Topline
When the moon completely covers the sun during a rare total solar eclipse over western Iceland on Aug. 12, most people will be focused on the spectacular solar corona glowing around the moon’s silhouette. The eclipse — Iceland’s first since 1954 — comes in the wake of strong solar activity in the past few years, alerting some to the possibility of aurora during totality itself. While some say it’s unlikely and even impossible, there’s a possibility that totality itself could cause aurora.
Key Facts
Aug. 12’s total solar eclipse will only be visible from a narrow 180-mile (290-kilometer) path of totality through eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain.
Observers in Iceland and Greenland are encouraged to look toward the eastern sky during totality, the darkest part of the sky.
It will be Iceland’s first since 1954, which was the last Arctic total solar eclipse — when aurora could have been observed during totality — in Svalbard and the Faroe Islands on March 20, 2015. The next will be in Alaska on March 30, 2033.
No part of North America will experience totality on Aug. 12, but millions of people in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. will see a shallow partial solar eclipse. Eclipse glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 standard must be used whenever looking directly at the sun.
Could The Northern Lights Appear During Totality?
The idea remains highly speculative, but scientists believe the conditions are at least theoretically possible. “If we have a solar storm happening while the eclipse is happening, then there’s a slight chance of seeing auroras during totality,” says Sævar Helgi Bragason, an award-winning astronomy communicator in Iceland, who runs Eclipse2026. “It’s a very weak possibility, but it’s late in the afternoon, so we might be able to see auroras if they’re active.” For auroras to become visible during totality, several factors would need to align.
- Skies would need to remain cloud-free.
- Solar activity would have to be elevated following a recent coronal mass ejection.
- Aurora would need to be bright enough to stand out against the twilight-like darkness created by the eclipse.
Iceland’s location beneath the auroral oval makes it one of the few places where such an observation could even be attempted. While previous eclipses have crossed high-latitude regions, there are no confirmed reports of aurora being observed during totality.
Citizen Scientists Will Collect Valuable Data
Aurorasaurus, a citizen science project that gathers aurora reports from observers around the world, is asking eclipse chasers in Iceland and Greenland to briefly scan the sky away from the sun. Even if no aurora is visible, those observations remain valuable. Clear-sky reports confirming nothing was seen help scientists understand the conditions during the event. NASA heliophysicist Liz MacDonald, founder of Aurorasaurus, will observe from Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula and will deploy an all-sky fisheye camera capable of recording the entire sky throughout totality.
Could The Totality Create The Northern Lights?
A total solar eclipse acts like a rapid sunset, briefly altering the upper atmosphere and its electromagnetic environment. Combined with the Earth’s magnetic connection between hemispheres, these changes could potentially influence auroral activity, according to MacDonald. While the idea is highly speculative, it is one of the scientific questions researchers hope to investigate during the eclipse.
Better Chances Later In The Night
Although seeing aurora during totality is considered unlikely, visitors staying in Iceland after the eclipse may enjoy much better opportunities later that evening. Despite occurring in mid-August, Iceland experiences sufficiently dark nautical twilight around midnight to allow bright auroras to become visible if geomagnetic conditions are favorable. Eclipse travelers could potentially witness both one of nature’s greatest daytime spectacles and the northern lights during the same trip.
