If you asked me what lies at the top of my bucket list at any point in my life, I would have immediately responded by saying “Seeing the Northern Lights”. Even after having the incredible experience of observing them, it remains #1 on that list. It seems that others shared the same sentiment, because, while I was abroad in Denmark in the fall, John Slater ’22, Matt Sampson ’23, and I decided to study light pollution in Fairbanks, Alaska, within the context of the Northern Lights.
After figuring out our itineraries, it was time to begin preparing. If you didn’t know, Fairbanks isn’t the warmest place, and we were traveling there in mid-January. Additionally, Fairbanks experienced a once in a century winter storm, starting around Christmas and lasting three weeks. How lucky we were. Temperatures dropped to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the area was assaulted with snow and ice. We were prepared for the worst, stocking up on wool socks, boots rated to 40 below, and a multitude of hand warmers. Fortunately, the weather had backed off by the time we arrived, only dropping to a maximum of -20 degrees most nights.
Departing from different locations, Matt, John, and I ended up on the same connecting flight to Fairbanks from Seattle, where I saw them in person for the first time since last May.
Even though I was exhausted from a day of traveling, I secured a window seat in the hopes of glimpsing the Aurora Borealis in the air. I was asleep for the majority of the flight, but at around 1:30 am I awoke and took a look out into the darkness. For a while, there was nothing except for the flashing red lights of the wing. I saw a small wisp of green appear for a few seconds, then disappear. Thinking my brain was deceiving me as a result of wishful thinking, I brushed it off. A minute later, the green wisp appeared again, stronger this time. It increased in size, forming an S that seemed to extend its tendrils an impossibly long distance. I could barely hold in my excitement. Even with the poor visibility, it was such a powerful sight to behold. Everyone around me was either fast asleep or engrossed in their favorite Netflix show, and the cabin was dead silent.
We landed at 2 o’clock in the morning, and waited at the airport until 3:30 for a taxi to take us to our hotel, which would be our home for the next six days. Awakening late the next morning, we were shocked to see the sun rising at 10:30 a.m. Even though we knew the days were much shorter up here, it was still strange to watch the sun rise and set within a period of five hours. We explored the city of Fairbanks with our rental car that first day, driving way below the posted speed limit due to the six inches of ice covering the roads. Traveling to the University of Fairbanks campus, we watched an incredible sunset at 3 p.m.
Day two consisted of the first component of our research project. Our first stop was the Museum of the North, in which there was an art gallery that trumped any art museum I had been to beforehand. That evening, we embarked on a tour to the Chena Hot Springs and Ice Museum, which included the potential for Northern Lights chasing. Although we didn’t get to see any aurora activity, who else can say that they comfortably went swimming in subzero temperatures? We also took measurements of light pollution with a Dark Sky Meter at this location in order to gather data at multiple spots within the surrounding area of Fairbanks.
We then took a northern lights chasing tour, in which our tour guide was incredibly helpful in aiding us with our project, helping with camera settings and giving us lots of contextual information about light pollution in Fairbanks. I can’t even begin to describe how sublime the lights were that night. Green covered the sky, dancing quicker than I had ever thought possible. We even got to experience glimpses of white and pink within the show and captured some amazing pictures.
We spent another day dog sledding, freezing our faces off as the pack took us on a 10-mile trail. We ran into a moose and her calf, which luckily ran away from us, but I got to see the sheer size of these animals. They were incredibly intimidating, and we had encounters with three others over the course of the trip.
One of the last things we did was spontaneous — we decided to drive to Castner Glacier, an ice cave a few hours from Fairbanks. Leaving early in the morning, we grabbed crepes from a breakfast spot across the street from the hotel and got up close and personal with the mountains we always saw on the horizon. Hiking to the glacier was beautiful, and seeing this ice cave was breathtaking. You could see the layers of sediment built up throughout the ice, and it felt like another planet.
All in all, we were able to successfully compare light pollution in Hamilton, N.Y., and Fairbanks, Alaska, while also gaining perspectives from locals on the economic and cultural impact of the Northern Lights and light pollution. John, Matt, and I were able to experience such incredible things on this trip and wouldn’t have been able to do so without being in the AMS program.
