Vincent Ledvina Inteview: The Aurora Guy and Photographer Living in Alaska

Vincent Ledvina, also known as The Aurora Guy, is an aurora chaser and photographer whose journey began at the age of four when he first witnessed the awe-inspiring northern lights. Inspired by that breathtaking experience, Vincent pursued a passion for both the art of photography and the science of space weather, which led him to become a leading voice in the aurora-chasing community.

Today, Vincent has his own blog and 354 thousand followers on Instagram. His Aurora photos become viral on social media. Orbital Today spoke with Vincent Ledvina about his photographing experience, living in Alaska, and career in astrophotography.

What inspired you to become an aurora chaser and photographer?

I saw the aurora for the first time when I was four years old in 2003. This was actually on Halloween and was part of the infamous “Halloween Storm” which became one of the strongest geomagneric storms recorded in the space age. I grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, Minnesota and I remember seeing what looked like search lights dancing all across the sky but not knowing what they were. My parents didn’t know either, but we found out on the news the next day that what we saw were indeed the northern lights.

I think that experience really drove me to become interested in physics, the natural world, the stars, astronomy, and later, space weather. Growing up, I was a huge nerd and loved watching documentaries about the night sky and our universe. I was exposed to all sorts of topics from supernovae to black holes and also to space weather.

I also loved (and still do love) the outdoors, and I was in Boy Scouts until I earned the highest rank of Eagle when I was 16. In Scouts, I spent a lot of time outdoors in nature camping, and when I found out I could use a camera to take picture of my surroundings and the night sky, I became hooked on astrophotography.

In high school, I remember hearing about a space weather event that was supposed to bring northern lights down to lower latitudes, like in Minnesota, where I lived. I decided I would try and photograph these elusive lights, so I did as much research as I could and went out with my dad in search for them. I captured my first photo when I was in high school, and tracking the aurora and space weather became my newest obsession.

When I learned about the real-world implications and how space weather could actually affect people and technology, I was even more intrigued. Not only was the science interesting and the sight of the aurora breathtaking, but my efforts would make the world a better place. Studying space weather helps safeguard our infrastructure from extreme and potentially dangerous activity. So it was this combination of many factors that made me realize I could combine art, passion, and education into one career focused on the aurora, and that idea has guided me ever since and granted me life experiences I never thought I would have.

Can you describe your most memorable aurora photography experience?

The most memorable experience for me was photographing the aurora in Fort Yukon, Alaska while I helped out with a sounding rocket mission – the Loss Through Auroral Microburst Pulsations (LAMP) rocket which was a collaboration between many universities, including the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

At the time, I was actually an undergraduate student at the University of North Dakota, but I was asked to help out since they needed a student to run instruments at a remote site. I spent three weeks at an Air Force outpost in the middle of nowhere above the Arctic Circle in Alaska and saw the most spectacular auoras of my life.

That was my first time really experiencing the lights — you can see them at lower latitudes in the contiguous United States, but they just don’t copare to the beauty afforded by a proper high-latitude show. Specifically, the night we launched the rocket, 5 March 2022, the aurora exploded in an intense substorm. That show lasted almost an hour and is still one of the best I’ve seen to this day!

To top it off, I got to be a part of the launch decision and communicate with the team back in Fairbanks via satellite phone as it was all happening. The experience that night sold me on Alaska, and I moved to the state later that year and applied to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to begin a Ph.D. in Space Physics.

You are not just a photographer but also a scientist studying space physics. How do you balance your passion for both the art and science of the aurora?

What’s great about the aurora is that everything is interconnected. The art, science, and education all work together to create the story of space weather. So much of the science is also rooted in photography — one of the main ways scientists study the aurora is by taking pictures of it and analyzing how it moves across the sky and its various properties (e.g., colour, brightness, shape, height, size, etc.).

While most of the time special scientific cameras are used, photos from consumer cameras taken by everyday people can be of interest. I’ve even helped contribute my photos to scientific studies of aurora. This idea is part of a wider concept called citizen or participatory science – everyday people collaborating with researchers to engage in scientific discovery.

In aurora science, a lot of work focuses on rare or elusive auroral phenomena, such as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement).

How did working with organizations like the National Solar Observatory and Aurorasaurus help shape your career and vision as both a photographer and scientist?

All the research institutions and groups I’ve worked with over the years have given me a unique perspective on space weather that’s allowed me to approach things from a lens of “system science.”

Space weather starts on the Sun but does not stop at sunspots or coronal mass ejections coming off the surface. The effects from the Sun travel all the way to Earth and beyond, and for us, space weather has shaped how life evolved on our planet, how we build technological infrastructure and the religions and cultural heritage of many northern communities.

Space weather has such far reaching and real effects, working in one area or role really limits you and doesn’t afford seeing the whole picture. With the National Solar Observatory, I researched solar physics and how space weather starts on the solar surface. With Predictive Science Inc., I learned how to model CMEs – explosions of plasma from the Sun that can cause geomagnetic storms when they reach Earth, spurring views of the northern lights but also posing risks to technology in space and on the ground. With Aurorasaurus, I learned about the aurora – nature’s most breathtaking light show. I learned about citizen science and how aurora chasers are collaborating with scientists to make scientific discoveries in space physics. I’ve also had internships at the Aerospace Corporation, and I’m currently still there.

Aerospace is letting me see the applied side of space weather – how to use knowledge of space physics and space weather to solve real-world issues. For example, it is important to figure out how much shielding to put on important communications satellites flying through the radiation belts.

What role do social media play in the future of aurora chasing, space weather awareness, and photography?

Social media is going to be very important for communicating space weather to the general public and getting the word out about forecasted geomagnetic storms and how to capture views of the aurora.

What’s new this solar cycle is that smartphones can now take pretty decent photos of the northern lights. This means now more than ever ordinary people can report views of the aurora and help contribute to a responsive network that can mobilize to report aurora from the ground up during times of high geomagnetic activity.

We are also seeing more effects of space weather as our technology becomes more susceptible and solar activity increases. For example, during the May 2024 extreme geomagnetic storm, which topped the storm severity scale at a G5 (Kp 9/9), there were many reports of disruptions to GPS and other systems relying on HF communication with satellites. The impact on farmers in the United States alone was valued at $500,000,000. This is because modern farming equipment uses precision GPS for planting where 2” precision is required.

During this large storm, errors were made in the order of feet or tens of feet. The time spent sidelined cost farmers big time! People are feeling the effects of space weather and want to know more. Social media is the primary way people consume news now, so getting agencies and space-weather organizations more active will be important for spreading factual information to the general public. There is a lot of conspiracy and misinformation as well, so the more scientists and subject matter experts are able to chime in online, the more coordinated and accurate our communication of space weather will be – its origins, how we forecast it, and how it can affect people and technology.

Can you share an achievement you are especially proud of? 

Just last month, I joined the Space Weather Advisory Group (SWAG) as a student representative. The SWAG is appointed with the help of the White House’s Space Weather Operations and Mitigation Activity (SWORM) Subcommittee under the National Science and Technology Council. The primary duty of the SWAG is to inform the federal government of the needs of various user communities.

“User communities” refer to those groups of people relying on space weather information provided by or with support from the U.S. government. This includes space weather forecasts by the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

The first SWAG was assembled three years ago in accordance with the PROSWIFT act, and this year, they brought in a new group and invited me to join! I am excited to represent and coordinate with public communities like Aurora Chasers to see how the federal government can better support and communicate with the public.

I think my experiences as an aurora chaser on the “public” side and as a Ph.D. student on the “science” side will make me perfect for this job since I can speak to both communities in ways they should understand. I met all the other members of the SWAG last month at the White House for our first meeting, and it was awesome! We got to meet with members of the SWORM, and I’m looking forward to serving three years on the SWAG to make sure our nation is the most prepared it can be when space weather strikes!

Do you find it hard to compete with so many people who also hunt for Aurora photos and share them online?

Not at all! I think everyone has their own style and spin on things, and while sometimes there can be a LOT of aurora photos when activity is high, the more we can share the beauty of the aurora, the more people will start paying attention to space weather and why it’s important.

Even though it’s obvious, a lot of people don’t even know what the aurora is or have ever heard of it, so the louder we can make our voices (the more photos we share), the more people can discover this beautiful phenomenon.

So many years ago, the aurora touched my life and shaped it in a way I could never have imagined, and everyone should have the opportunity for nature or the aurora to do the same.

Seeing the northern lights may not make you a space weather scientist or move to Alaska, but it definitely gives you an appreciation for how beautiful, complex, and mysterious our world is.