NORTHERN LIGHTS FROM POLAR BEAR BAY
by Michelle Bienias
 Photographer: Witek Kaszkin, who has been wintering at the Polish Polar Station since July 2005 and will leave July 2006.When: March 19, 2006, a few minutes after midnight.Where: 77° 00' N, 15° 33' E. Polish Polar Station at Polar Bear Bay (Isbjørnhamna) in Hornsund fjord, on West Spitsbergen Island, Spitsbergen archipelago (Norwegian Svalbard), an outpost of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
click here to view fullscreenSvalbard is a group of islands located in the Arctic Ocean, just about 1,000 km south of the North Pole. The archipelago covers an area of some 62,000 km², which is almost the size of Ireland. In the winter, between the months of November and February, there is perpetual darkness or “Polar Night" and the Northern Lights are easily seen. What: Northern Lights (or Aurora Borealis)
The Earth’s magnetic field attracts electrically charged particles to the north and south regions of the globe. When these particles hit the upper atmosphere, they cause a spectrum of colors to shower the sky. Electrons colliding with oxygen atoms in the atmosphere produce a very bright green light, as seen in the accompanying panorama. In the lower atmosphere, there are more nitrogen molecules, which color the Aurora red.Kaszkin, who works with the XXVIII Polish Polar Expedition as a meteorologist, says "99% of the Northern Lights seen in Hornsund are green; it’s very rare to have red flashes in the sky.” How: Photographer Witek Kaszkin writes, “Shooting the Northern Lights requires long exposure times. I have an Olympus E-300 camera, which is not good for night shots because this camera is very, very noisy on long exposure times, even with noise reduction switched on. Pictures taken in low light conditions have to be strongly denoised, so the quality of this pano is not as good as I would like, but the Northern Lights look almost like this in real life."Kaszkin uses a self-made pano head, Manfrotto 718B tripod and Peleng 8mm fisheye lens. (“The dream is Canon 5D with Nikkor 10.5, but one little problem is money.”) Related Links:
- View more beautiful panoramas by Witek Kaszkin from the Polish Polar Station.
- Learn more about the Hornsund Polish Polar Station
Email Witek Kaszkin: witek[at]skialpinizm.pl
| 
