When you fly to Longyearbyen in the Arctic in winter you fly to a land of darkness! This is recorded just before 1400 local time in early December and it is totally dark. Dark because of the polar night, but also because there is no artificial light from humans before you reach the airport. Only the light from the moon and stars illuminate the fjords and mountains below. This is an experience very different from any other place in Europe!
It's a magical world - Let's go Exploring!
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From Wikipedia: The polar night is a phenomenon where the night lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of the Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the Sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours. "Night" is understood as the center of the Sun being below a free horizon. Since the atmosphere bends the rays of the Sun, the polar day is longer than the polar night, and the area that is affected by polar night is somewhat smaller than the area of midnight sun.
In Norwegian we call the Polar Night "mørketid" which literally can be translated into English as "the dark times. " Longyearbyen has a 4 month long polar night from the 26th of October to the 16th of February. In December and January there is zero daylight in the town, just an eternal darkness!
Longyearbyen ( lit. 'The Longyear Town') is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway, with a population of 2400 (in 2019). It stretches along the foot of the left bank of the Longyear Valley and on the shore of Adventfjorden, the short estuary leading into Isfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the island's broadest inlet. Since 2002 Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities as a Norwegian municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire brigade, roads and ports. The town is the seat of the Governor of Svalbard. It is the world's northernmost settlement of any kind with more than 1,000 permanent residents.
Svalbard ; prior to 1925 known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, (lit. Sharp Peaks; Russian: Шпицберген) is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Situated north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. While part of the Kingdom of Norway since 1925, Svalbard is not part of geographical Norway; administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government, and a special jurisdiction subject to the Svalbard Treaty that is outside of the Schengen Area, the Nordic Passport Union and the European Economic Area.
#shorts #short #svalbard
