Last week I stayed at the Nyboder military garrison in Copenhagen with a couple of friends and a Royal Danish Air Force officer who once spent eight months living on a tiny base in northeastern Greenland, where aurorae borealis are practically a daily phenomenon. Copenhagen being one of the northernmost points I’ve visited to date, I was quite dismayed when he told us that aurorae are quite an unusual occurrence in this part of Denmark (or was it Denmark in general?). While looking through his photographs, I also remembered to ask whether he was ever able to witness a red/purple aurora (the rarer kind) while living in Greenland, but unfortunately, he said he was not. I’d figured that spending so much time in this kind of location would have allowed for at least one such opportunity, but I suppose they must be even rarer than I thought.
As a frequent visitor of the AF Geophysical Institute’s aurora forecast engine, I am aware that recent auroral activity has been low-moderate, and was not really hoping for much anyway. Still, being in such close physical proximity to the auroral zone made this goal somehow seem further from reach than ever before. Nevertheless, it was quite remarkable to see light hanging on the horizon at half past midnight.
