1550s, "pertaining to dawn," from aurora + -al (1). The meaning "of the color of dawn" is from 1827; the meaning "of the aurora borealis" is from 1828.
Entries linking to auroral
aurora n.
"morning light, dawn," late 14c., from Latin Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, from PIE *ausus- "dawn," also the name of the Indo-European goddess of the dawn, from root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn (source also of Greek ēōs "dawn").
-al 1
suffix forming adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, "of, like, related to, pertaining to," Middle English -al, -el, from French or directly from Latin -alis (see -al (2)).