Nybyen,
Svalbard
General: Time 13h53m, Alt. 26 degrees, Saros 118,
48,2 % (Max 73,6 %)
Partielle Solförmörkelser I Nybyen by Patrick
Poitevin
Introduction
On 21st May 1993 a partial solar eclipse took place. It was visible in the west and north of the United States of America and Canada, Greenland, Iceland, North and East of Europe, and the polar region. The translation of the possibly awkward title is: partial solar eclipse in Nybyen. In Belgium, the eclipse was not perceptible. But the southern boundary of the eclipse region ran through South Scotland, touched the northeast of the Netherlands and passed then over northern Germany. In the northern part of the Netherlands, the north of the island Rottumeroog, the size of the eclipse amounted to only 0.002. Because of my reputation of "eclipse hunter" and the fact that this year no total solar eclipse would occur, I headed north. My original plan was to observe the partial eclipse on the Arctic Cape. The size would amount to 0.408 (however, on the North Pole itself 0.616). It was Patrick Wils, a famous amateur astronomer, who gave me the idea to travel to Svalbard. The largest island of this archipelago, Spitsbergen, is better known. At that moment, I had only a few weeks left before my departure. In spite of several discouragements (I would not be able to get there that period), I headed north. As usual, I tried to keep the journey as cheap as possible. Strange as it may seem, I travelled by train to the most northern train station. Then I took the bus and finally I covered the last stretch over the pack ice by plane. After a voyage of 3 days and 3 nights (4600 kilometres away from home), I arrived in Nybyen, a miner's settlement on Spitsbergen. I was to stay here for one week. The solar eclipse would have the size of 0.482 here. In three weeks time, I covered almost 9500 kilometres, from which 6500 km by train, 770 km by bus, 300 km by boat and 1900 km by plane. The actual travelling time, without taking into account waiting periods, amounted to 115 hours or 4,8 days.
Geographical position of Svalbard
Svalbard is the geographical name of a group of islands located between latitudes 74° and 81° north and longitudes 10° and 35° east. As I mentioned earlier, Spitsbergen is the largest island of the group. The total surface of the Svalbard islands equals more or less the size of Belgium and the Netherlands together. The Dutchman Willem Barents was the first to set foot on Svalbard in 1596, probably after the Vikings. Later, in the 17th century, the group of islands became better known by the massive numbers of whales that were caught here. Only at the end of the previous century, polar explorers started using Svalbard as point of departure for their journeys to the Pole. The real North Pole is only some 1000 kilometres away. Since then, fancy cruise ships come mooring for a day visit. Yet, because of the ice, this is only possible in the summer. A small airport, opened in 1975, has made Spitsbergen accessible for everybody. The name Spitsbergen speaks for itself. You can admire the pointed, high peaks from the plane, after having flown over the kilometres wide pack ice. The view is wonderful. Although the highest peaks reach a mere 1700 meters, they seem quite high because of their pointed shape. The subsoil consists of permafrost and the upper part remains even frozen in the summer. Svalbard falls under the sovereignty of Norway since 1925, but cooperates closely with the Russians. Longyearbyen is the administrative centre of the group of islands. The almost 1400 inhabitants nearly all work in the coalmines of the neighbourhood. There are facilities such as a school, a church, a bank, a post office, a shop and the like. Some "barracks" of miners have been transformed into residences in which, of course, only a bed and a chair are provided. The toilet and shower are for collective use with the co-occupiers. Nybyen is at the far end of tiny Longyearbyen. From this place (with co-ordinates 78°15' NL and 15°20' EL) I was able to carry out my observations without being disturbed.
Fauna and flora
As I stayed there in May, I didn't notice much of the flora. In the summer, it will probably get pretty warmer there; various kinds of flowers then grow on the rocky soil. The fauna which is present, is not very extensive. In addition to the polar bears, reindeer, different types of seals, walrus and arctic foxes live here. There are some 160 different kinds of birds, such as the puffins, different types of ducks and gulls, crab divers, etc. You can imagine what a moving experience it must be to stand face to face with a giant reindeer. Or when you observe, at a certain distance, how a gigantic polar bear stalks a 2 meters tall seal, which it later devours bit by bit. In short, nature there is (still) magnificent. An awesome silence and snow-capped mountains surround you, and except for a few human beings, you are only confronted with animal life. Apart from the mining of coal, the inhabitants amuse themselves with snow scooters, which I feel is a violation of silence, a pollution of nature. But, when did we use a bicycle or go on foot?
The climate
Taking into account the northern position of Svalbard, the average temperature in the winter is quite high. The coldest months there are from January to March with an average temperature of about -12°C. In the same northern latitude at the Canadian Pole, the temperature is 20 degrees colder. In the summer as well, the temperatures are relatively high. The average temperature in July, on the other hand, is between 1° and 3°C higher than in the location in Canada. The mild climate is caused by the North Atlantic current, a result of the Gulf Stream. Another cause is the warmer air current from more southern latitudes. The average temperature in the summer is around 5°C. The highest temperature ever registered was 17°C (July 1966). The coldest temperature ever registered was 33,5°C below freezing point (December 1968). This is the case for the place where I stayed during the month of May. At that time, the temperature was usually around -5°C. When the wind blows, however, these temperatures can drop to -20°C, which I experienced. All in all, the climate is not too bad.
Midnight sun
In Longyearbyen the midnight sun period extends from 21st April to 22nd August. The sun never drops below the horizon in that period. The closer to the Pole you go, the longer this period will last, but also: the less the light variety during the day. As to Svalbard, the period of midnight sun increases with 6 weeks from the most southern point to the far north (74° NL to 81° NL), which is one day per 10 minutes of arch. The period of midnight sun will also be two weeks longer than the polar night. This is because the sunrays are slightly deflected when they pass the atmosphere of the earth. So, although we see the sun positioned above the horizon, it is actually under the horizon (refraction). It is obvious that the period of midnight sun does not correspond with the period of complete light around the clock. First there is the above-mentioned refraction. In the polar regions, the density of the atmosphere, and, hence, the density of the refraction, is rather often exceptional, especially when a cold layer is hanging close to the surface. It thus can happen that a few days after a polar night has begun (according to astronomical calculations) the sun is seen to reappear above the horizon. At noon, a deep red disk is visible a little above the horizon. Obviously, it is distorted and far from round. Then, there is twilight, which is emanating light from the sun under the horizon, that is reflected by the atmosphere. We know this phenomenon in Belgium as dusk and dawn, that is if the weather allows it. One speaks about the civil twilight and the astronomical twilight. Even in the northern regions there actually is more light at noon during the polar night, when the sun is standing at less than 18° below the horizon. At astronomical twilight, the sun stands between 12° and 18° under the horizon, at nautical twilight between 6° and 12° and at civil twilight between 0° and 6°. Under normal circumstances, a person with a good eyesight should be able to read a newspaper between the civil and nautical twilight. Some atmospheric conditions, such as reflection from snow and ice, can enhance the brightness of the light even more. Even when the sun was at a position of 9° under the horizon, someone was able to read a newspaper. Finally, to make things even a bit more complex, moonlight plays also an important part. Even during the first and the last quarter, the moon casts very sharply-defined shadows on the ground (snow). Even when the sun is positioned at 11° under the horizon, it has been proved possible to find one's way in the snow when the moon is half illuminated. The moon is of great help to the inhabitants in their activities during the polar night. An advantage is that during the winter, the moon is at the same height as the sun will be half a year later in the summer and as a consequence it doesn't set either. The visibility depends on someone's eyesight and his ability to adjust to darkness.
Below, you will find some typical light values measured (in lux) on a horizontal surface (at a clear sky).
Sun and sky (sun 30° above the horizon) 55000 Sun and sky (sun 10° above the horizon) 15000 Sun 6° under horizon (on the verge of civil twilight) 1.5 Full Moon 30° above horizon 0.2 Half Moon 30° above horizon 0.02 Sun 12° under horizon (on the verge of nautical twilight) 0.01 Stars, night light (moonless night) 0.002
These values take into account a cloudless sky, transparency, mountains and other possible obstacles. It is obvious that, at these northern latitudes, light is very important.
Illuminance measurements
Above you already found some light measurements, which I obtained from the Polar Institute. I wanted to carry out some light measurements myself during my stay. First I wanted to observe for 24 hours how light intensity varies in relation to the position of the sun from 8° to almost 32°. The atmosphere condition is an obstacle and a factor that you can't control. There were cloudy periods now and then when I was there. Sometimes more, at other times there were less. I tried to carry out as many measurements as possible, but in spite of enduring the cold, I did not obtain a regular curve. What's more, it was impossible for me to eliminate the mountains for my measurements. It was quite pleasant, however, to do all this and afterwards compare the results with the light measurements during the partial solar eclipse. For the light measurements I used the same instrument as during the total solar eclipse, last year, in Uruguay. The measurements were more or less carried out in the same way. For more details, I refer to the article on this event in Heelal's edition of October 1992. I would like to give only the differences here.
Partial solar eclipse
The partial solar eclipse of 21st May 1993 is to a large extent comparable with the next partial solar eclipse in Belgium and the Netherlands which will take place on 10th May 1994. In the Netherlands, it will have a size of 0.493 in Amsterdam and 0.504 in Rotterdam. The values in Belgium will be 0.516 in Antwerp and 0.523 in Brussels. The partial solar eclipse on 21st May reached a peak of 0.482 at 2.50 p.m. and 58 seconds when the sun had a position of 26°. The first contact was at 13h53m03s at a position of 28°, the last contact at 15h47m35s. The position of the sun at that moment was 23°. This value is NOT equal to the occulted part of the surface of the sun disk, but it is rather the occulted part of the solar diameter. The occulted part of the surface is always smaller than the size. This is best shown when the size is exactly 50 %, in which case the diameter is only half covered. This solar eclipse was of course not as sensational as the total solar eclipses during my previous expeditions. On the island no one knew about the eclipse. If you had not known it, you would not have noticed the minute change in light. As you can conclude from the observations, it indeed grew darker, but it wasn't obvious that something was going on up there. I was fascinated by heavy clouds that regularly passed in front of the sun (and the moon). Consequently, I didn't need the filter for the Celestron C90 for my observations. It was quite safe to look directly in the sun. The "bite" was clearly visible that way. On such moments, you get in a philosophical mood. What would think the people who are not familiar with this phenomenon when they see such an occulted sun in the sky? Not being aware of what was going on, some local inhabitants must have been surprised. But as I said before, the climax of a total solar eclipse was missing. But even this can startle outsiders, I think. The fact that I was staying in a beautiful landscape made this simple eclipse an event. Once again, it was quite an experience to undertake such an expedition although it was only for a partial eclipse ...
Svalbard
The group of islands is only some 1000 kilometres away from the real North Pole. The location Nybyen on Spitsbergen is 4600 kilometres from Patrick Poitevin's home. The actual travel time amounted to 115 hours, without taking into account the time you spend waiting here and there. From Trömso you have to take a plane if you want to reach Svalbard. The pack ice doesn't allow any transport by boat in this period.
Ice cap limits for the months of March and August
March and August are more or less the two extreme months when the ice is respectively farthest and closest to the Pole. The limits indicate when the ocean is covered with more than 40 % of ice. This density limit of 40 % is taken because anything less would not be detected by weather satellites. The full line marks the average boundary for observations during the period between 1971 and 1980. The dashed line is the northern boundary of the ice limit and the dotted line the southern boundary position for this period. The North Pole ice cap covers a region of 15 million km2 in the winter and 8 million km2 in the summer. Every day, 2 to 15 billion tons of ice are carried in southern direction to the sea between Greenland and Svalbard. These data come from the Norsk Polarinstitute Arbok 1980.
Travel and train adventures
To keep the expenses of this expedition down, I decided to travel by train. That is quite an experience already, I thought to myself. Now I know for sure that it was quite an experience. To reach Spitsbergen, I needed 3 full days and nights. I had to cover a total of 4600 kilometres. I don't have to explain that there was bound to be a problem. Some people who know this guy a bit, wisely advised me: "When you start seeing some black people, you are going in the wrong direction." With this good advice in the back of my head, I headed north. I took a train in Berchem that was going to Denmark and thus I hoped to reach Oslo in Norway. Nothing is further from the truth. They put me off the train and before I was aware what had happened, I was sitting on the train to Stockholm in Sweden. A big difference, you will say, but looking back now, it was much better, because now I could get further to the north. But once you have crossed the polar circle, you can't travel any further by train and you have to take the bus. Of course, this didn't pass off without problems either. My knowledge of the Norwegian language was restricted to a nod of my head and I always hoped that I did that at the right moment. Past Trömso I travelled further on by plane. This hour and a half flight brought me to the most northern region that is still suitable for human habitation, Spitsbergen. I will never forget this experience. After having been in the plane for one hour, I suddenly noticed below a big plain full of cracks. This really puzzled me. I really couldn't understand what was going on. It took some 10 minutes before I realized that this was the pack ice. Those enormous big ice masses below seemed one great jigsaw from the plane. Suddenly something white appeared and very soon I saw mountains. Without doubting for one second, I said "Spitsbergen". I saw sharp, steep and pointed mountains. It was magnificent. As we flew over Spitsbergen, I poured from pure excitement and amazement a cup of hot coffee on my hands and then on the floor. My only thought at that moment was: "Now the airplane may crash ... they can't take this away from me ..." I'm not joking, I still cherish this fantastic memory and I am grateful to be able to carry it in my heart without anybody being able to take it away from me or to tarnish its beauty. It must bring the philosopher out in people who witness this. With a rich smell of coffee around you, of course.
Climate current which affects Svalbard
Here you can find the movements of the climate current around the island group of Svalbard. The polar fronts on the map indicate more or less the boundary between the moderately saline Atlantic water and the cold, less salty water of polar origin. Source: Dietrich "General oceanography", 1963.
Real cold ...
You regularly hear expressions such as "frozen stiff" or "frozen to the bone", but only now do I know their real meaning. Svalbard or Spitsbergen don't know real extreme temperatures. It is not the same cold you would experience in Greenland, Alaska or even in inland Siberia. The coldest temperature ever registered on Svalbard was not even colder than -40°C. However, a temperature of -20°C in the two last weeks of May is not exactly warm. This is only the case when there is no wind, of course. One morning at two o'clock, the sun was standing quite high, I guess at a height of some 15 degrees at the horizon. I just could not get used to the midnight sun. It didn't matter how carefully I tried to darken the small room, the fierce sunray peered in anyway and as a result, the whole room was strongly lit. Consequently, I could not fall asleep. To complete my observations of the light measurements, I headed to the open spot, where the pack ice begins. There I could observe with my C90 telescope polar bears, seals and walrus, which kept me preoccupied between each session of measurements. Coming outside I had already felt a light breeze. So I had gone back in to put on my gloves, bonnet and scarf. It was rather chilly. The distance to the ice boundary was approximately 5 kilometres. That's a piece of cake for someone who walks at least 20 kilometres every week. After having carried out measurements for a couple of hours and having followed a polar bear, I decided it was time to return. I almost lost all sensation in my feet, but I began to get used to it. Besides the walking exercise would warm them up again, I thought. The wind, however, was getting up strongly. It even got so bad that I began to cover myself more thoroughly, but the wind cut easily through my clothes. I didn't feel my feet anymore, they were real lumps of ice. In spite of the alpinist outfit, my legs were frozen stiff. Never before had I really thought about this expression. But only now did I realize how stiff you can get from the cold. I stumbled further on the road. The wind was very strong, and the open plain made it even worse. I think the wind speed must have been more than 80 km per hour, and the temperature definitely less than -20°C. It was as if my ears and nose, in spite of the scarf and bonnet, were cut off from my head. I was really suffering. As I saw a snow whirlwind at only a few meters away, I could only think ... "Oh Lord ...". At that moment I thought I wouldn't survive. This was real cold. Only after having defrosted in my hut, I could reflect on what had happened. I had made it. What an experience.
Cooling effect of wind
The average monthly temperature in Longyearbyen varies from -14°C in the winter to +6°C in the summer, with an annual average of -4,8°C. The wind, however, causes a considerable drop in temperature. During Patrick Poitevin's stay, temperature fluctuated around -5°C at a wind speed of 34 km/h (5 Beaufort). As a result, the temperature fell to -21°C. The wind made his stay really cold.. The cooling effect of wind has already been discussed in Heelal before.
Facilities and animals on Spitsbergen
Strange but true: most people think that Eskimos live on Spitsbergen, but they don't. There aren't any penguins either, they live on the South Pole. Even stranger seems the fact that coal is mined on Spitsbergen. Because of these coalmines, a permanent population is present. The people who work there usually have their families with them, which means that facilities such as a bank, post office, shop and the like are necessary. The language used in Longyearbyen is Norwegian, a gibberish that I actually began to understand a little after 3 weeks. My visit at the hairdresser's also turned out more of a success than I had expected. After making some gestures, the lady seemed to understand that this weirdo wanted to have a haircut. After my hairdressers experience in Mexico, Ecuador and Uruguay, I wanted to taste the atmosphere of having a haircut here. Because of the cold temperature, I only had the courage to do this at the end of my stay. A favourite activity of the inhabitants, after a working day in the mines, are their snow scooters. I see them as disturbers of silence and polluters of the wonderful white ice. But let's not be hypocrites, we don't travel by horse and cart anymore in our regions. Travelling here by dog sledge would be the same as doing the monster rally Paris-Dakar on a camel. In this very small community, I even found a library. I wanted to do some research in the extensive literature of the Polar Institute. A book about the last solar eclipse in Norway (on 30th June 1954) caught my attention of course. I nearly had to hand in my notebook when I wanted to leave the building. They obviously thought that I had taken a book without reporting it. Carrying around my telescope (C90) and observing the animals, I very soon caught everyone's eye, which was not surprising in such a small community. Sometimes, they were queuing up to have a closer look at a polar bear that was devouring a big seal. It is hard to grasp the size of this polar predator. The first days I felt somehow uncomfortable. Imagine that this 1000 kilos colossus should suddenly appear in front of or behind me. Very soon, I understood that these predators rather prefer to stay in the neighbourhood of their delicacy, the seals. I must admit that it was wonderful to watch this animal hunting a seal of about 2 to 2,5 meters. Sometimes the polar bear made clumsy movements which amused me, but at the same time it was horrible. This is the real world. I was even more conscious of this when I found myself face to face with a reindeer that was about my size, but twice as wide. At such moments, you don't know what is happening to you. I stopped short and looked straight in the eyes of the reindeer with the enormous antlers... What should I do, run away or pretend nothing had happened? Apparently the reindeer was thinking the same thing and also acted the fool. Both of us walked further on...
Light measurements during the solar eclipse The light intensity, which is shown here in a logarithmic way, was put out from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. local time. The irregularities in the curve are due to clouds which sometimes moved in front of the sun. The black (dark) squares represent the light measurements as they were recorded on the other days every hour at the same time. In spite of the disturbances caused by the clouds, the twist downwards is clearly visible at the time of the eclipse. The lowest light intensity measured was 19 000 lux and (somewhat accidentally) coincided with the maximum phase of the solar eclipse at a height of 22°.
Picture and Graph with measurements by Patrick Poitevin
Comments? Please send e-mail to solareclipsewebpages@btopenworld.com .
Back to Our Solar Eclipse Observations - Page
