When the polar night appears black for most eyes and even sensors, new equipment is on board the UNIS course to measure the “unseen” light. Two new prototypes which just arrived before departure from the mainland, has now been deployed and tested for the first time. The results are surprisingly good and show clear variations in the light regime throughout the day. This means that the sensors are able to detect even minute amount of light during the polar night. Compared to commercially available light sensors today the new prototypes are many many times more sensitive. In addition to the prototype sensors we have mounted an camera that has taken a time series of the sky to visualize what we are trying to measure. The photographs are quite amazing as you can see. Dark is not dark!
Ingrid Kjerstad, Lars Lønne
All sky image of the sky in Ny-Ålesund together with the marinelab and the laser beam from the Alfred Wegner Institute observatory (Photo: Geir Johnsen)
Midday in Ny-Ålesund – pretty dark! (Photo: Lars Lønne)
