Pictures from an all-sky camera with hourly resolution from the light observatory at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway (complete year 2023)

UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) established a light observatory at Kings Bay, Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard, Norway) in January 2017 as part of the Arctic ABC Development programme funded by the Norwegian Research Council (project nr 245923). The observatory is registered in RiS (project nr 10624).

The observatory consists of a range of light sensors including an all sky camera. It is located outside the settlement of Ny-Ålesund, approximately 1 km N-NW of the airport towards Brandalspynten. The array of sensors, including the camera, is mounted on a tripod under a transparent dome. This dataset contains the pictures taken during 2023 at hourly intervals by the all-sky-camera (between 2023-01-18 and 2025-01-31 pictures were taken every 15 minutes). The camera (Canon EOS 5D Mark III) is equipped with a fish-eye lens with a focal length set to 8 mm with aperture manually set to open (f/4) to ensure maximum sensitivity (Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L), providing a 180° image of the atmosphere (only possible with a full-size sensor). Both shutter speed (exposure time, ranging from 0.000125 to 30 seconds) and ISO (sensitivity, ranging from 100 at Midnight Sun period and up to 6400 during Polar Night) are set to auto. White balance manually set to “day light”. It is remotely controlled by a PC, pictures were stored in a cloud storage. Short gaps in the time series are due to power failures. The pictures were primarily intended as a visual quality control of the data from the light sensors (obstructions on the dome, light pollution), however have also been used as a highly sensitive light sensor of its own by extracting data from each picture.