The Spits­ber­gen-calen­der 2018: nor­t­hern lights over Lon­gye­ar­by­en in Decem­ber

The nor­t­hern light is for the polar night what the polar bears are for the sum­mer: ever­y­bo­dy wants to see them. The nor­t­hern light, or Auro­ra borea­lis, is inde­ed a maje­s­tic phe­no­me­non! If you have ever seen a real one, you will for sure not for­get it. The­re is an info page about nor­t­hern lights and nor­t­hern light pho­to­gra­phy on this web­site, by the way. The sea­son is about to begin.

Actual­ly, Lon­gye­ar­by­en is not even the best place to see nor­t­hern lights. If you are on an Auro­ra mis­si­on, then nor­t­hern Scan­di­na­via may be just as good, if not bet­ter. But of cour­se you can see fan­ta­stic nor­t­hern lights in Spits­ber­gen! With some luck, you can even see then mid-day. This day­si­de auro­ra is com­pa­ra­tively rare, but they do hap­pen. Hard to belie­ve, but true! This requi­res real dark­ness 24 hours a day, and that is what you get in Lon­gye­ar­by­en from late Novem­ber to ear­ly Janu­ary.

The Decem­ber-pho­to of our Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018 was taken ear­ly evening. We went around in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with a TV team and they wan­ted norhtern lights – of cour­se. Ris­ky busi­ness if you don’t have more time than just a very few days! May­be you are lucky, may­be not … both the wea­ther and the auro­ra acti­vi­ty have to be on your side. We had alre­a­dy been around for a long evening wit­hout see­ing more than dark clouds. A day later, things were more pro­mi­sing. And sud­den­ly, the sky explo­ded over Lon­gye­ar­by­en! It was inde­ed one of my bet­ter Auro­ra moments in Spits­ber­gen. The pho­to does not even show the stron­gest nor­t­hern light of that evening, but Lady Auro­ra was dancing abo­ve this part of the ico­nic coal cable­way and Pla­tå­ber­get, a very cha­rac­te­ristic and well-known moun­tain right next to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­der 2018: Decem­ber. Nor­t­hern light abo­ve Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

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