Aurora Borealis- A night to remember-Northern Light Adventure Part I

Prerna Sinha

9 years ago

It takes a year of planning and lifetime of dreaming and creating a bucket list to plan a vacation,like the one I recently had.Ever since I was a kid,I had read about the Northern lights in school and had been fascinated with it.So when my friends were planning this trip,I jumped at the opportunity.After all,I knew I would never get better company than this crazy bunch,who would travel from different parts of the world meet somewhere in the centre of it(Stockholm) and then journey all the way to the North Pole(in the peak of winters) in the hope to see the ‘Aurora Borealis’.

From Stockholm we took a flight in to Kiruna,where we camped for 2 nights at Camp Ripan,which is a really nice accommodation and kids can freak out here building snowmen and angel in the snow.

Kiruna ,here I come @Kiruna Airport

The snow does bring out the child in you

After spending two nights in the small but happy town of Kiruna ,we realised that the ‘Aurora Borealis’,was not a phenomenon occurring everywhere and we had to chase it.So we headed to Abisko in a train,where the sightings as very common.

My crazy bunch of friends all set to depart from Kiruna

The most interesting and surprising fact about Abisko apart from the fact that here the moose and the reindeer were more in population than the locals was,that

we met with loads of Indians chasing the lights.There was a group of 60 year old enthusiasts who had done an Antarctica expedition last year and were now hoping to see the lights and there was a backpacking group of youngsters with the same hope and then there was us,somewhere in the middle of all this. As we booked our ski lift ride to the

Abisko Sky station ,where the probability of the phenomenon viewing is the highest,we also prayed.

The view from the ski lift of the small town of Abisko was awesome,in the dark you could see the small trail of lights of the Abisko town ,surrounded on one side by the lake which was nearly frozen and on the other side by the wilderness.This small town has 150 families and just 800 residents,in all.I wanted to capture it all on my phone ,but was scared to take my hand out of the overalls that I wore over 4 layers of clothing,fearing that they would freeze and I would drop my expensive smartphone.

Me dressed in overalls ready for the ski lift

Abisko in the daylight,the view from the ski lift is outstanding but this is also beautiful.

After a point on the ski lift it was pitch dark and all we could see and feel was cold.At several points the ski lift would stop and we would be just hanging in the air several feet above the ground and even oscillating at times.Finally there was light,at the pinnacle was the warm and inviting Aurora Skystation.

Aurora sky station

The sky station was like a nice and warm cafe,there were guides explaining the origin,folklore and the science behind the Aurora sightings.

In 1621, a French scientist, Pierre Gassendi, saw the lights in the north and named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora. He added the word “borealis” for the Roman god of the north wind, Boreas. In the southern hemisphere, they are called aurora australis, meaning “southern.”

To just explain the concept of Aurora briefly,an aurora is a natural light display in the sky (from the Latin word aurora, “sunrise” or the Roman goddess of dawn), predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions.Auroras are caused by charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, entering the atmosphere from above causing ionisation and excitation of atmospheric constituents, and consequent optical emissions.

For experiencing this phenomenon in it’s glory it is deemed to have temperatures way below minus 30 and a clear night sky and then they are supposed to dance.We were however not so lucky,the temperature was just minus 15 degrees and the sky was cloudy.The Gods,however did not disappoint us and we did see the sky light up magnificently and the light travelled from one end to another in a curved path.What was interesting was that Aurora pictures that we have seen through our childhood have shown to combine multiple colours but here it was singular and while we saw white and mild orange light lit up the sky,the cameras caught it as stark green.

The nature’s marvel-Aurora Borealis as captured by the camera

Imagine a bunch of over clad ,over enthusiastic people in pitch darkness and snow clad mountains,in the middle of nowhere gazing and marvelling the nature’s spectacular ,magical phenomena and jumping in excitement each time the sky lights up and sighing when it darkens .This was us.It was amazing,it was outstanding and it was a tick on my bucket list.

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