Read first: safe aurora hunting
Scores on Svalbard read lower than on the mainland. On a clear, dark night, 20–40 is normal at the dark spots outside town. Reading the score on Svalbard
About this spot
| Getting there | 5 km from Longyearbyen, about 10 min by car |
|---|---|
| Without a car | taxi from Longyearbyen (the airport bus meets flights only) |
| Sky | some town lightHow much artificial light brightens the whole sky at the map point. |
| Geomagnetic latitude | 75.3° |
| Map point | 78.2473, 15.4942 |
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Aurora season
In Longyearbyen the nights are dark enough for aurora from about 23 September to 19 March.
Dark hours month by month, polar night and how often it is clear on Svalbard
How we check this
The score and the sky are for the map point. We measure the light from satellite images of night lights, and the score accounts for it. In a town or at an airport we always rate the sky as some town light.
We work out drive times on OpenStreetMap's roads at about 80% of the speed limit, a careful winter pace, and round them up to 5 minutes.
We work out the aurora season dates for Longyearbyen and use them for all our spots on Svalbard.
Other spots nearby (straight-line distance)
- Longyearbyen · 4 km · some town light