Three Angry Polar Bears

These classic shots remind us all that those stoic, cuddly – looking polar bears in Churchill deep down quite ferocious and dangerous. The way they slowly amble across the tundra lulls travelers and photographers into a sense of awe at their majestic beauty.  Please don’t pet the polar bears!

polar bear Spitsbergen

Polar bear on the outside trying to get into the ship. Kyrakos Kaziras/Rex photo.

Polar bear image.

Polar bear intent on getting in. Steve Selden photo.

Churchill polar bear.

Polar bear trying to get in the vehicle in Churchill. Steve Selden photo.

Iqaluit’s Red Glow

 

Iqualuit, Nunavut

Reddish glow in Iqaluit. Nick Murray/CBC.

Nunavut’s capital Iqaluit experienced a mysterious reddish glow this past Tuesday that many residents had never seen. The phenomena was not a martian scan of Earth’s northern Arctic region in an effort to research our current global warming trend. However, as with other lighting occurrences in the far north, light reacting with dust and ice particles in the atmosphere causes some pretty unique effects. This one was pretty cool.

Iqualuit re glow nunavut

The photo with the red glow on the right was taken mid – afternoon on Tuesday and the image on the left was taken about the same time the following day, Wednesday. Nick Murray/CBC photo.

CBC North meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler described the glow as a result of sunlight scattering and intensifying because of the time of day the photo was taken. These photos were taken at sunset when the sun is lower in the sky.”When the sun is at a low angle in the sky, the light has a longer distance to travel,” said Brauweiler. “The blue [coloration, which leads to a more common ‘blue sky’] gets removed by the ice crystals and salt in the air, which leaves red visible.”

“The clouds are much larger than light waves, which allows them to take on the color, in this case pink.”

The phenomena is a fairly rare sight…but a amazing one for sure!

Pin It on Pinterest