Northern lights in Longyearbyen tonight and this season

1Aurora over Longyearbyen right now

2The Kp index Longyearbyen needs

Longyearbyen lies at 78.2° N, which is 75.3° N geomagnetic latitude on the WMM2025 dipole. NOAA's viewing tips put the edge of the auroral oval at about 66° geomagnetic for Kp 0 and move it about 2° closer to the equator with each Kp level, down to 48° at Kp 9. At 75.3° N Longyearbyen is inside the oval before any storm begins, so the cards on this site use Kp 1, the lowest value they show. The city is near the poleward edge of the oval: on quiet nights the arc often stands to the south, and a moderate Kp brings it overhead. NOAA also notes that aurora can often be observed hundreds of kilometres equatorward of the oval's edge, so a bright display can show low on the northern horizon one Kp level earlier.

3Kp forecast for the next 3 days

Data: NOAA SWPC. Slots before now are NOAA estimates, the rest are predicted values.

4When the sky over Longyearbyen is dark enough

The aurora needs a dark sky as much as it needs Kp, and darkness is a matter of latitude and date. Fully dark nights in Longyearbyen (sun 18° below the horizon) run from 9 October to 4 March. From 20 March to 23 September the sky never gets darker than nautical twilight, so only a strong display shows, low on the horizon. The polar night lasts from 27 October to 14 February, 111 days with the sun below the horizon all day, when the aurora can show in the afternoon. The midnight sun lasts from 19 April to 24 August, 128 days. Dates are an own calculation from the sun's declination for the latitude of Longyearbyen, with the US Naval Observatory definitions of twilight, and can be a day off at the edges. Clouds and moonlight are the other half of the question: the home page shows the moon phase for each of the next 27 days.

5Why Svalbard for the northern lights

Longyearbyen at 78° north is so far up that the civil polar night, with no civil twilight, runs from mid November to late January and the aurora can appear at midday. The settlement lies at the poleward edge of the oval, so during quiet periods the lights are often south of it, and a moderate Kp actually brings them overhead.

All places in Svalbard with their odds tonight.

6Longyearbyen on the Kp scale

Longyearbyen is the only place in Svalbard on this site. The Locations page ranks all 33 destinations by the Kp they need, from Kp 1 inside the auroral zone to Kp 9 at the edge of NOAA's rule.

7Northern lights tours in Longyearbyen

No guided aurora tour from Longyearbyen passes the catalogue filter of 4.3 stars and 20 reviews yet. The aurora probability above does not depend on tours: a dark spot outside the lights of the town is the first thing to find.