Welcome to KHO ...
Part of the Center of Excellence (BCSS)
StatusOptical season shutdown, Dome Heat OFF ... 06.03.2019
RoadClosed due to snow.
CAPER-2 rocket launched!
04.01.2019
Today at 09:26:58 UT the Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket-2 (CAPER-2) was launched from Andøya over Svalbard into perfect optical cusp conditions as seen from KHO.
ASC:Info NORUSCA camera: Movie
Data Scrn dumps:[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
TRICE-2 rocket campaign!
08.12.2018
Again KHO supported two more sounding rockets launched from Andoya over Svalbard in perfect science conditions into a pulsed reconnecltion event. The Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics-2 (TRICE-2) launched 2 minutes apart at 08:28 UT.
ASC Launch video More info here.
VISIONS-2 rocket campaign!
07.12.2018
KHO supported today the VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom Sensing-2 (VISION-2) rocket campaign. Its aim is to detect neutral outflow in the upper magnetosphere associated with the dayside aurora. The event was recorded by one of our BACC cameras.
See [Blog, BACC: Movie, ASC: Info]
10 years anniversary
30.10.2018
KHO celebrates 10 years of operation and studies of the optical aurora and airglow. Thanks to our colleagues/groups that have installed instruments at the observatory. Also thanks to Statsbygg, Longyearbyen and all of our friends that support us.
Svalbardposten [1]
Light pollution network
29.10.2018
KHO has joined the STARS4ALL project which is a collective awareness platform for promoting dark skies in Europe, funded by the EU. A TESS-W photometer is installed to monitor sky brightness in units of star magnitude all year round.

Photometer info here.
SuperDarn radar down!
23.10.2018
Today at 10 LT our SuperDarn radar took a hard hit by bad weather conditions and is unfortunately out of operation. Wind gusts up to 20 m/s in combination with icing conditions bended the masts 135 degrees down to the ground. 45 mm diameter ice tubes was super clued around the 6 mm wires, increasing the mass by 1.2 kg per meter wire used in the construction.
A comprehensive study will follow!
Mass production!
10.10.2018
Together with NTNU AMOS and Moon Labs we are proud to announce that our first serial produced Hyper Spectral Imager (HSI) no. v4J arrived in the mail today. It is based on our work that has been among the top 10 most read papers for six months in Optics Express (2018).

Read paper here.
Dr. Norah Kaggwa Kwagala!
17.08.2018
KHO congratulates Norah Kaggwa Kwagala at the BCSS on successfully defending her PhD titled: ' "Thermally excited 630.0 nm emissions in the polar ionosphere”. She has actively used optical data from both us and the Eiscat radar.

More info here.
OSA press release
05.03.2018
Our work on small and lightweight hyperspectral imagers has been awarded a press release by the Optical Society of America (OSA). Drone-based land and ocean spectral mapping is now possible at very low cost.
Read press release and paper here.