Yes, your Mac can already show a real aurora
Yes: macOS already includes aurora footage. Among the Earth aerials in Wallpaper settings are views of the northern and southern lights filmed from orbit; they animate as you lock or unlock your Mac and can run as a slow-motion Screen Saver. For an aurora that moves all day, you need an app.
Yes — macOS already has real aurora footage built in, filmed from orbit as part of its Earth aerials, and you can set it as your wallpaper or your screen saver today. The catch is that the wallpaper version only moves for a moment as you lock or unlock the Mac, then sits still while you actually work. Below: exactly where to find it, why it freezes, and the two ways to get an aurora that keeps moving all day — your own video clip, or Mac+'s abstract Aurora scene.
The aurora already on your Mac: Earth aerials filmed from orbit
Search for an aurora screensaver on a Mac and page one mixes a forum thread from 2008, screen savers built for Windows and static wallpaper galleries. None of them is a guide to the one native feature that actually answers the question: macOS already ships real aurora footage, filmed from orbit, inside its own wallpaper picker.
Open System Settings and click Wallpaper. Among the categories sits one Apple calls Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, and Earth aerials — real video footage, and its Earth group is filmed from orbit. Apple added a batch of these Earth-orbit shots with macOS Sonoma; among the new scenes, Macworld's coverage at the time named "Antarctica and its Southern Lights." A community-maintained catalog of the Sonoma and Sequoia aerials goes further, listing two aurora entries in the Earth section: "North America Aurora" and "Antarctica's Southern Lights" — names from that catalog, not from Apple's own menus, but a useful hint when you're scrolling the list.
This is genuine aerial video of the aurora as seen from space, not a green-tinted stock clip repurposed as a wallpaper. It's the answer the wallpaper galleries leave out. For the generic version of this trick, which applies to every Apple aerial rather than the aurora specifically, see our guide to free animated wallpapers for Mac.
Why the aurora freezes while you work
Here's the catch if you pick an aerial as your wallpaper expecting a moving desktop: Apple is explicit that these aerial images "animate as you lock or unlock your Mac" — and nothing more. The aurora plays through as the screen locks, plays again as it unlocks, then sits completely still behind your windows for as long as you're working. There is no continuous motion on the desktop itself, at any point.
The Screen Saver is a separate mode with different behavior: Apple describes its aerials there as "slow-motion images" that "show dramatic views," and Macworld's original coverage of the feature said the scene pans across the display once the screen saver is actually running. That only ever appears once the Mac has been idle long enough to trigger it — never while you're at the keyboard. So the honest picture is two separate states: a wallpaper that is static except for a brief animation at each lock and unlock, and a screen saver that moves slowly but only when nobody is using the Mac. Neither one gives you an aurora that keeps drifting while you work.
A northern-lights video that plays all day: your own clip
If you want the aurora actually moving while you work, the native picker can't do it — you need a video file and an app willing to loop it. The good news is that real aurora footage is available for free, provided you respect the license.
Pexels licenses its videos for free use with modification allowed and no attribution required, but its terms say not to "redistribute or sell the photos and videos on other stock photo or wallpaper platforms." Pixabay's content license summary allows free use and modification with no attribution, but rules out standalone redistribution of the raw file. Coverr allows commercial and non-commercial use "at no cost" without attribution, but excludes competing services and AI training. Search any of the three for "aurora" or "northern lights" and download a clip whose license matches what you plan to do with it.
Once you have a clip, one option is Aerial, a free, MIT-licensed, open-source screen saver for macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon and Intel. Its own description says it plays Apple's aerial videos as both a screen saver and a live desktop wallpaper, and that you can "bring your own videos" by dropping .mov or .mp4 files into a folder — its native wallpaper mode is currently labeled Beta. Aerial's home page doesn't say whether Apple's own aurora aerial is included in its catalog, so treat it as a way to play your own downloaded clip, not as a shortcut to Apple's footage. The other route is a dedicated live-wallpaper app — including Mac+, covered next — which loops your file as an actual desktop background rather than a screen saver. For the full walkthrough, see how to set a video as wallpaper on Mac.
The Mac+ Aurora scene: abstract curtains of light you can recolor
If you'd rather not hunt for a licensed clip, Mac+ ships a scene built specifically around this idea: Aurora, subtitled "Curtains of light." It's one of Mac+'s 15 real-time, GPU-rendered scenes, and it's deliberately abstract — soft vertical curtains of light drifting over the desktop — rather than a filmed recreation of the night sky. The shipped preview runs in a muted grey-blue palette, not the green most people picture when they think "aurora," though you can apply any of Mac+'s palettes to recolor it instantly: "Apply one of 44 palettes or build your own, the scene recolors instantly." The free tier includes 8 of those palettes; the full set of 44 plus the color creator is part of Mac+ Pro.
To be direct about the limits: this is a stylized animation, not photographic aurora footage, and there's no promise that a given palette will reproduce the aurora's actual green or violet tones. Mac+'s free tier includes 6 of its 15 animated scenes — Mac+ doesn't say which 6, so there's no guarantee Aurora is among them — plus 8 palettes, an image background option, 6 folder icons, 2 widgets and multi-display support. Looping your own downloaded aurora clip instead, the option from the previous section, needs Mac+ Pro: €9.99 one-time or €1.99/month with a 7-day trial. Whichever plays, it pauses automatically the moment the screen sleeps or an app covers the desktop, full screen included, and there's no Lock Screen or screen-saver version — it lives on the desktop only.
Which aurora option fits
Four different things all get called "an aurora on your Mac." Here's how they actually compare.
| Option | When it moves | Price | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Earth aerial as wallpaper | As you lock or unlock | Included (some aerials download when first picked) | macOS with aerial wallpapers (Sonoma or later) |
| Same aerial as screen saver | Slow motion while the Mac is idle | Included | Same as above |
| Your aurora clip + Aerial | All day (native wallpaper mode labeled Beta) | Free (MIT license) | macOS 26 or later |
| Your clip or the Aurora scene + Mac+ | All day; pauses when an app covers the desktop | Scene: free tier or Pro; own video: Pro, €9.99 once or €1.99/month | macOS 13 or later |
If you only want a taste of the effect, the built-in aerial costs nothing and takes one trip through System Settings. If you want it moving while you actually work, you need either a clip and a player, or Mac+.
Use Apple's aurora aerial on your Mac
- Open System Settings and click Wallpaper.
- In the Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, and Earth aerials, pick an aurora view in the Earth group. If a download icon appears next to its name, Apple says to click the image to download it first.
- Lock and unlock your Mac to see it move — that's the only moment the wallpaper actually animates.
- Click Screen Saver, choose Custom, and select the same aerial to watch it in slow motion whenever the Mac is idle. By default, the aerial you picked for your wallpaper is already used as your screen saver.
- For an aurora that moves all day instead of only at lock and unlock, play your own aurora clip through a live-wallpaper app, or pick the Aurora scene in Mac+.
macOS 13 Ventura or later. Apple Silicon and Intel. Free tier includes 6 scenes; looping your own video needs Pro.
Frequently asked questions
Does macOS have a northern lights wallpaper?
Yes. Apple's Earth aerials — filmed from orbit — include aurora views: Macworld's original coverage of the feature named "Antarctica and its Southern Lights," and a community-maintained catalog of the aerials lists a second entry, "North America Aurora," in the same Earth section. Those names come from Macworld and the community catalog, not from Apple's own wallpaper menu.
Why doesn't my aurora wallpaper move?
Because Apple's aerial wallpapers only animate "as you lock or unlock your Mac." Once you're back at the desktop, the image is static until the next lock or unlock — that's expected behavior, not a bug.
How do I make the aurora my screen saver?
Open System Settings > Wallpaper, pick an aurora aerial, then go to Screen Saver, choose Custom, and select the same aerial. By default, the aerial you set as wallpaper is already used as your screen saver, so this step is often already done for you.
Can I get a green aurora that moves all day?
Not from Apple's native picker, which only offers the fixed aerial clips it ships with. Two options move continuously: play your own aurora video through a live-wallpaper app, or use Mac+'s Aurora scene, which you can recolor across its palettes — though as an abstract animation, not filmed footage, no palette guarantees a specific green or violet tone.
Where can I find a free aurora video?
Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr are free stock libraries worth searching for aurora and northern-lights clips, each under slightly different terms: Pexels and Pixabay allow modification and don't require attribution but forbid redistributing or selling the file itself, while Coverr's license is free for commercial and non-commercial use but excludes competing services and AI training. Check the specific license before downloading.
Do Apple's aerials take up storage space?
Some do: Apple's own screen saver settings guide notes that if a download icon appears next to an aerial's name, "you need to click the image to download and use it" — meaning it isn't preinstalled. A community-maintained catalog of the full aerial collection estimates the whole set at "over 50GB," though Apple doesn't publish a size for any single aerial.
Keep reading
Sources
- Apple Support — Customize the wallpaper on your Mac
- Apple Support — Use a screen saver on your Mac
- Macworld — macOS Sonoma's Cityscape, Underwater and Earth animated wallpapers (30 August 2023, updated 26 September 2023)
- GitHub — zhongzachary/sonoma-screen-savers, community catalog of Sonoma/Sequoia aerials (checked 24 September 2026)
- Pexels — License (checked 24 September 2026)
- Pixabay — Content License Summary (checked 24 September 2026)
- Coverr — License (checked 24 September 2026)
- Aerial — official site (4.1.4, MIT license, checked 24 September 2026)