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The term aurora borealis has been attributed to two sources: Galileo Galilei in 1619, and Pierre Gassendi in 1621. The term entered the English language in 1828.

The word aurora is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, who travelled from east to west announcing the coming of the Sun. Aurora was first used in English in the 14th century. The words borealis and australis are derived from the names of the ancient gods of the north wind (Boreas) and the south wind (Auster or australis) in Greco-Roman mythology

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis or the northern lights. The southern counterpart, the aurora australis or the southern lights, has features almost identical to the aurora borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zone. The aurora australis is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, the Southern Cone, South Africa, Australasia, the Falkland Islands, and under exceptional circumstances as far north as Uruguay. The aurora borealis is visible from areas around the Arctic such as Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Scandinavia, Finland, Scotland, and Russia. A geomagnetic storm causes the auroral ovals (north and south) to expand, bringing the aurora to lower latitudes or higher in the south. On rare occasions, the aurora borealis can be seen as far south as the Mediterranean and the southern states of the US while the aurora australis can be seen as far north as New Caledonia and the Pilbara region in Western Australia. During the Carrington Event, the greatest geomagnetic storm ever observed, auroras were seen even in the tropics.

Auroras seen within the auroral oval may be directly overhead. From farther away, they illuminate the poleward horizon as a greenish glow, or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. Auroras also occur poleward of the auroral zone as either diffuse patches or arcs, which can be subvisual.