Svalbard, Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Northern lights in Longyearbyen
Answer
Tonight
Waiting on darkness
It is not civil-dark yet. The next dusk is listed below.
Observed 11:49 UTC, forecast 13:20 UTC, 91 min lead
Clock times in Arctic/Longyearbyen
Storm level needed
Longyearbyen sits at 78.22N 15.65E in Svalbard, Svalbard and Jan Mayen. The IGRF-14 centered dipole puts Longyearbyen at 75.3 degrees geomagnetic latitude, 2.9 degrees farther from the magnetic pole than its map latitude suggests. Longyearbyen sits at 75.3 degrees geomagnetic, poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band. The quiet oval can lie south of the town, so aurora often shows low in the southern sky, and storms push the oval farther south.
"The best place to observe the aurora is under an oval shaped region between the north and south latitudes of about 60 and 75 degrees. At these polar latitudes, the aurora can be observed more than half of the nights of a given year."
The nearest other Glow towns are Alta (945 km), Tromsø (958 km), Harstad (1,048 km). Alta sits 8.1 degrees lower on the dipole and needs the same Kp.
Approximate: SWPC calls its Kp to latitude rule an average, and a centered dipole can differ by a degree from fuller field models. How the storm level is matched
The year in darkness
From April 3 to September 8 the sun never reaches -6 degrees, so 159 nights in 2026 have no civil darkness at all. SWPC puts it plainly: "It must also be dark so during the summer months at auroral latitudes, the midnight sun prevents auroral observations." Glow's dark season, at least 4 hours of civil night between 18:00 and 06:00, runs from September 13 to March 29 across New Year, 198 days in 2026. Longyearbyen's longest night of the year, Jan 1, has 24 h of civil night.
Solar midnight at Longyearbyen, when the sun is lowest, falls at 23:53 on local clocks on December 15 and 00:58 on June 15. That is 7 min before midnight in December and 58 min after midnight in June, the gap set by daylight saving and the equation of time. So at Longyearbyen the darkest hour sits near the middle of SWPC's 10 PM to 2 AM window in winter.
Month by month
| Month | Night | Civil | Cloud | Clear dark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24.0 h | 13.3 h | 74% | 6.2 hbest | |
| Feb | 15.9 h | 7.7 h | 72% | 4.5 h | |
| Mar | 8.8 h | 0.0 h | 70% | 2.7 h | |
| Apr | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 67% | 0.0 h | |
| May | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 74% | 0.0 h | |
| Jun | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 81% | 0.0 h | |
| Jul | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 82% | 0.0 h | |
| Aug | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 82% | 0.0 h | |
| Sep | 5.1 h | 0.0 h | 83% | 0.9 h | |
| Oct | 13.4 h | 4.5 h | 79% | 2.8 h | |
| Nov | 24.0 h | 11.8 h | 76% | 5.8 h | |
| Dec | 24.0 h | 14.9 h | 74% | 6.2 h |
By the 15th-of-the-month sample, January is the darkest month at Longyearbyen with 24.0 hours of civil night and April the lightest at 0.0. Across the year Longyearbyen gets 3,422 hours of civil night. Astronomical night at Longyearbyen, the sun 18 degrees or more below the horizon, lasts 14.9 hours on December 15.
NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 all-hours climatology puts mean cloud amount for the 1 degree cell around Longyearbyen at 76% across the year, from 67% in April to 83% in September. In the months with at least 4 hours of civil night Longyearbyen averages 75%.
Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky gives January the best score, 6.2 hours, ahead of December at 6.2. Longyearbyen's equinox months score 2.7 in March and 0.9 in September, the weeks SWPC links with larger storms.
Kp history
Quiet levels are enough at Longyearbyen: a 3-hour Kp of 0 or more occurred on 100% of days from 1996 to 2025 in the GFZ Potsdam record. The days that matter are storm days, Kp 5 or more: 10% of all days, most often in September.
Share of UTC days in each calendar month whose highest 3-hour Kp reached Kp 5. Kp history by year
Moon, next 30 nights
Over the 30 nights from Oct 2, the new moon falls on Oct 10 and the full moon on Oct 26, in Arctic/Longyearbyen dates. 15 of the 30 nights at Longyearbyen have at least 2 moon-free dark hours inside 10 PM to 2 AM, and Oct 7 has the most at 4 h. Tonight Longyearbyen has 10 h 13 min of civil night, 0 min of it with the moon down.
- 2
57% lit
0.0 h
- 3
46% lit
0.0 h
- 4
35% lit
0.0 h
- 5
25% lit
0.0 h
- 6
16% lit
0.0 h
- 7
8% lit
8.0 h
- 8
3% lit
11.3 h
- 9
1% lit
11.9 h
- 10
0% lit
12.2 h
- 11
2% lit
12.4 h
- 12
5% lit
12.7 h
- 13
11% lit
12.9 h
- 14
17% lit
13.2 h
- 15
25% lit
13.4 h
- 16
34% lit
13.6 h
- 17
43% lit
13.9 h
- 18
52% lit
14.1 h
- 19
62% lit
14.4 h
- 20
71% lit
14.6 h
- 21
80% lit
10.7 h
- 22
87% lit
5.5 h
- 23
94% lit
2.0 h
- 24
98% lit
0.0 h
- 25
100% lit
0.0 h
- 26
99% lit
0.0 h
- 27
95% lit
0.0 h
- 28
89% lit
0.0 h
- 29
81% lit
0.0 h
- 30
71% lit
0.0 h
- 31
60% lit
0.0 h
Each cell is the night that starts on that date. Hours are civil-dark time with the moon below the horizon; the green rule scales with them. Green outline: new moon. Bone outline: full moon.
Within Svalbard and Jan Mayen
On December 15 Longyearbyen gets 24.0 hours of civil night, 1st longest of 1 in Svalbard and Jan Mayen, where the median is 24.0.
Questions
- Can you see the northern lights in Longyearbyen?
- Longyearbyen sits at 75.3 degrees geomagnetic, poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band. The quiet oval can lie south of the town, so aurora often shows low in the southern sky, and storms push the oval farther south. Clear, dark sky over Longyearbyen still decides it.
- When is it dark enough in Longyearbyen?
- Civil night, the sun at -6 degrees or lower, is missing from Apr 3 to Sep 8. Tonight has 10 h 13 min of it.
- What is the best month for aurora in Longyearbyen?
- January, by civil night at Longyearbyen times the clear share of the sky from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 average.
- How cloudy is Longyearbyen in the dark months?
- About 75% mean cloud amount over Longyearbyen in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night, from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 all-hours climatology.
- How often is activity high enough for Longyearbyen?
- Almost always: the average oval edge is overhead at Kp 0. Storm days, Kp 5 or more, made up 10% of days from 1996 to 2025 in the GFZ record.
Nearby and related
Nearest Glow towns
Longyearbyen by month
Region and comparisons