Sky phenomena in Kiruna

One of the few perks of living in Kiruna are the various natural phenomena in the sky above.

However, living in the Kiruna city center the light pollution is quite bad, and I haven't got to see any truly magnificent aurora.

I quickly got desensitized to aurora alerts like the one above. In the app, the sky is practically on fire, but once you go outside to the bitter cold, you can maybe see a green wisp or two if you look closely.

There are definitely aurora, but in the city center, they're just not very visible to the naked eye.

But aurora are not the only thing you can see! Another prominent phenomenon on cold, windless winter nights are these light pillars. They are caused by ice crystals that happen to be aligned in such a way as to amplify a light source below them. These ones are most likely caused by powerful lights at the LKAB mine area.

I already posted another picture of the stratospheric clouds I saw on my way back home last year, but here's another one from when the plane was boarding :) I really like the juxtaposition of the Moon, the plane, and the twilight with the clouds as a cherry on top.