Where in Svalbard and Jan Mayen is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Longyearbyen at 75.3°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.

Which town in Svalbard and Jan Mayen has the longest December night?

Longyearbyen, with 24.0 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in Svalbard and Jan Mayen has the clearest dark season?

Longyearbyen, with 75% mean cloud amount in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night (NASA POWER, 2001 to 2020).

What is the best month for aurora in Svalbard and Jan Mayen?

January for 1 of 1 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

1 towns · northern lights

Aurora towns in Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Answer

Glow tracks 1 towns in Svalbard and Jan Mayen, 1 with their own indexed page. On the IGRF-14 dipole they run from Longyearbyen at 75.3° to Longyearbyen at 75.3°, with a median of 75.3 degrees geomagnetic.

75.3°

median geomagnetic latitude

IGRF-14 dipole, SunCalc, NASA POWER

Where the towns sit

60° geomagnetic or more, no storm needed55° to 60°, G1 or lessbelow 55°, storm needed

Of the 1 indexed towns in Svalbard and Jan Mayen, 1 sit at 60 degrees geomagnetic or more, in or poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where no storm is needed.

Darkness and cloud

On December 15 the median town gets 24.0 hours of civil night. Longyearbyen has the most at 24.0 hours and Longyearbyen the least at 24.0. 1 of these towns lose civil darkness altogether around the June solstice; Longyearbyen goes longest, 159 nights.

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 75%. Longyearbyen is clearest at 75% and Longyearbyen cloudiest at 75%. These are all-hours averages for 1 degree cells, not forecasts.

Best month, town by town

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, January comes out best for 1 of the 1 towns. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

Every town

1 towns in Svalbard and Jan Mayen, highest geomagnetic latitude first
Town	Region	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Longyearbyen	Svalbard	75.3°	none, oval can sit south	24.0 h	75%	Jan

* Within 15 km of a larger town with the same rounded figures; its page points to that town. Cloud: NASA POWER mean for months with at least 4 hours of civil night.

Regions

The towns fall in 1 first-level regions. Svalbard has 1. Regions with at least 5 indexed towns have their own page with three rankings.

Svalbard1 towns

Questions

Where in Svalbard and Jan Mayen is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Longyearbyen at 75.3°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.
Which town in Svalbard and Jan Mayen has the longest December night?: Longyearbyen, with 24.0 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in Svalbard and Jan Mayen has the clearest dark season?: Longyearbyen, with 75% mean cloud amount in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night (NASA POWER, 2001 to 2020).
What is the best month for aurora in Svalbard and Jan Mayen?: January for 1 of 1 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Sources and verification

GeoNames dump (CC BY 4.0)https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/
IGRF-14, NOAA NCEIhttps://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/coeffs/igrf14coeffs.txt
NASA POWER climatologyhttps://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/services/api/temporal/climatology/
NOAA SWPC, Aurorahttps://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora

Quoted figures last checked against their sources on 2026-09-30; next review 2026-12-31. Computed figures come from SunCalc and the IGRF-14 dipole as described in the methodology. Every quote is listed in the sources ledger.