Aurora · Svalbard
Northern lights forecast for Longyearbyen
From Longyearbyen the aurora needs any clear dark night (Kp 0), and a clear sky. It appears usually overhead or even to the south: Longyearbyen sits inside or poleward of the auroral oval.
Right now
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Longyearbyen at a glance
- Kp needed (on the horizon)
- 0
- Geomagnetic latitude
- 75.3° N
- Dark enough
- Sep 22 to Mar 21
- Best hours
- around local midnight
How to read this
Kp measures how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is, from 0 to 9. The higher it goes, the further the auroral oval spreads toward the equator. Longyearbyen lies at 75.3° geomagnetic latitude, so an aurora shows on its horizon from about any clear dark night (Kp 0), and overhead a couple of Kp steps higher. Between Mar 22 and Sep 21 the sun never goes more than 12° below the horizon here: the sky stays too bright to see an aurora whatever the Kp. Get away from city lights and look north.
Nearby places
Source
Kp observed and forecast: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, read live by your browser. Kp threshold: centred-dipole geomagnetic latitude and NOAA's ~2° per Kp oval rule, an estimate that shifts with each storm; the aurora map shows the OVATION oval as it is now.