Venue & Travel

Venue and Accommodation

The participants will be accommodated at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of University of Helsinki (see Google Maps). Full catering will be provided. Rooms are for 2-4 persons. The price for the stay for the whole week depends on your choice of accommodation, please see the registration page for details.

Alternative options

There are a number of alternative options available. Very close to the Biological Station there is Kilpisjärvi Holiday Village & Camping. There are a number of hotels in Kilpisjärvi some 4-5 km away. Note, that we do not provide transport between alternative accommodation and the Biological Station.

Getting There

Blue: EISCAT_3D sites. Green: EISCAT mainland sites. Red: Radar School location.

The nearest airports are Rovaniemi (RVN) or Kittilä (KTT) in Finland, Kiruna (KRN) in Sweden, or Tromsø (TOS) in Norway.

There are busses from Rovaniemi via Kittilä to Kilpisjärvi, and back, as well as from Tromsø to Kilpisjärvi and back. Please refer to Matkahuolto for more information as well as pre-booking. See also the screenshots here.

Note, that from Kiruna (KRN), to our knowledge there isn't any public transport to Kilpisjärvi, at least not direct.

We will provide more concrete suggestions later.

Visa and Invitation Letters

Important: make sure you know if you need an invitation for Visa application when you register and tick the respective box. Get in touch as soon as possible!

Travel: Note that we can invite you only to Finland! When you apply for Visa to Finland, it is our understanding that you will get a "Schengen Visa", which will allow you to move in the Schengen Area, which includes Norway. However, do make sure before booking flights via Norway, that the Visa you received is indeed a Schengen Visa!

Kilpisjärvi

Kilpisjärvi is located in north-western arm of Finland, in the municipality of Enontekiö (geographic co-ordinates: 69°03'N, 20°48'E).

Finland

Finland is a Nordic country, which celebrated 100 years of independence on 6th December 2017. Finland is a member of the European Union since 1995. The capital city is Helsinki, located at the Gulf of Finland on the southern coast. The local currency is Euro (€) and Finland is in the "Eastern European Timezone" (EET). Due to daylight saving time (DST), this means that during the radar school the local time is UTC+3h, while in neighbouring Sweden and Finland (Central European Time), the local time is UTC+2h.

The official languages are Finnish and Swedish (in the northernmost part of the country, Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi are recognised as minority languages). Most people understand and are able to communicate in English. The Finnish population is currently just over 5.5 million inhabitants, and the total land area of the country is 338,424 km².

Weather

Weather Forecast.

Sun, Moon, and Northern Lights?

Here you can see the current (real-time) positions of Sun and Moon for the location of Kilpisjärvi Biological Station:

The Radar School will take place in late summer, just at the end of the Polar Day when the White Nights of the Arctic Summer come to an end. Unfortunately, the nights will still be too bright to see the aurora, unless there's an exceptionally bright display and you are looking at the sky at the darkest time of the "night".

           |        | Sun   | Twilgt | Sun    | Sun    | Twilgt
Date       | Darkst | Elev  |  Civil | Rise   | Set    | Nautl 
-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
2023-08-12 | 01:41  | -5.8° | --:--  | 04:28  | 22:51  | 01:16+ | 
2023-08-13 | 01:41  | -6.1° | 02:08  | 04:33  | 22:45  | 00:54+ | 
2023-08-14 | 01:41  | -6.4° | 02:30  | 04:38  | 22:40  | 00:39+ | 
2023-08-15 | 01:41  | -6.7° | 02:44  | 04:43  | 22:35  | 00:27+ | 
2023-08-16 | 01:41  | -7.1° | 02:56  | 04:47  | 22:30  | 00:16+ | 
2023-08-17 | 01:41  | -7.4° | 03:06  | 04:52  | 22:25  | 00:06+ | 
2023-08-18 | 01:40  | -7.7° | 03:16  | 04:57  | 22:21  | 23:57  | 
2023-08-19 | 01:40  | -8.0° | 03:24  | 05:01  | 22:16  | 23:49  | 
2023-08-20 | 01:40  | -8.3° | 03:32  | 05:05  | 22:11  | 23:41  |