Naturally, we believe that sun should rise and then set in every 24 hours right, wrong. It is not everywhere on earth that the sun follows this rule as a result of phenomena such as Polar Night and Midnight Sun.
It is as a result of the former that the Alaskan town of Utqiagvik which was known as Barrow has begun its journey into 65 days of darkness as it will neither see sunrise nor sunset for the next 2 months from 18th December.
This town with people numbering close to 4000 is located in the far North Pole. This is not the first time for a place to experience this. Here is all you want to know about Polar Night or even polarnatt.
Polar Night Facts
1. What is Polar Night?
It is a time or phenomenon when the sun does not appear above the Horizon for more than 24 hours in places that are located close to the North or South Pole.
2. What happens during the Polar Night?
The phenomenon can start at any time- that of Utqiagvik began on Sunday at 1:43 p.m. During this period, the sun sets and then it doesn’t get to rise again until in the least, after 24 hours. What this means is that everywhere will be dark as the night so you don’t know if it is “night” or “morning.”
3. How Dark Can it be?
While the sun may not be out completely for as long as the phenomenon lasts, it will not be completely dark as it usually has a dark sunset color that makes it beautiful or even magical, if you prefer. In some places, you will get to see a blue color that makes the place very beautiful. That said, it could also cause complete darkness in some places.
4. How long can it last in a particular time?
Polarnatt can last from 24 hours to anything that is as high as six months for places that are very much in the North or South Pole. However, there are some places such as Antarctica that have as much as 6 months of darkness and then turn to have 6 months of daylight. It is not unusual to find anything from 20 days to 30 days and even more.
5. How do people live in such places?
You will be surprised to find out that there are many people in places that experience polarnatt. More is more interesting is that people live their normal lives in such places including students going to schools and workers going to work. In fact, they also have “night life” and everything goes on normally except that sometimes they retire to bed much earlier than normal and wake early as well.
Another thing to know is that in some places such as Norway, people use the time for their festivities.
6. Where does it occur?
If you are hearing of the Polar Night for the first time, it will interest you to know that there are many places where this phenomenon happens. Most of these places as already stated exist in the Southern and Northern pole, and it occurs mostly in the winter.
Apart from Alaska in the United States, it also happens in places such as Longyearbyen in Norway where the phenomenon lasts for between Octobers to mid-February (lasting for four months), Antarctica which experiences it in July, the island of Tromsø in Norway where it lasts from November to January, and Alert, Nunavut in Canada where it lasts a few months. Other places are Kiruna in Sweden (28 days), Reykjavik in Iceland, Cape Nordkinn and Nordkapp in Norway, Murmansk in Russia, Lapland in Finland, Greenland in Denmark, Estonia, and Norilsk in Russia. There are other places that experience it.
7. Why it happens
What causes the rise and fall of the sun as it does is actually the rotation of the earth. Because of this, you can have this phenomenon based on the rotation of the earth in relation to the position of the sun.
See Also: Uranus Smells Like Fart: Five Other Facts About The Planet
In perspective, there is a tilt of about 23.5 degrees on the axis of the earth and because of this, during the Summer Solstice, the sun does not set in the Arctic Circle region and at the North Pole for as much as 6 months. More so, it does not set during the winter solstice in the Antarctic circle region and at the South Pole for as much as 6 months also.
8. Where it is more popular
While Utqiagvik, Alaska, has hit the news for this phenomenon, it is more popular in the Norwegian Town of Tromsø. Located in the north of the Arctic Circle, this town can have the polar night lasting for as much as from November to January. During this time, the sun does not rise completely and then from May to July, it may begin experiencing sun that never sets even after midnight, something that is called Midnight sun.
9. Midnight Sun
It gets interesting to know that while there is the Polar Night, there is also the Midnight sun which is the opposite of the phenomenon. With the Midnight sun, it occurs around June 22 during the Summer Solstice. The phenomenon will have the sun appear in the skies even after midnight.
10. Types of Polar Night
While it is a single phenomenon, there are different types such as:
- Civil polar night
- Polar twilight
- Nautical polar night
- Astronomical polar night
- Polar Sun cycle
