The construction of a 700-square-meter northern lights research center in Reykjadalur, North Iceland, will begin this spring, ruv.is reports. Ground was first broken at the site in spring 2014.
Research at the center will be carried out by Icelandic research and academic institutions in conjunction with the government-run Polar Research Institute of China PRIC, sponsoring the project’s operations through an Icelandic non-profit organization.
The station will feature a specially-equipped camera that takes photographs of the northern lights and geomagnetism measurements. The northern lights indicate the interplay with the solar winds and the earth’s magnetic field, meaning that the research findings can be used to predict space weather, scientists involved in the project have said.
As Icelandic law forbids the purchase or lease of land by foreigners from outside the EEA, the Employment Development Society of Eyjafjörður and Þingeyjar and the Arctic Portal, based in Akureyri, North Iceland, purchased the land for the project.
An open meeting about the construction will be held next week.
The center is expected to be complete in 2016.
