This thesis documents the academic year progress of researching building in the Arctic circle, household material study in garments, building facade materials, and Arctic experiences with northern lights. This thesis is has many iterations and direction of study from chip board massing models to sewing fabrics to see their integrity. This document shows both design iterations and reflection of each work. The final project of this document is a design proposal for 'The Arctic Experience' - a full service experience for tourists to have a place to visit the arctic circle and view the northern lights. From the provided transportation to their stay in the building, and back they will get to experience the arctic. / Master of Architecture / This document contains thesis iterations and research from the fall and spring academic semesters. The fall semester was research and material study heavy, while the spring semester's project development lead to project design iterations. The fall was spent researching the arctic circle, building construction in that zone, and the aurora Borealis. Then there was a brief shift in ideas - moving toward material study and garment architecture - taking household items and seeing how they can be re-formed. By the end of the thesis, material on building facades was studied and then later a development for the arctic was proposed.

LAMBDA was an exploration of science and art in two components: a performance-lecture and an art installation. This project asserted that performance and art are effective methods of delivering scientific information to a general audience. The first component was a solo performance-lecture that used lights, projection, costumes, props, and sound in a hybrid classroom space. The performance-lecture covered the topics of light, the Aurora Borealis, gravitational lensing, and the cosmic microwave background. The art installation used light emitting objects to visually represent the gravitational disturbances that exist within a section of space-time. / text

There is a long history in Kiruna of conducting research on the physics of the aurora borealis. There is also a long history of providing tourists with great opportunities to see the auroras. Planning such tourist activities can be challenging since the auroras are hard to predict. Reliable forecasts would be a valuable tool for researchers as well as for tourists and tour guides. One tool that is already available for both researchers and tourists is the all-sky camera in Kiruna, which is operated by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF). There has been a digital all-sky camera in operation in Kiruna for over 20 years. From the images captured by this camera, the IRF has developed a numerical index - the auroral index.  Forecasting time series with neural network algorithms is a well studies subject. There are many examples from a wide range of felds, including space weather. A type of neural network that has often been successfully used for time series forecasting is the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), and more specifcally the Long short-term memory (LSTM).  This thesis evaluates the auroral index - in combination with data from the solar wind - as training data for recurrent neural networks. Furthermore, it attempts to fnd a LSTM neural network model capable of making reliable forecasts of the auroral index. The Keras and TensorFlow software libraries are used to build and train the neural network model. Some challenges with the auroral index - when utilized as training data for neural networks - are identifed. The produced LSTM neural network models are not accurate enough for deployment as a production level service. Further development might improve on this. Finally, this thesis suggests future work that may contribute to better forecasting models for auroras in the Kiruna region.

A dual satellite system in a Low Earth Orbit, LEO, would be beneficial to study the electromagnetic occurrences in the magnetosphere and their contributions to the development of the aurora events in the Earth's lower atmosphere. An orbit configuration is sought that would increase the total time that both satellites are inside the auroral oval. Some additional objectives include minimizing the total fuel cost and the average angle between the satellites' radius vectors. This orbit configuration is developed using a series of instantaneous burns applied at each satellite's perigee. An analysis of the optimal solutions generated by a Particle Swarm Optimization method is completed using a cost function with different weights for the time, fuel, and angle terms. Three different scenarios are presented: a single burn case, a double burn case, and a four burn case. The results are calculated using two different orbital mechanics models: an unperturbed two-body simulation and a two-body simulation with added Earth's equatorial bulge effects. It is shown that the added perturbation reduces the total event time in the optimal solutions generated. Specific weights for the cost function are recommended for further studies. / Master of Science

Enligt Tillväxtverket (2019) har den totala konsumtionen inom svensk turismnäring ökat med 124% mellan åren 2000–2018. Denna trend kan även utläsas för den svenska naturturismen där en studie från Mittuniversitet (2014) visade att det inom naturturism omsätts ca 3.6 miljarder kronor varje år och att 40% av företagen var i en tillväxtfas (Fredman, Margaryan, 2014). En form av naturturism som växt sig stark norra Sverige under senare år är norrskenturismen (Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Mathisen, 2017; Friedman, 2010), som i enbart Kiruna kommun beräknas omsätta runt 100 miljoner varje år (Naturturismföretagen. 2019). Idag är denna typ av turism framförallt koncentrerad till landsbygden med långa avstånd och höga resekostnader som följd. Samtidigt som många turister har en negativ påverkan på djur och natur (Björnsdóttir, 2015). Syftet med studien är således att ta fram och föra en diskussion kring vilka aspekter av en belysningsanläggning som är viktiga för att göra norrskensturismen mer stadsnära och tillgänglig för en större del av befolkningen. Arbetet ska även ge förslag på generella anpassningar av den artificiella belysningen som kan appliceras på anläggningen. Metoden som används är en kombination av litteraturstudie, intervjuer och en analys av befintliga belysningsprogram. Litteraturstudien gav en bakgrundsundersökning inom ämnet samt tydliggjorde hur studiens syfte skulle formuleras. Intervjuerna genomfördes med fyra ljusdesigners där deras tankar och idéer gällande vilka aspekter som anses viktiga för att skapa en stadsnära norrskensturism. I studiens sista steg analyserades redan befintliga belysningsprogram från städer där belysningsanläggningen anpassats för att minimera stadens ljusföroreningar. Analyserna gav sedan konkreta åtgärdsförslag som jämfördes med intervjudeltagarnas resonemang. Studiens resultat visar på att armaturavskärmning, ljusfördelning, ljuspunktshöjder och belysningsstyrning anses vara de viktigaste aspekterna för den artificiella belysningen. Lagar, standarder och andra former av styrdokument är en annan aspekt som ofta togs upp, med resonemang för hur dessa kan påverka en belysningsanläggnings hösta respektive lägsta nivå. Gällande de generella förslagen på anpassningar redovisas att både anpassningar av ljuskällors färgtemperaturer och ljusriktning kan appliceras på en anläggning förhållandevis enkelt. Men att en väl anpassad belysningsstyrning är svårare, det ska dock tilläggas att denna anpassning kan ha större och mer positiv påverkan för en norrskensanpassad belysningsanläggning. Till de personer som vill utveckla denna typ av projekt rekommenderas att i ett tidigt skede blanda in eventuella intressenter och ta hänsyn till deras aspekter. Arbetets ämnesområde är relativt outforskat och en väl utförd förstudie inför projektet är därför av stor vikt för att minimera eventuella misstag. Studien begränsas av att enbart ta hänsyn till och föra en diskussion kring de aspekter som uppkommit under intervjuerna. Dessa aspekter är endast hämtade ur en ljusdesigners perspektiv och tydliggör således inte andra intressenters intressen inom ämnet. / According to The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (2019) the total consumption of tourism in Sweden has grown with 124% between the years 2000-2018. This trend that also applies for the Swedish nature-tourism where a study from Mid Sweden University (2014) shows that nature-based tourism each year has approximately 3.6 billion SEK in turnover, and that 40% of concerned businesses is in a phase of growth (Fredman & Margaryan, 2014). Northern light-tourism is a form of nature-tourism that has grown quickly in northern Sweden in recent years (Jóhannesson & Lund, 2017; Mathisen, 2017; Friedman, 2010). In Kiruna alone it is estimated that the northern light tourism alone has a revenue of 100 million SEK each year (Swedish Nature and Ecotourism Association, 2019). This form of tourism often has a high traveling costs and is concentrated to the countryside with far traveling distances between each site. In the same time, a lot of tourists on the countryside has a negative impact on the nature and wildlife (Björnsdóttir, 2015). The purpose of this study is therefore to point out and discuss around different aspects concerning the artificial lighting with an impact on how we can develop a northern light- tourism in a more urban environment. The study shall also give general suggestions for how these aspects can be adapted into a light installation. The method that is use in this research is a literature study, interviews and an analyse of four cities’ lighting masterplans. The literature study was used to specify the foundation and aim of the study. Where the interviews clarified the important aspect for an urban development of northern light-tourism from a lighting designers’ point of view. In the last phase of the study, four lighting masterplans with a clear focus on how to prevent light pollution where analysed. These analyses then gave some action proposals that can be compared to the answers from the interview participants. The results from the study show that shielded luminaires, light distributions, luminaire installation height and lighting controls are considered to have the largest impact on the lighting installation regarding the visibility of the northern light. Also, laws and regulations were a common answer, with some reasoning about the regulations of max and min requirements from an installation. Regarding the general proposals some suggestions concerning luminaire colour temperature and light distribution can quite easy be applied to an installation, in comparison to a more complicated lighting control. To everyone that would like to develop a project of this kind it is recommended that in an early stage get in contact with any stakeholders and listen to their opinions. In that way any mistakes are minimised even though the topic of this study is relatively unexplored.The study is limited to only show and discuss the answers that came up under the interviews, and that these answers is only reproduced from a lighting designers’ point of view.

<p>This essay is about the origin, planning and establishment of the European Space Research Organisation's (ESRO) sounding rocket base Esrange outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. Three main questions are examined. First I show there were not just scientific and technical but also political, economical as well as military reasons to build a European rocket base. Second, I scrutinize the reasons to choose Northern Sweden as the location for the rocket base. As it turns out, the main reasons were the favourable location of Northern Sweden within the aurora oval zone, the proximity of the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory, and the possibility to use a large, although not quite uninhabited, area where the launched rockets could crash. Finally, I examine the difficulty of talking about boundaries of various kinds, such as temporal, spatial and functional. The essay also provides a discussion on possible ways to continue research on this topic.</p>

This essay is about the origin, planning and establishment of the European Space Research Organisation's (ESRO) sounding rocket base Esrange outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. Three main questions are examined. First I show there were not just scientific and technical but also political, economical as well as military reasons to build a European rocket base. Second, I scrutinize the reasons to choose Northern Sweden as the location for the rocket base. As it turns out, the main reasons were the favourable location of Northern Sweden within the aurora oval zone, the proximity of the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory, and the possibility to use a large, although not quite uninhabited, area where the launched rockets could crash. Finally, I examine the difficulty of talking about boundaries of various kinds, such as temporal, spatial and functional. The essay also provides a discussion on possible ways to continue research on this topic.