Aurora vs. Northern Lights: What's the Difference?
You'll see both terms used everywhere ("the Aurora forecast," "see the Northern Lights tonight"), often in the same sentence, sometimes on the same page. Are they actually the same thing? Almost entirely yes, but the small differences in terminology are worth untangling, especially once the southern hemisphere enters the picture.
Short answer: yes, they're the same phenomenon
"Northern Lights" and "Aurora Borealis" describe the exact same physical event: charged solar particles colliding with the upper atmosphere near the magnetic pole, producing glowing curtains of light. Aurora Borealis is the formal, scientific Latin name; Northern Lights is the everyday English name for the same thing. There is no meaningful difference between them. Use either one and be correct.
Where the names come from
"Aurora" is the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn, chosen because the glow was thought to resemble a sunrise appearing in the wrong part of the sky. "Borealis" comes from Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind. The compound name Aurora Borealis is generally credited to the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei (with the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi also sometimes credited), around 1619, though the phenomenon had been described by cultures worldwide for millennia before it had a Latin name.
Untangling the family of terms
There's actually a small family of related terms, and they're each precise about which hemisphere they refer to:
| Term | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| Aurora | The general scientific phenomenon, at either pole |
| Aurora Borealis | Northern hemisphere only, the "Northern Lights" |
| Aurora Australis | Southern hemisphere only, the "southern lights" |
| Aurora Polaris | Umbrella term covering both hemispheres |
The southern lights: Aurora Australis
The exact same physics plays out around the south magnetic pole, producing the Aurora Australis: the southern lights. It's every bit as spectacular as its northern counterpart, but far fewer people see it, simply because there's much less inhabited land at high southern latitudes. Antarctica has almost no permanent population, and the nearest accessible viewing spots (southern New Zealand, Tasmania, and the far south of Chile and Argentina) sit at lower magnetic latitudes than their northern equivalents. Our Hobart, Tasmania page tracks Aurora Australis odds for exactly this reason.
Common misconceptions
- "Northern Lights" doesn't mean it only happens in the north. The same phenomenon happens at both poles simultaneously; it's just called something different depending on hemisphere.
- It isn't named for the North Star. Despite the directional name, the Aurora has nothing to do with Polaris; it's driven by Earth's magnetic poles, which sit near, not at, the geographic poles.
- "Aurora" alone isn't a color or a type: it's the umbrella scientific term. "Aurora Borealis" and "Northern Lights" are just two names for one thing, not two different phenomena.
So which term should you use?
Whichever you like: they're interchangeable. "Aurora Borealis" reads as slightly more formal or scientific; "Northern Lights" is the more common, conversational choice. This site (and this guide) uses both, on purpose, because both are correct.
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