Autumn in Svalbard – a wonderful time of the year!

Text: Ingrid Ballari

 

It goes without saying that the Midnight Sun and long, bright summer nights are great, but you can look forward to an especially wonderful time when autumn arrives. The sun drops lower and lower and before long will go below the horizon for the first time since April. The Midnight Sun, blue hour, dark season and Polar night – the light in Svalbard is fascinating and characteristic.

If you thought that the Svalbard nature was beautiful in the golden rays of the Midnight Sun or in the pale winter light, just wait for autumn. The mountains and tundra go from brown and green to rust red and copper, while the low, warm sun further enhances the lovely autumn colours.

The autumn is a time of change

On 23 August, the Midnight Sun season will come to an end for this year. The birds are getting ready to migrate south, while the Svalbard rock ptarmigan, Svalbard reindeer and Arctic fox will soon dress in their beautiful winter coats again.

The tundra also changes its appearance. The Svalbard flora consists of trailing plants such as dwarf shrubs, herbs, grass, rushes, vascular plants, mosses and lichens. In autumn, the plants break down the chlorophyll to utilise important nitrogen compounds in the chlorophyll molecule. The yellow and red dyes that remain give us the beautiful autumn colours in nature.

Why is the sun red?

There are many reasons why the sky lights up in beautiful tones of red, purple and pink during autumn. The sun is lower in the atmosphere and has a longer path to the earth. While the blue light is refracted away by particles like dust, ice crystals, clouds and water droplets, the red light reaches all the way to us. The density and altitude of the particles in the atmosphere determine how we experience the light and how strong the colours are. This creates spectacular sunsets that you may never forget.

Experience the blue hour in October

The date 26 October marks the start of the dark season, which means that the sun does not rise above the horizon during the daytime. However, it’s not completely dark yet. We can still enjoy daylight and the blue hour – the powerful twilight that appears during the brightest time of the day. The term comes from the French expression l’heure bleue. This phenomenon occurs when the light from the sun collides with air particles high above us, spreading the blue light particles towards the earth.

The Polar Night

The dark season is a collective term for the period when the sun does not rise above the horizon, while the Polar Night occurs when the sun does not reach higher than 6 degrees below the horizon. In Norway, you can only experience this phenomenon on Bjørnøya (Bear Island) and in the Svalbard archipelago.

Civil polar night occurs from latitude 72° 34′ N, while nautical polar night occurs from 78° 34′ N.

While the term Polar Night means a complete absence of daylight, it’s not nearly as bleak as it sounds. Just a short drive away from the light pollution in the town centre, you can experience a beautiful display in the sky featuring the moon, stars and Northern Lights. When the snow settles, the light will be reflected further.

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