From Ambassador

I believe that many visitors to Iceland from Japan are hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights or Aurora. Indeed, watching beautiful green and purple lights dance across the night sky is always a breathtaking experience.
 
Since Iceland is placed directly under the so-called “Aurora Belt”, you can see it even from Reykjavik. Associated services such as ”Aurora Forecast” provided daily by the Meteorological Agency and many “Aurora Tours” arranged by travel companies are also well established.
However, since you are dealing with Mother Nature, your chance of seeing it also depends on your luck. Sometimes, they are visible for 3 to 4 consecutive days. Other times, you may miss it even if you stayed here for more than one week.
 
For those who are afraid of missing it, let me introduce to you another spectacle that I greatly admire during the Aurora season. The incredibly beautiful sunrise and sunset.
On sunny, or even partly cloudy winter days, you are likely to encounter serene and magnificent sunrise around 10 to 11 am, and stunning sunsets after 3 pm, which can rarely be seen in Japan. Watching the Icelandic sky being painted in shades of orange, pink and red, literally takes my breath away.
 
Getting back to the Aurora, did you know that from the 1980s, joint Aurora research has been conducted between the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan and the University of Iceland? They have been observing the Aurora from the Japanese Syowa Station in the Antarctica and also from the observation sites in Iceland at the same time.
 
The mechanism of Aurora is that as electromagnetic waves from the sun collide with the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's upper atmosphere along the magnetic field lines, where these atoms become energized and emit light. Because these magnetic field lines connect the North and South Pole, the Aurora can sometimes be observed simultaneously in the North and South Hemispheres (i.e. Conjugate Observation).
I heard that the rare and only places on Earth suited for this Conjugate Observation have been Iceland and Syowa Station in the Antarctica.
 
Fascinating indeed and I am looking forward to uncover more untold relationships between Iceland and Japan.