not extremely cold" in this high latitudes) and the infrastructure of the city with the northernmost university in the world (and therefore, the best night life above the arctic circle), makes it a perfect place to see the northern lights.

Several tour operators offer nightly tours to chase the northern lights, but it is possible to see them from inside the island in dark places, such as the Prestvannet lake or the beach (Telegrafbukta, in the southern tip of Tromsø). 

The next picture, for example, was taken from a window at home in Tromsø in January 2012:

ISO 400, f=3.5, 5 seconds, 14mm