We are two German students Thorsten Klose and Marcel Reese. We study geography respectively biology and sciences of environment.

In summer 1998 we decided to travel northwards to see aurora and to camp some nights in snow. After some correspondation we found a place to stay - the IRF (Institute for Space Physics).
                                                         
Christer Juren started a public program named Norrsken 98.99..2000 and wanted us to work for this program. He wanted us to make experiences in watching aurora and even hearing them.

We started our trip on December 25th 1998 in Bielefeld, Germany, and arrived in Stockholm the next day at 5 p.m.. We spent one day in this wonderful city an were impressed of the Gamle Stan and the Vasa Museum. When we started in Stockholm December 27th we knew that we would not see the sun that year again. When we drove through the night, the snow outside got more and more and towns got less and less. The landscape got wide and lifeless. Next morning after about 39 hours of pure travelling in trains, ships and busses we arrived in Kiruna at about 10 o’clock.

Christer Juren picked us up at the station and brought us to the institute where we got the keys to our house nearby. After he showed us the institute and especially the library. He told us the basics of auroras nature and of aurora-watching.

That first night in Kiruna (Monday) we spent outside on an open field near the institute and near antennas used to scan the ionosphere. This night was the first time we saw aurora. It appeared at the northern horizon as a weak light, not even green but more like a cloud. After a while it got brighter and bigger and more green. It moved very slowly southwards and was stable in all other directions. After a while it disappeared behind the clouds. With -25°C it got the coldest night we ever spend outside.

The next time we saw auroras, was on Wednesday when we were sitting on the roof of the institute. Christer Juren had given us some equipment for drawing auroras on starmaps. They were printed out for especially that night by an program on the IRF internet-page.  And we had a special map which shined through the paperfor a while after we flashed on it with a small flashlight.

                   
So it was possible to draw without a lamp so that the eyes had not to adapt to the darkness again. That night we saw the brightest aurora of the whole trip. It took about one hour. The aurora temporary nearly filled the whole sky and moved very fast and discontinuously. It was a fantastic, impressious and unforgettable experience.

The next day we tried to hear some auroral sounds. Although you can not hear auroras directly by your ears they send out electromagnetic radiation in a hearable frequency range
(20 - 20,000 Hz). If you want to hear them you only have to transform this waves in hearable soundwaves by an antenna, an amplifier and an headphone.
                    

Although we tried hard and often we heard such a sound only one time but usually we only heard the 50 Hz tone of the electric-power net and some sounds from the nearby military airbase. We also heard the noise of lightning from southern Africa.

From 31st of Dec. to 2nd of January we have been in Abisko. A small town 150 km north of Kiruna and near the Norwayen-Swedish boarder.
             
We tried to spent New Year's Eve on the about 1200m high Mt. Njulla. But after half the way the snow got so high that we could not go further because it became to dangerous. So we camped at about 800m above zero. At midnight we had a great view over Abisko with its small firework and over the surrounding landscape. It was a very special New Year's Eve.

Next morning we left the mountain and went down to Abisko.

Back in Kiruna we tried to have an better result in hearing auroral sounds but we have never heard them again. The day before departure day of our trip we took a car of the institute and drove to Jukkasjärvi to have a look on the famous Icehotel. It was still under construction but a interesting experience nevertheless.

Then we drove to the esrange area an European spacecenter where some of the European satellites were started.
  

On January 6th 1999 we left Kiruna after a great trip. We have seen auroras even heard them and had a very great time up there in the high north. We are very thankful to Christer Juren that we got the possibilities to do all the things mentioned above. We hope that more people can have a deeper view in the nature of aurora so as we had.
 
 

Thorsten Klose and Marcel Reese