Real-Time Northern Lights in 4K: Ronn Murray’s Fairbanks Aurora Film

Most northern-lights videos are time-lapses that speed the sky up many times. Ronn Murray of The Aurora Chasers went the other way: on the night of 2 January 2015, in the Murphy Dome area near Fairbanks, Alaska, he filmed the aurora in real time and in 4K, so the curtains of green light move on screen exactly as they moved over the trees.

The Aurora Chasers published the film on 5 January 2015 as “The World’s Very First REAL-TIME Northern Lights Captured in 4K Ultra High Definition”. It was made to show what standing under the aurora actually feels like, without a polished production.

How the real-time 4K aurora was filmed

Filming aurora in real time needs a camera that can record video in very low light. Murray’s kit was:

• a Sony a7S, a full-frame camera known for its low-light video;
• a Rokinon 24 mm f/1.4 wide-angle lens;
• a DJI Ronin gimbal stabiliser;
• an Atomos Shogun 4K monitor and external recorder.

Conditions were tough: about 0 °F (−18 °C), strong wind and knee-deep snow. The crew reported that the Ronin gimbal seemed jittery, probably because its motors stiffened in the extreme cold, while the Atomos recorder worked well. The soundtrack is “A Closing Statement” by Dexter Britain.

Real time versus time-lapse aurora

A time-lapse joins long still exposures into a fast film, which makes slow, faint changes easy to see. Real-time video keeps the true pace of the display. Watch one fold of light at a time: a narrow band brightens, broadens, ripples along its edge and fades, while the dark tree line stays still beneath it. On an active night the curtains can shift in seconds, which is exactly what a time-lapse tends to blur into streaks.

What causes the northern lights

According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, aurora forms when electrons accelerated in Earth’s magnetosphere travel along magnetic field lines towards the polar regions and collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. The excited atoms and molecules release that energy as light, typically 80 to 500 km above the ground. The magnetic field funnels the electrons into two ovals around the magnetic poles. The best viewing lies between about 60 and 75 degrees latitude, and during big geomagnetic storms the ovals expand far towards the equator. Our green-aurora feature looks at the colour in more detail.

Seeing the aurora in Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks sits at about 64.8° north, right under the auroral zone, which makes it one of the most reliable aurora destinations in North America. Tips from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute:

• Season: roughly 21 August to 21 April; the rest of the year the night sky is too bright.
• Best months: odds are about twice as high around the equinoxes as at the solstice, so March and September are strong choices.
• Best hours: about 9 pm to 3 am, peaking around midnight.
• Where to watch: hills away from city lights with a clear horizon, such as Cleary Summit, Ester Dome and Haystack Mountain.
• How long to stay: at least three nights improves your chances of clear skies, and a new or third-quarter moon is best for photos.

Dress for serious cold: interior Alaska winter nights are often far below freezing, so bring layers, insulated boots and spare batteries kept warm in an inside pocket. For composing still images under the stars, explore Ben Coffman’s night images.

Related reading

• Aurora Borealis in Real Time: Watch the Northern Lights Change Shape
• Kaspars Daleckis’s Latvian Aurora Time-Lapse
• Kwon O Chul’s Yellowknife Aurora Gallery
• Ten Northern-Lights Regions: Geography, Darkness and Realistic Expectations

Sources