Sunrise and sunset in Longyearbyen

The sun comes up at 6:42 am and goes down at 6:53 pm in Longyearbyen today, 12 h 11 min of daylight. Drag the sun across the sky to see where it will be at any minute. Another city.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Thursday, September 24

Sunrise6:42 am
Sunset6:53 pm

4:39 am the sun is nautical twilight, 7 degrees down

Drag the sun. Arrow keys move a minute, Shift for fifteen.

LONGYEARBYEN 78.22 N 15.65 E DAY 12 H 11 MIN UTC+2

Today, hour by hour

First light
— astronomical dawn
Nautical dawn
1:27 am horizon becomes visible
Dawn
4:55 am civil twilight begins
Sunrise
6:42 am
Golden hour
5:38 am to 9:04 am morning
Solar noon
12:49 pm sun 11 degrees up
Golden hour
4:31 pm to 7:55 pm evening
Sunset
6:53 pm
Dusk
8:37 pm civil twilight ends
Nautical dusk
11:41 pm
Last light
— astronomical dusk, full dark
Day length
12 h 11 min −14 min 57 s vs yesterday

The next thirty days

DaySunriseSunsetDay lengthChange
Today6:42 am6:53 pm12 h 11 min−14 min 57 s
Tomorrow6:49 am6:45 pm11 h 56 min−14 min 56 s
Sat, Sep 266:56 am6:37 pm11 h 41 min−14 min 56 s
Sun, Sep 277:03 am6:29 pm11 h 26 min−14 min 58 s
Mon, Sep 287:10 am6:21 pm11 h 11 min−15 min 00 s
Tue, Sep 297:18 am6:14 pm10 h 56 min−15 min 02 s
Wed, Sep 307:25 am6:06 pm10 h 41 min−15 min 06 s
Thu, Oct 17:32 am5:58 pm10 h 26 min−15 min 11 s
Fri, Oct 27:39 am5:50 pm10 h 10 min−15 min 16 s
Sat, Oct 37:47 am5:42 pm9 h 55 min−15 min 23 s
Sun, Oct 47:54 am5:34 pm9 h 40 min−15 min 30 s
Mon, Oct 58:02 am5:26 pm9 h 24 min−15 min 39 s
Tue, Oct 68:09 am5:18 pm9 h 08 min−15 min 49 s
Wed, Oct 78:17 am5:09 pm8 h 52 min−16 min 01 s
Thu, Oct 88:25 am5:01 pm8 h 36 min−16 min 13 s
Fri, Oct 98:33 am4:52 pm8 h 19 min−16 min 28 s
Sat, Oct 108:41 am4:44 pm8 h 03 min−16 min 45 s
Sun, Oct 118:49 am4:35 pm7 h 46 min−17 min 03 s
Mon, Oct 128:58 am4:26 pm7 h 28 min−17 min 25 s
Tue, Oct 139:07 am4:17 pm7 h 10 min−17 min 49 s
Wed, Oct 149:16 am4:08 pm6 h 52 min−18 min 17 s
Thu, Oct 159:25 am3:58 pm6 h 33 min−18 min 49 s
Fri, Oct 169:34 am3:48 pm6 h 14 min−19 min 26 s
Sat, Oct 179:44 am3:38 pm5 h 54 min−20 min 10 s
Sun, Oct 189:54 am3:27 pm5 h 33 min−21 min 02 s
Mon, Oct 1910:05 am3:16 pm5 h 11 min−22 min 05 s
Tue, Oct 2010:17 am3:04 pm4 h 47 min−23 min 23 s
Wed, Oct 2110:29 am2:51 pm4 h 22 min−25 min 02 s
Thu, Oct 2210:43 am2:38 pm3 h 55 min−27 min 14 s
Fri, Oct 2310:58 am2:22 pm3 h 25 min−30 min 17 s

Reading the sky band

The band is one day in Longyearbyen, midnight to midnight, in its own local time. The curve is the sun's height: above the line it is up, below it is not. The dark bands are the three twilights and night; the lighter stripe either side of sunrise and sunset is the golden hour, and the thin cool stripe after it is the blue hour. Drag the sun to any minute and the readout says how high it is and which way to look.

Dawn, sunrise, dusk and the three twilights

Sunrise and sunset are when the top edge of the sun meets a flat horizon, with refraction bending the light so it shows up a little early and lingers a little late (the sun's centre is 0.833 degrees below the horizon at that moment). Civil twilight is the sun within 6 degrees below: bright enough to work outside without lights. Nautical twilight runs to 12 degrees, when sailors could still see the horizon to shoot a star. Astronomical twilight runs to 18 degrees; after that the sky is as dark as it gets.

Why the times drift

Day length in Longyearbyen changes fastest around the equinoxes in March and September and stalls at the solstices in June and December. The change column in the table is today against yesterday, so you can watch the evenings draw in or stretch out. Hills, buildings and haze at your actual horizon shift the real moment by a minute or several; these are the times for a flat, clear horizon at sea level.

Near Longyearbyen

What stays here

Everything on this page is arithmetic on a latitude, a longitude and the clock, done once at the edge so the numbers are in the page before any script runs, and again in your browser as you drag the sun. No account, no cookies, nothing typed here is stored. The only thing this page records is that a city was looked up, and which one.