Nature
Aurora: 2 Live Cameras — Fairbanks and Churchill
Two cameras sitting directly under the auroral oval, at Fairbanks in Alaska and Churchill in Canada. Japan's evening and night fall on local midnight.
What you can see
This site has two cameras on the aurora. Both stand on land directly under the auroral oval, and because they are in different countries they never appear on the same country page. They are gathered here.
Fairbanks aurora looks north from the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Interior Alaska's aurora is most active from autumn to early spring, usually between late evening and dawn, and only when the sky is clear.
Churchill aurora points at the sky from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre on Hudson Bay. It is one of the best places on land to see the aurora, and the provider says February and March are the best months. This stream runs at night only, from 17:00 to 08:00 local time.
The aurora does not show through cloud. On an overcast night the screen stays black no matter how strong the activity is. The way to use these two is to open both on the same night and switch to the other when one is clouded over.
Cameras you can watch now: 2
All 2 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Live video, autumn to spring nights
Aurora over Fairbanks
Alaska, Fairbanks · Nature
A camera at the Large Animal Research Station of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, facing the northern sky. The aurora in interior Alaska can be very active from autumn through early spring, usually late at night into the early morning, and visible whenever the sky is clear.
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Live video, nights only
Northern lights over Churchill
Manitoba, Churchill · Nature
A camera pointed at the sky from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. It sits directly under the auroral oval, one of the easiest places on the ground to see the aurora. The operator singles out February and March.
When to watch
These two are unusually convenient for Japan. The aurora comes out around local midnight, and that midnight lands while Japan is awake.
Fairbanks is 18 hours behind Japan in winter. Local midnight is 18:00 in Japan and local 04:00 is 22:00 in Japan, so the Japanese dinner hour and evening are the middle of the Alaskan night. The season runs from autumn to early spring, when Alaskan days are short and the nights long.
Churchill is 15 hours behind in February, 14 once daylight saving starts in mid-March. The stream runs 17:00-08:00 local, so in February that is 08:00 to 23:00 Japan time — a rare overseas camera you can leave open all through the Japanese day. The window shifts an hour earlier in mid-March.
Both are winter cameras. In summer the sky never darkens this far north and no aurora is recorded.
If it isn't showing
Churchill also has two Polar Bears cameras — the same town, on the cape where the bears wait for the sea to freeze. The aurora season (February and March) and the polar bear season (October and November) do not overlap, so you can visit the same place twice a year.
The two also appear on the United States and Canada pages. As cameras that show nothing but the night sky, the closest neighbours are under Space, and what turns up in the dark hours is also discussed on Subjects That Keep You Waiting.
What you see depends on the hour you open them; the offsets are worked through in Which cameras are in daylight now.
Where to find Aurora
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- explore.org (Deep links and embeds OK, no image reuse) — Official site
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.