According to the Swedish Tourist Association, tens of thousands of people make pilgrimages to northern Sweden to experience and watch the northern lights.
The northern lights, or polar lights as they are also called, only occur around the Earth’s two magnetic poles in the southern and northern hemispheres. But the phenomenon can be seen considerably further south under good conditions.
– If the speed of the electrons becomes really high, the area of the aurora can be pushed down even to southern Sweden, or in extreme cases further down in Europe. But there must be really damn good pressure for it to come south of Sweden, says Patrik Norqvist.
The expert: Can’t hear the northern lights
Can you hear the northern lights?
– There are many people who claim to have heard the aurora borealis, including space physicists and people whom I know well and have high confidence in. But as far as I know, there is no evidence for it, and no one has managed to record this sound.
Moved from Taiwan to Umeå to see the northern lights
In August, 22-year-old Yun-Hsi Huang moved from Taiwan to Sweden and Umeå to study at Umeå University.
It is her first time visiting Europe and the first time she has left her family. She applied to Sweden to meet something completely different from life in Taiwan.
In addition, there was a very specific experience she dreamed of experiencing.
– One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Sweden was actually that I wanted to see the northern lights. When I applied to the university, someone had posted pictures of the northern lights and after that I decided on Umeå. I thought, I’d better bring my camera too, Yun-Hsi says.