The U.S. military’s northernmost outpost is seeing brighter days. Literally. The Space Force Guardians at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland are seeing sunlight for the first time in three months.
In recent days sunlight crested over the hills around the American base, the first glimpse of natural light since November. Located at a latitude of 76°32′ North on the western coast of Greenland, the base is more than 700 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The base is so far north that, come winter, the Sun slips out of view from November to February. Guardians at the base celebrated the return of an actual daybreak on Feb. 15 with activities out in the snow — it is still winter north of the Arctic Circle after all. Photos shared by Space Force showed troops driving out to watch the sun rise, some basking in the rays.
The base’s proximity to the North Pole means that alongside frigid winters and long nights, troops stationed at Pituffik also get to see sights such as the aurora borealis.
Pituffik Space Base operates a unique mission. Home to the 821st Space Base Group, Guardians operate missile detection devices and early warning systems, while also carrying out several scientific research projects.
Founded as Thule Air Base in 1951 to monitor northern skies for Russian bombers and missiles, Pituffik was renamed as part of its transfer to the Space Force in 2023. To put its extreme northern location in terms of U.S. geography, if you were in the most northern spot of American soil — Point Barrow, Alaska — you would still be 300 miles south of Pituffik’s latitude.
Alongside its Cold War missile detection systems, the base’s airfield and deep water port make a strategic location. Troops that are stationed there, though, have to deal with the harsh conditions of being so far north in a rough and cold terrain.
There was a second base on Greenland, Camp Century, built at the end of the 1950s underground. It was meant as a secret test location for nuclear missile launchers. That base, long abandoned, was rediscovered under the snow last year by NASA radar.
Now Guardians get to enjoy two months of some kind of a normal day. But there is a flip side to the winter coin. The very location that means months of endless night means that between May and November the Sun never fully sets, enveloping Pituffik Space Base in constant brightness. According to a NASA report on the outpost, Pituffik gets about a month of “normal sunlight time” twice a year, during the spring and fall.
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