Northern lights brings tourism boost to Finnish Lapland

(25 Dec 2024)
FINLAND NORTHERN LIGHTS
 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS/NASA
 
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: NASA - MUST CREDIT

LENGTH: 6:24

ASSOCIATED PRESS
North of Rovaniemi, Finland - 4 December 2024

++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Snowy road seen from Joona Forsgren’s tour van 
2. Car satnav, showing position
3. Road seen from van
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Joona Forsgren, photographer and tour guide, Johka Arctic Experience:
"So, we are going to the north side of Rovaniemi, about half an hour drive to a very private place, where there are no lights, no streetlights, nothing. It's totally dark."

5. Side road seen from van
6. Van parked, lights on
7. Forsgren taking items from van
8. Forsgren walking to lakeside spot
9. Various of Forsgren taking photograph
10. Various of Northern Lights, seen from lakeside location
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Joona Forsgren, photographer and tour guide, Johka Arctic Experience:
"It's been growing a lot. When I started it 4, 5 years ago, it was relatively calm and small groups only, and there were not so many tour operators as it is now. So now, there are tons of different tour operators in the city. And also, the tourism numbers have been growing every year."

12. Various of Forsgren taking photograph
13. Various of Northern Lights, seen from lakeside location
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Joona Forsgren, photographer and tour guide, Johka Arctic Experience:
"We have experienced really good Northern Lights, for night after night, really big Northern Lights and good activity. And yeah, it's like I have never experienced. During my five-year career, I haven't experienced like this big and these frequent Northern Lights. So yeah, it has been a really good."

15. Van parked, lights on
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Ishwari Chedda, tourist from Mumbai, India:
"It's stunning. I mean, it's something you have to see in your life. It's beautiful, you don't want to leave, you want to just see more and more."

NASA - MUST CREDIT

17. Various of coronal mass ejections from the sun
18. Animation of solar wind, Earth’s magnetic field
19. Various of auroras seen from orbit

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Helsinki, Finland - 3 December 2024

++INTERIOR SHOTS++
20. Setup shot of Mirjam Kellinsalmi, observation specialist, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), speaking
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Mirjam Kellinsalmi, observation specialist, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI):
"We are quite far north here in Finland. So, the Northern Lights are more common in these high latitude regions and especially in the Lapland region, here in Finland, we get the Northern Lights almost every night."

NASA - MUST CREDIT

22. Various of coronal mass ejections from the sun
23. Auroras seen from orbit

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Helsinki, Finland - 3 December 2024

++INTERIOR SHOTS++
24. Various of Kellinsalmi working on computer
25. Close of computer screen, showing sunspot number 
UPSOUND (English) Kellinsalmi: "Here we can see the last solar cycle. And then here is the current solar cycle. So, here we can see that we are at higher levels than in the last cycle."

26. SOUNDBITE (English) Mirjam Kellinsalmi, observation specialist, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI):
"Usually, it means more intense geomagnetic storms because these coronal mass ejections (CME), they are these big balls of plasma that are ejected from the sun. And when this plasma reaches Earth's magnetic field, it causes geomagnetic storms here on Earth. So, during the solar maximum, we get more of these CMEs and more intense geomagnetic storms also, and also more Northern Lights. So, we get more of everything."








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