the whole d w one. for been focused global insights the news out for local heroes. d.w. made for mines. is the northern lights of fascinated mankind for millenia. some find them frightening others inspirational most when they experience them are simply overwhelmed. i think i mean what you see behind me is the reason we've come this far north there are a barrell is so northern lights this natural spectacle in the sky has fascinated humans for thousands of years many people now come here on holiday just to see and experience the lights for themselves. who are almost two hundred kilometers north of the arctic circle at kew roun abdul originally built to support the mining industry these days most of the arrivals coming to work on the contrary jack hong for instance is a chinese student on holiday. and made. the journey continues by bus. people who have come from all around the world to experience something very special . jack kong who studies physics in the united states has been dreaming of this for a long time. to see the north and lightning lawrence norden that incest so often that i nominate me out a place where i can now sit here and act as want to say i was. in my whole life and i think i said if i want to come here. the new arrivals are surprised by the darkness it's just two in the afternoon but it's already pitch black outside it's the polar night. their accommodation is cozy with simple rustic chalk. it's like a better quality youth hostel. and that's no wonder because it's run by the swedish youth hostel association. it's the top choice in town and it's being booked out for months. its northern lights seasonal biscoe. this is where in orbit school a remote village somewhere in lapland but not far from the swedish no we joined borda orbit around one hundred people and it's a very special place that's because of the northern lights you can find northern lights tourism in many other areas of the world but all biscoe is considered the best place to experience the celestial phenomena that's due to its location in a low precipitation microclimate. not part of the a pony and gate that's what they call these you shaped valley it's a point of focus for visitors to lapland the mountains and sure that few clouds obscure the view of the northern lights. it's necessary to travel quite far north to see the north the mites the area around all busy is situated in the wide expanses of lapland and that's north enough. freight trains from kew roona transport iron ore to the port of navi otherwise not much goes on up here. roughly one hundred residents who will be live directly on the railway line. in the evening almost everyone in town meets of the only book that means tourists and those who profit from the presence it's only recently that holiday makers started coming to see the northern lights and it was newcomers who recognized the economic potential of this celestial display the first time i saw the northern lights something in my brain changed something in my outlook changed and i think that's a reason people come here shares because when you see the northern lights for the first time. it makes you feel small it makes you understand how powerful the universe is. and a lot of times it helps you understand your problems and all these things that seem like food in your world every moment that truly aren't that big and when you see nature at its finest and that's what the aurora is. it puts everything into perspective and for me obviously has changed my perspective on life. and. now some fifteen thousand visitors make their way to a booth who every year to see the northern lights it's a very troubled boom that's good for the local businesses which now make decent money all winter long. it may be minus twenty degrees celsius but chad blakely has to go to repair the webcam it broadcasts images of the northern lights all around the world the most recent footage was blue. three. i had to come up here tonight to adjust the settings the infinity focus was off just a tiny bit and i'm better of a perfectionist so i wanted it to the perfect. chant blakeley is an american who's lived here for eight years captivated by the northern lights he and his swedish wife came up with an idea that transformed winter in obispo. on a good night we can have many many many thousands of people from all over the world looking at these pictures self i feel a bit of a responsibility to make sure that it stays running. people that don't have the ability to come to school get to see us through the eye of the lens plexiglas protects the delicate optical lambs even in these optic temperatures this camera has turned life in this remote community upside down. perhaps a little too much according to some. when he's out on a snowmobile chad blakeley always has the lights on better safe than sorry visibility is poor during winter in the arctic. the american from the state of missouri had to get used to that when he first came to the cold dark north. winter holiday makers stopped arriving in all biscoe in october to make sure these photos so far is too unpleasant challenge set up an old sound weak tent this is where the paying guests stay until the skylight south. from. the small firearms to the sense of adventure. who used to be an insider's tip now it's a popular destination chad lately may benefit from the boom but he's also concerned that too much traffic could destroy the magic of the place i think my biggest challenges is making sure that as we grow and as the interest in all biscoe continues to spread that we continue to give really really good levels of experience you know one of the things that always goes really dealt with in the last couple years as we've had this boom is to make sure that the place doesn't have too many people or have of too many tours happening in a national park it's a very small area and i think our biggest challenge is to make sure that we don't love all this go to death and be a good what's the word a good shepherd and take good care of the place. it's a good idea to warm up the tent in advance of the evening session. hopefully the sky will be clear chant blakely heads back to the village he still has a lot to do. bleakly photography courses and even provides cameras for the but two supreme. guys my name is chad i'm going to be your guide tonight i'm going to be your storyteller your fire maker your aurora photographed teacher here your guy that teaches you a bit about space i'm going to make you a warm drink and hopefully we're all going to have a really nice time. we can go out and talk about camera settings all night long if you just want to take pictures we can also do that everybody should have brought an s.d. card to anyone not bring in s.d. cards what a great group and there we have an ok guy so we'll start with the basics there are only two variables that we will have to change throughout the course of the evening and the way we change that is very simple if you look on the back of your camera here there's a wheel that you'll find by your thumb. ok so on your camera you have a little lever here that goes back that's called the live you believe or like a cell show this women are almost entirely from asia you can just go one couple is from singapore just in the hope that we can reuse off the camera and take. aurora isn't super committee where we come from. it's nice store to experience says we're the ones in a way. as to where this kind of will if at all with a lot. of walking towards. venturing out into the darkness with chant it's not a cheap adventure the three hour excursion at minus twenty five degrees costs around one hundred twenty euros per person so braithwaite has to be sure his customers get something for their money i want you to experiment with exposure take a fifteen second picture take a twenty second picture taken thirty second picture point the camera this way and you'll start to get your first aurora photographs but the reason we're going to experiment with those exposures is to see which exposure level you like the most the aurora is not super strong right now. so as i turn the ring slowly slowly slowly it gets nice and sharp and now we turn the light you back off and once that's done your focus is set. yet no matter how hard he tries no a rural appears in the sky thirty seconds right now because here was a big hall when you first saw it we were in finland and we were surprised that you can actually see what you saw in the pictures media only could i but with the camera you know you can see much more clearly and you can go back to your friend and say well you were sitting on a couch i took a picture of another world yeah cool think. the skies don't chant provides an alternative program everyone should feel the trip was worth it there we go on three one two three don't move. we also learn more about the scots ok about the milky way about the different styles and how to show it and frame that picture such that got us into such make up that if it's just like anyone else we might use it but it's i would you know see i write a piece. so maybe you know a nice vacation you might want to try and look in the southern part of the wood and in social be recorded australia. is still there a little disappointed it's a long way to travel to look at a dark sky that's not why they came to a biscuit. chad and his wife linea off the tourists a variety of other options in addition to photo tools. cleared up and yes from. what is this. just. a good samaritan some news and. the web cam is working perfectly again now that chad's fixed up. i took a picture on facebook this morning and in the last hour and a half it's been seen six thousand five hundred forty two from. the nights out on some and when you work here it's done one yes and she actually will be school has become known around the world thanks to the internet from someone that had a really snow we know it was one so it's easy to get a great review and yours are going strong on the slow nights. bigger orus it's the saying is you know i said it a million times when people book a trip to go see the northern lights if they're going anywhere other than always go they they often wonder am i going to see the lights and that's usually our biggest question. they might deserve a raise. but he can't guarantee anything apart from the freezing temperatures by the time winter comes to an end the couple have had enough of cold laflamme. we always try to go somewhere warm and really just relax but i actually promise linea this year i'm going to take a two week vacation with no phone no e-mail nothing and i i'm ninety nine percent confident that i will have the ability to opt to keep my word i certainly hope so. you believe. in. spectacular sites like these are something every northern lights family should experience at least once in a lifetime regardless of how cold it is. in the evening chad wants to present the northern lights to his guests at last it's gotten even colder and windier there's nothing to see yet but plenty to talk about thriving a lot of times when we can explain something we don't understand something we immediately go to the spirit. if orion our constellations out there we would look up at the heavens and see the same thing next to the other and it sort of tragic and wax lyrical about the magic of the aurora for hours and he enjoys doing so i think he's. been in new york steve means to be caught in a calling catching the no light and then be in the fifth the know it's warm and everything and talking to him and somewhere in the. nothing often like it's very enriching enlightening hand experience so i would definitely recommend to my friends. hydrogen. as the solar wind only extras make the whole thing even more interesting but will the skyline jump the group wants to be ready to go in case they have to hurry. on their. self see how i'd zoomed in on that planet yet as i turn this focusing ring you'll see there that gets a bit sharper but as soon as i've got a bicep just final adjustments to ensure the guests successfully capture images on that as the cards to take home with them. are stored. and you remember to take the picture you just press that button right right i'll come back and check on you soon ok second anything let me know. and there they are the northern lights. everyone starts snapping pictures that are actually over to the right in from the north east i should say the east northeast we're starting to get something called a hydrogen arc can take a picture and then you look at it on the screen and if it needs to be adjusted you make those adjustments. i think still. are you ready for the long journey to get here has been worthwhile. three. nights and still very good. it's kind of spiritual. i think it's something that accounts from the sky. well you can explain from the scientific part of field but. i think. it's something that i'm sure a suspect. and enjoy. the latin is also home to the sami an indigenous people who inhabit the arctic regions of scandinavia some a culture tradition that revolved around reindeer for centuries the sama lived as no man's and survived life in the cold many are still having difficulty finding their place in modern swedish society and not everyone is happy with the attention northern lights tourism has brought to the region but of the see it as a business opportunity. those who focus only on winter nights you know who will miss the chance to take in the region's stunning scenery as well as its reindeer they're an important part of saami culture to truly understand the indigenous people up here in the north it's necessary to understand the love of reindeer. hakan an ox on is expecting guests he's a reindeer breeder. when tourists first started coming here khan was concerned about the negative consequences it might have on the environment and local people but now he enjoys telling visitors about sami culture and lifestyle. it's not a number of tourists it's just right it's still not. only that spread out we don't get thousands of people in one place making a lot of noise. jewels clean your teeth and they come in small groups and stay in settled areas it was an oxy only road and that that it would be another matter if complexes were built in the middle of nowhere. and give land were used just for that purpose make the news stand still. such claim. fifteen holiday makers who booked a tool for today. ok come over here. when we used to love. to catch the reindeer. no we don't do like. what we do is make some loops like this. but it's rote you go like this. and hopefully the rain in that three and. old the guests are allowed to give it a try an excursion like this costs around two hundred twenty of was proposed some it's something mental income for the saami money they can really use even if in the end hakan has to catch the domesticated reindeer himself but this doesn't have much to do with the real life of the sammy. ok i'm going to want to put a little. i often play. by heart for it. every day it's. five thousand and some is still live from breeding reindeer and one to the north with us but they don't use traditional rain dia sleds like these anymore so the tourists love the short ride around the corral these days the some of them so's you snowmobiles. and. inside a traditional samba love who has some insights on how to survive in la plans on limits how to hunt moose for example for a thumb it's easy to sound like you may lose what you thought like you moved the sound a long distance and therefore you need to hold your hands like this. and the moves are more. than me and therefore either would you feel. ok all of them out. there with a come. off or awful lot off off off. and then the female and just all the women ah ah ah ah ah i was. a. little much. not so much fish in the. rain. goulash is a typical dish hakan tells his guests about some of traditions but he doesn't say anything about the northern lights there's a reason for that. because i like this. we just talk about modern life when it's dark and this is not dark yet to keep the course and we must show the no daylight respectful way and therefore i don't talk about northern lights in daylight driving pleasure. and that's not just an act. is deadly serious right now it's time to warm their feet and eat reindeer meat with death fingers it's an adventure to tell family and friends about it oh. this some experience last three hours after that ha gone once again has the lover to himself in his culture the aurora borealis has a mystical quality as a day old live laterally in the lots when i was little i was told to have respect for the northern lights well but i wasn't allowed to shout whistle or anything stupid like not when they were visible. for me enough for my parents taught me not to use little man man language evolved through them so long ago the sammy believed that the lights a mandate from the souls of the dead man this was a people who had died in violent and tragic way in the old sunsets on fancy so long old green. his ancestors perceived the lights in the sky as threatening but he prefers not to tell he's guests about that. those who come to see the northern lights in northern sweden often arrive here in kiruna one of the biggest and most important towns in the region and while it's possible to see the northern lights in karuna to the people around here tend to be a war interested they want to below ground and want something the sky kiruna is situated above one of the world's largest magnetite appetite deposits mining has been going on here for more than one hundred years and that's going to continue to ensure it can the entire town will be relocated in the coming years. they had wanted to wait for the snow to be gone but the wind in karuna is long this year the first houses are being demolished in the district of spirit which was largely home to families with children. beaver and col your hon mickey wants the demolition machinery with mixed feelings the neighborhood that was their home for decades will soon cease to exist. it's sad building something is one thing demolishing it has another it feels awful and i know you want to have any of that. even carl your hon came here almost forty years ago with average temperatures of minus twenty and colder their home was more than just a place to stay during the long polar winters. it was a council of fortress for more than thirty five years our two children grew up in. the pit operator the state run company a b. that's procured a new home for them kiruna is a mining town north of the arctic circle with a population of twenty three thousand it was founded in the year in one thousand nine hundred the world's largest continuous iron ore deposit lies beneath the town it said the pit is karuna the town wouldn't exist without the iron ore every day the auris transported from here to novick by freight train novick is the closest ice freeport on the west coast of norway the fact that the town is threatened by the mining activity became evident when cracks appeared in the ground more than ten years ago those responsible decided the whole town would have to be moved away from the dangerous cracks. this man helped design the new kiruna his model of the town is becoming reality you hunt kos is aware that he's taking homes away from many people but there are no alternatives he says they value the thick dust all we want to move the whole town two and a half kilometers east and this way there are a variety of reasons for that in this new location would allow us to keep some of the out to districts that are on threatened by the crack. and this location is also secure meaning we won't have to move the town again. urban planning cost shows us the old wooden ship which it will be destroyed it will be moved into the heart of the town and important to many residents. her sure goals of the church is our grandest building will dismantle it bit by bit and reassemble it every component has to be labeled not subsequently crucial. as another highly respected establishments not far from here it's said to be demolished the restaurant savant's a beer on the black back it's a meeting place for those who want ready to go home at the end of the shift if i make he appreciates the hearty home cooked fare with second helpings you know if. i came to kiran area nine hundred seventy fool this restaurant was already him back then it looked different but they always came here for lunch or we bought sandwiches for breakfast. the that barry's simply part of karuna that so they take care of the. budget may not be that way for much longer. that this is a work has restaurant i don't know if anything like this is included in the plans for the new town and the rents will also be much higher than. mad to peterson doesn't know what will happen yet but she knows the wrecking crew will be right eventually the enormous project is only said to be completed by twenty thirty three the move will cost more than three hundred twenty million euros and yet it's worth demolishing karuna and building it again the iron ore deposits should continue to generate huge profits for decades one person who's not happy about the move is going to sell by a local politician and a member of the liberal centrist party. so burke is concerned that the new kiruna may be built on contaminated land. out of the open is me factories one stood on the location where they plan to build and there was also a pit that mine water was pumped into the pool it might contain having metal such as arsenic cobalt nickel and other hazardous substances. but it did fall i gotta know that verse file. is one of the few critical voices most of the residents accepted to varying degrees a phone call your one mickey the maid a new home for themselves in a neighborhood on the outskirts of town the new place is bigger and not much more expensive we were able to express our wishes about the size of our home and its location the mining company tried to take our desires into account it would depended on how long you had been working for the month. yet but these new flat has to become the new home in a new town. they're waiting for the next wave of families to move from the old kiruna. the road that many scientists studying the northern lights even though they significantly impact people all over the world. who've been brunt's through him has been evaluating data in his lab for many years . every ororo is preceded by a solar storm when the particles of the solar storm reach the earth's upper atmosphere force fields are created waves of light can be seen around the north and south poles because the electrons are attracted to the magnetic fields that mixed with gases in the atmosphere they do lower the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere determines whether the light appears blue green violet. the most efficient we have to understand how not to behave as plus a large proportion of not saying the universe is in the plasma state and that it's important to understand how events in space influence us and that they can badly damaged our technical system from satellites to radio systems power lines and pipelines pipelines. there are no words for the effort therefore the cameras are the best tools for scientists to examine and evaluate what happens. and there's a problem in the family shares his love of the northern lights although at some point even the most passionate scientist needs a break from the spectacle in the sky. you know my family takes an interest of course and they've seen the old all run many times but once in a while someone will say hey the northern lights were really great yesterday and i don't want to know about it on the day off that the family of a loss. nevertheless bromst room is captivated by the natural phenomena in the sky even after all these years. outside kiruna it feels quite desolate. desolate and nearly impassable. that's why bromst redmond his colleague have to complete the final kilometers in snow shoes half a meter of snow fell in recent weeks the forest is a winter wonderland ancient spruce trees and virgin nature. the two scientists from the institute for space physics regularly inspect the small hop in the wilderness it's vitally important. the northern lights can be observed very well from this dock location with a special camera. studying the all rod helps us to better understand the solar system in space weather. it can cause problems with technical systems on earth. but first they have to restore the view. but on stroom grew up in lapland even as a child he found the aurora borealis fascinating. the aurora borealis has become his life's work. he says the northern lights can become addictive. and a few days ago we get that some very interesting data it's only on this hard drive so we have to make another copy and get it to our lab as quickly as possible a fellow before that. they check their camera and then they take the new data back to the lab. not far from here is one of the most extraordinary places in swedish lapland estrange space center. it's not quite as big as a cake canaveral in the u.s. state of florida but they launch proper rockets into space here to. whom brown strum is a regular visitor and becomes to talk shop and have a look at new equipment. and the most don't think you have a compass and if the box no not on that note is gone though i don't think it is. victor. from india and. slap. the scientists share information and work together especially before iraq it will make them feel good to hear us and they're the biggest challenge is ensuring that sold the electronic equipment works and that it doesn't overheat and that the mechanisms work and will feel so much could go wrong but that's why we have to check and double check things constantly have. they been launching rockets from here since one thousand nine hundred sixty six civil research on behalf of the european space agency with the aim of learning more about the arctic settlers feel. main function that i had a idea how mike but my task is to take measurements on the ground and pictures of the northern lights which allow us to create three dimensional images of the light phenomena i think i might have them and then compare those with the data collected in the atmosphere it's great the rockets shoot right through the plus. before launching the rocket they send up a balloon with measuring instruments. it's to determine whether the conditions are in fact ideal. it's looking good. then it's time for the countdown ha ha. ha ha. ha ha. a perfect launch the research rocket gathers data and sends it back to ground control before it burns up and. the scientists in the control center it as range are at least as proud as that colleagues at nasa. ones they've evaluated the results they're hoping they'll understand the northern lights only effect they have on earth even better. keep expanding the behold the experts who claim that in a few years time the northern lights won't be so visible to the sun's activity will diminish nevertheless people will probably continue to travel to these cold northern parts to experience the northern like he's a fascinating and truly unique natural phenomenon i might even that to a friend of mine. when the sky lights up like this it captivates everyone. it's impossible not to be fascinated by this incredible specter platelet . leaflet . from fishing village to metropolis co-op shocked the capital of mauritania has experienced a scottish in growth since the one nine hundred sixty s. but growth has brought huge environmental problems between silting up and flood. what can be done ideas for the sitting on the atlantic coast eco at africa in thirty minutes on d w. are you up to speed on the latest technology. though then it may be time for an upgrade this becoming part of the future. become a cyborg i must say a word so i've created a new sense and a new organ and design my perception of reality implants that make every day life easier. i use my you can't on a daily basis that optimize the shoeman body and connects people more effectively. i hope that this will make us more ethical persons what would life be like as a cyborg. as mistletoe at the end of the day these technologies can be used against us and what effect will it have been society does the human race really need an upgrade i think it's only the beginning of this cyborgs human machines starting february first on t w.