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The Midnight Sun and Polar Night happen because Earth's axis is tilted about 23.5° relative to its orbit around the Sun. During each hemisphere's summer, that tilt leaves the polar region permanently angled toward the Sun, so the Sun never sets — giving Norway, Iceland, Alaska and Antarctica weeks of continuous daylight. Six months later, the same region tips away from the Sun and gets the opposite: weeks of Polar Night, with the Sun never rising. At the poles themselves, each phase lasts roughly six months.
Are you a morning person? Do you simply love the morning and feel that there is never enough daytime to do all the outdoor activities you want? Do you just hate the silence and darkness of night? Or are you a night owl who loves the dark hours? Do all your creative thoughts come to life in the solace of night?
Well, the Earth moves such that you have to face both night and day in your regular life. For some people, night can be very depressing and lonely, whereas there are other people who love the nighttime and they hate nothing more than the morning sunlight.
Well, what if I told you that in this world, there are places where the Sun does not set for days at a time? For all you night owls, don’t worry… these places also have a period of time when the Sun does not rise for days!
Let’s find out where and how this amazing phenomenon occurs!
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What Is The Midnight Sun?
Midnight sun is a natural phenomenon where you can see the Sun even at midnight. This phenomenon occurs near the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.
Midnight Sun occurs north of the Arctic Circle around the June solstice (~June 21), when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. At the same time south of the Antarctic Circle, the opposite phenomenon — Polar Night — is taking place. Six months later, at the December solstice (~December 21), the Antarctic Circle gets the Midnight Sun while the Arctic Circle goes through its Polar Night.
In the Arctic circle, midnight sun can be seen in countries like Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Canada. In the Antarctic circle, the phenomenon can only be seen in Antarctica, which is not inhabited by humans (aside from a small number of researchers) In fact, in places close to the poles, the Sun does not set for half a year during their respective summer seasons and does not rise for half a year during their winters.
What Is The Polar Night?
The opposite of this phenomenon is called ‘polar night’ — a 24-hour stretch with no direct sunlight. It only happens inside the polar circles (north of 66.5° latitude or south of −66.5°), where Earth’s tilt drops the Sun fully below the horizon. Areas just outside the polar circles never quite go fully dark because the atmosphere scatters light from the still-below-horizon Sun, producing twilight rather than night. Even within the polar circles, that scattered twilight cuts into the polar-night count: at the North Pole the Sun is geometrically below the horizon for around 179 days, but only a portion of those days are truly dark — many feel like a long, dim dusk.
Polar Night (Credits: Richard Cavalleri/Shutterstock)
Why Do Midnight Sun And Polar Night Occur?
Earth completes one rotation on its axis every 24 hours, which causes the daily change between day and night. But the planet is also tilted — its rotational axis sits at about 23.5° relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. If Earth’s axis were instead perpendicular to that orbital plane, every place on Earth would get 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night, all year round.
As a result of that axial tilt, the Sun never sets above the Arctic Circle around the June solstice — and right at the North Pole, the Sun stays up continuously for about six months from the March equinox to the September equinox. The Antarctic Circle gets the mirror image: continuous daylight around the December solstice, and continuous Sun at the South Pole for the roughly six months from September to March.
Wow! No matter how much you love night or day, can you imagine yourself living in an area where the Sun does not set for six months, but for the next six months, the world is entirely dark?
