The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002
On December 6, 2002, during winter darkness, an extraordinary event occured in the sky as viewed from Longyearbyen (78°N, 15°E), Svalbard, Norway. At 07:30 UT the South - East sky was surprisingly lit up in a deep red colour. The light increased in intensity and spread out across the sky, and at 10:...
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COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
2005
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/1/angeo-23-1593-2005.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597.d001 |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:39365 2024-09-15T17:35:09+00:00 The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 Sigernes, Fred Lloyd, N Lorentzen, D.A. Neuber, Roland Hoppe, Ulf-Peter Degenstein, D. Shumilov, N. Moen, Joran Gjessing, Y. Havnes, Ove Skartveit, A. Raustein, E. Oerbaek, Jon-Boerre Deehr, C.S. 2005-07-27 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/1/angeo-23-1593-2005.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597.d001 unknown COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/1/angeo-23-1593-2005.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597.d001 Sigernes, F. , Lloyd, N. , Lorentzen, D. , Neuber, R. orcid:0000-0001-7382-7832 , Hoppe, U. P. , Degenstein, D. , Shumilov, N. , Moen, J. , Gjessing, Y. , Havnes, O. , Skartveit, A. , Raustein, E. , Oerbaek, J. B. and Deehr, C. (2005) The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 , Annales Geophysicae, 23 (5), pp. 1593-1602 . doi:10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005 <https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005> , hdl:10013/epic.46597 EPIC3Annales Geophysicae, COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH, 23(5), pp. 1593-1602, ISSN: 0992-7689 Article isiRev 2005 ftawi https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005 2024-06-24T04:13:16Z On December 6, 2002, during winter darkness, an extraordinary event occured in the sky as viewed from Longyearbyen (78°N, 15°E), Svalbard, Norway. At 07:30 UT the South - East sky was surprisingly lit up in a deep red colour. The light increased in intensity and spread out across the sky, and at 10:00 UT the illumination was observed to reach the zenith. The event died out at about 12:30 UT. Spectral measurements from the Auroral Station in Adventdalen confirm that the light was scattered sunlight. Even though the Sun was between 11.8 and 14.6 degrees below the horizon during the event, the measured intensities of scattered light on the southern horizon from the scanning photometers coincided with the rise and setting of the Sun. Calculations of actual heights, including refraction and atmospheric screening, indicate that the event most likely is scattered solar light from a target below the horizon. This is also confirmed by the OSIRIS instrument onboard the Odin satellite. The deduced height profile indicates that the scattering target is located 20-25 km up in the Stratosphere at a latitude close to 73 - 75°N, South - East of Longyearbyen. The temperatures in this region were found to be low enough for Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC) to be formed. The target was also identified as PSC by the LIDAR systems at the Koldewey Station in Ny-Ålesund (79°N, 12°E). The event is most likely caused by solar illuminated type II Polar Stratospheric Clouds that scattered light towards Svalbard. Two types of scenarios are presented to explain how light is scattered. Article in Journal/Newspaper Adventdalen Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Annales Geophysicae 23 5 1593 1602 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
op_collection_id |
ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
On December 6, 2002, during winter darkness, an extraordinary event occured in the sky as viewed from Longyearbyen (78°N, 15°E), Svalbard, Norway. At 07:30 UT the South - East sky was surprisingly lit up in a deep red colour. The light increased in intensity and spread out across the sky, and at 10:00 UT the illumination was observed to reach the zenith. The event died out at about 12:30 UT. Spectral measurements from the Auroral Station in Adventdalen confirm that the light was scattered sunlight. Even though the Sun was between 11.8 and 14.6 degrees below the horizon during the event, the measured intensities of scattered light on the southern horizon from the scanning photometers coincided with the rise and setting of the Sun. Calculations of actual heights, including refraction and atmospheric screening, indicate that the event most likely is scattered solar light from a target below the horizon. This is also confirmed by the OSIRIS instrument onboard the Odin satellite. The deduced height profile indicates that the scattering target is located 20-25 km up in the Stratosphere at a latitude close to 73 - 75°N, South - East of Longyearbyen. The temperatures in this region were found to be low enough for Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC) to be formed. The target was also identified as PSC by the LIDAR systems at the Koldewey Station in Ny-Ålesund (79°N, 12°E). The event is most likely caused by solar illuminated type II Polar Stratospheric Clouds that scattered light towards Svalbard. Two types of scenarios are presented to explain how light is scattered. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sigernes, Fred Lloyd, N Lorentzen, D.A. Neuber, Roland Hoppe, Ulf-Peter Degenstein, D. Shumilov, N. Moen, Joran Gjessing, Y. Havnes, Ove Skartveit, A. Raustein, E. Oerbaek, Jon-Boerre Deehr, C.S. |
spellingShingle |
Sigernes, Fred Lloyd, N Lorentzen, D.A. Neuber, Roland Hoppe, Ulf-Peter Degenstein, D. Shumilov, N. Moen, Joran Gjessing, Y. Havnes, Ove Skartveit, A. Raustein, E. Oerbaek, Jon-Boerre Deehr, C.S. The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
author_facet |
Sigernes, Fred Lloyd, N Lorentzen, D.A. Neuber, Roland Hoppe, Ulf-Peter Degenstein, D. Shumilov, N. Moen, Joran Gjessing, Y. Havnes, Ove Skartveit, A. Raustein, E. Oerbaek, Jon-Boerre Deehr, C.S. |
author_sort |
Sigernes, Fred |
title |
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
title_short |
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
title_full |
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
title_fullStr |
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
title_full_unstemmed |
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 |
title_sort |
red-sky enigma over svalbard in december 2002 |
publisher |
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/1/angeo-23-1593-2005.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597.d001 |
genre |
Adventdalen Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Adventdalen Longyearbyen Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
op_source |
EPIC3Annales Geophysicae, COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH, 23(5), pp. 1593-1602, ISSN: 0992-7689 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/39365/1/angeo-23-1593-2005.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46597.d001 Sigernes, F. , Lloyd, N. , Lorentzen, D. , Neuber, R. orcid:0000-0001-7382-7832 , Hoppe, U. P. , Degenstein, D. , Shumilov, N. , Moen, J. , Gjessing, Y. , Havnes, O. , Skartveit, A. , Raustein, E. , Oerbaek, J. B. and Deehr, C. (2005) The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002 , Annales Geophysicae, 23 (5), pp. 1593-1602 . doi:10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005 <https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005> , hdl:10013/epic.46597 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-1593-2005 |
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Annales Geophysicae |
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23 |
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5 |
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1593 |
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