A 65-day polar night has started in an Alaska town. What it is and how people cope

New Delhi: Earlier this week, the town of Utqiagvik in Alaska saw its last sunrise and sunset. At least for the next 65 days , it will be shrouded in the darkness of the polar night.

With winter underway in the northern hemisphere, similar phenomena are under way across the Arctic. In northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Greenland, daylight is shrinking toward the point where the sun no longer rises for weeks at a time. In Utqiagvik the sun will not rise again until late January. It is also the season when areas near the North Pole see the aurora borealis, commonly known as the Northern Lights.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the world, Antarctica is entering a spell of the midnight sun, a polar day that can last for months. Show Full Article

But what are polar day