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Sweden Arctic CircleSweden The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. This is the parallel of latitude that (in 2000) runs 66° 33' 39" north of the Equator. Everything north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south of this circle is the Northern Temperate Zone. The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day of the summer solstice in June and the polar night of the winter solstice in December. Within the Arctic Circle, the arctic Sun is above the horizon for at least 24 continuous hours once per year, in conjunction with the Arctic's Summer Solstice - this is often referred to in local vernacular as midnight sun. Likewise, in conjunction with the Arctic's Winter Solstice, the Arctic sun will be below the horizon for at least 24 continuous hours. (In fact, because of refraction and because the sun appears as a disk and not a point, part of the midnight sun may be seen at the night of the summer solstice up to about 50' (90 km) south of the geometric arctic circle; similarly, at the day of the winter solstice part of the sun may be seen up to about 50' north of the geometric arctic circle. This is true at sea level; these limits increase with elevation above sea level, however in mountainous regions there is often no direct view of the horizon.) The position of the Arctic Circle is determined by the axial tilt (angle) of the polar axis of rotation of the Earth on the ecliptic. This angle is not constant, but has a complex motion determined by many cycles of short to very long periods. Due to nutation the tilt oscillates over 9" (about 280 m on the surface) over a period of 18.6 years. The main long-term cycle has a period of 41000 years and an amplitude of about 0.68°, or 76 km on the surface. Currently the tilt is decreasing by about 0.47" per year, so the Arctic Circle is moving north by about 14 meters per year. Countries which have significant territory within the Arctic Circle include: Russia Canada Denmark (Greenland) United States of America (Alaska) Norway Sweden Finland External links
The reindeer is distributed throughout a number of northern locales. Reindeer are found throughout Scandinavia (including Iceland); in Finland; at Spitsbergen; in Russian Europe including Northern Russia and Novaya Zemlya; in Russian Asia, to the Pacific Ocean; in North America on Greenland, Canada and Alaska. In 1952 reindeer were re-introduced to Scotland, as the natural stock had become extinct in the 10th century. Domesticated deer are mostly found in Northern Scandinavia and Russia, and wild deer are mostly found in North America, Greenland and Iceland. Its natural occurrence is approximately bounded within the 62° latitude. External links
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details). About Wikipedia Disclaimers Sarolta and I visited Sweden during our trip around Europe on our Eurail Pass. We arrived from Stockholm by Ferry. After a couple of days sightseeing in Helsinki we took a train to the top of Finnland in the Arctic Circle, where we crossed over, through Sweden to Norway. A terrific experience. very enjoyable. Hui Chin and I, traveled from Stockholm in Sweden to Helsinki in Finland on a luxurious ferry in 2003. We spent some time sightseeing in Helsinki, sightseeing by conducted tour buses and on foot to see what there was to see. From Helsinki we went by 'overnight' (We thought it was overnight, but that night and the following four nights, until we got to Oslo it was practically broad daylight, with the sun visible all the time. It was a real 'doozy' of an experience.)train to Kemi, in northern Finland, pretty near the Artic Circle. After some sightseeing in Kemi, we hoped on a bus to Haparanda, in Sweden, still close to the Artic Circle. Again we had some time for sightseeing, before we caught a bus to Lulea (A bit further down in Sweden, with a railway line to Narvik in Norway). But more about that on other pages. Amazing, what you can do on a two month Eurail Pass. It's all here, if you look for it. Have fun, but please do watch my bandwidth (20 mb/day) and let others have a chance too. Thanks. You can click on
these photos for an enlargement.
The Swedish Arctic Reindeer
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