Can You Hear the Northern Lights? Science and Icelandic Stories
Checked 21 October 2026. People across northern regions have described the Northern Lights as crackling, hissing, rustling or snapping. The reports are real as human testimony. The difficult question is whether the sound is physically connected to geomagnetic activity, and if so, where the audible sound is actually produced.
The short answer
Possibly, but it is rare and the mechanism is not settled. A sound heard at the same moment as the aurora cannot be ordinary sound travelling down from the glowing upper atmosphere. However, Finnish researchers have recorded short acoustic events during geomagnetic activity and proposed that electrical discharges much closer to the ground may create them under particular atmospheric conditions.
Most people who watch the Northern Lights hear nothing at all. Silence is normal, and a bright display does not promise a soundtrack.
What we have heard in our own Icelandic family
Aurora Viking co-founder Kolbeinn has never personally heard the Northern Lights. His mother says she once heard them crackle. Kolbeinn is also usually busy photographing guests when the sky becomes active, which is not exactly the ideal moment to stop moving, make everyone silent and conduct an acoustic experiment.
One remembered crackle is an honest family story, not scientific proof. Never hearing it is not proof that nobody can.
That uncertainty is important. The subject sits in the interesting space where repeated human reports meet a physical explanation that scientists are still testing.
Why the visible aurora cannot simply make an immediate sound above you
NASA explains that common green aurora is produced when energetic particles excite oxygen roughly 100 kilometres above Earth. Other auroral emissions can occur at different altitudes, but the visible display is still far above the weather and landscape around you.
Ordinary sound moves through air far more slowly than light. Even if a strong sound wave could travel efficiently from around 100 kilometres up, it would arrive several minutes after the visual movement, not at the same instant. The extremely thin upper atmosphere also makes direct transmission to the ground difficult.
So when someone reports a crackle that appears synchronized with the lights, the scientifically interesting possibility is not that the glowing curtain itself is shouting down from space. It is that geomagnetic activity may help produce a separate sound close to the listener.
What do people say auroral sounds resemble?
Descriptions vary, but the same families of words appear repeatedly:
A dry crackle or series of small snaps
A faint hiss or electrical sizzle
Rustling, like fabric or dry leaves
A brief clap or pop
A soft swishing sound that seems to change with the display
These reports are difficult to evaluate after the fact. Cold clothing rustles. Snow and ice shift. Wind touches grasses, trees and vehicle panels. Cameras click. Power lines can produce electrical noise. Expectation can also influence what a person thinks they heard.
The Finnish recordings and the temperature-inversion hypothesis
The most substantial modern work comes from Unto K. Laine's Auroral Acoustics research at Aalto University in Finland. A 2017 peer-reviewed conference paper reported hundreds of short sound events recorded during a geomagnetic storm. Using a three-microphone array, the project estimated that a number of sound sources were roughly 70 to 80 metres above the ground rather than at auroral altitude.
The proposed explanation involves a temperature inversion. On calm, cold nights, a layer of warmer air can sit above colder air near the ground. Electrical charges may separate around that layer. A geomagnetic disturbance could then contribute to small discharges, possibly corona discharges, which create audible snaps or crackles locally.
A 2022 follow-up examined sound events during more moderate geomagnetic activity and again argued for a relationship between the events and geomagnetic conditions.
The caution matters: this is a proposed mechanism developed mainly through one Finnish research programme. It is intriguing measured evidence, but it has not turned every historical report into a proven auroral sound or established that the effect occurs whenever the lights are strong.
Auroral radio waves are not the same as sound you hear unaided
Auroral activity produces radio emissions, sometimes called auroral hiss or chorus. A suitable antenna and receiver can convert those electromagnetic signals into audible tones through headphones or speakers.
That is scientifically real, but it is different from standing outside and hearing a crackle with your own ears. A radio receiver is translating electromagnetic waves into sound. The disputed auroral-sound question concerns audible events produced naturally near the observer.
How to listen without convincing yourself that every noise is the aurora
If you want to try during a Northern Lights night in Iceland, treat it as a small experiment rather than another guaranteed attraction.
Choose the quietest safe location available, away from traffic, engines and power lines.
Pause conversation for a minute during an active overhead display.
Stand still so coats, gloves and camera straps are not rubbing.
Notice wind, moving snow, ice, water, vegetation and nearby vehicles before attributing a sound to the sky.
Ask people separately what they heard before the group settles on one description.
Do not expect anything. Most aurora viewing is completely silent.
Cold, calm conditions may be relevant to the inversion-layer hypothesis, but they still do not guarantee an audible event.
What should you record if you hear a crackle?
A useful observation needs more than a dramatic story. Keep the original phone recording if one exists and note:
The exact local time and location
Whether the sound was heard once or repeatedly
The apparent direction of the sound
Wind, temperature and nearby noise sources
What the aurora was visibly doing at that moment
Whether another person heard it independently
Continuous audio or video is more useful than a clip started after the event. A phone recording may still miss a faint or high-frequency sound, but preserving the original file and timing gives researchers something testable.
Does hearing the aurora matter when choosing a tour?
No. Choose a Northern Lights experience for its guiding, weather decisions, safety, group format and photography, not for the chance of hearing an extremely unusual sound. Our Northern Lights tour focuses on finding clear sky, following live conditions and photographing guests under the aurora.
If you want to understand what is happening above you, see our guides to how long the Northern Lights last, the colors of the aurora and why cameras see more than our eyes. You can also follow our live Iceland Northern Lights forecast.
Frequently asked questions
Can everybody hear the Northern Lights?
No. Most observers report silence, including people who have watched many strong displays. Even within historical accounts, one person may report a sound while others nearby hear nothing.
Do stronger Northern Lights make sound more likely?
Some reports and studies associate sounds with geomagnetic activity, but brightness above one viewing spot is not a reliable sound forecast. Weather, local electrical conditions, background noise and hearing sensitivity may all matter.
Is the crackling sound travelling from the aurora itself?
Not as ordinary airborne sound arriving simultaneously with the light. The leading measured hypothesis places the audible source close to the ground in an electrically charged temperature-inversion layer.
Can a phone record auroral sounds?
Possibly, if the event is loud enough and local noise is low. Failure to capture it does not prove nothing was heard, and a captured crackle still needs other possible sources ruled out.
Is auroral chorus the same thing?
No. Auroral chorus and hiss are electromagnetic radio emissions that can be converted into sound by receiving equipment. They are not normally heard directly by an unaided listener.
The honest conclusion
Reports of audible Northern Lights should not be mocked, but they should not be sold as a normal feature of an aurora tour either. There is measured evidence for short sounds associated with geomagnetic activity and a plausible near-ground mechanism. There is also plenty that remains uncertain.
Kolbeinn has not heard them. His mother remembers one crackle. Perhaps the best approach is to enjoy the lights, become quiet for a moment and listen without demanding that the sky perform twice.
Sources
NASA Science: Auroras — formation and typical altitude of green aurora
Aalto University: Localization of sound sources in a temperature inversion layer during a geomagnetic storm (2017)
Aalto University: Sound-producing mechanism in a temperature inversion layer and its sensitivity to geomagnetic activity (2022)
University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute: Hark, the Northern Lights
University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute: Radio Waves From the Aurora
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