A Norwegian valley.  Strange lights observed by many witnesses.  It has been called “Norway’s Roswell”.  But what makes the remote valley of Hessdalen so different from other locations?

About 200 people were living in Hessdalen in the 1980s.  Today, the population is closer to 150.  Not counting the visitors…

Unidentified aerial phenomena and mysterious light orbs have been witnessed here and documented for decades.

The Hessdalen lights have been observed both during the day and at night.  In addition to visual observations, photographs and films, the lights have also been detected by radar.

 

Geological Characteristics of Hessdalen

The Hessdalen valley is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, about 617 metres above sea level (2,024 ft) in Central Norway.

Because of the Gulf Stream, Norway experiences higher temperatures and more precipitation than expected at such northern latitudes (62.7933 N).

The Norwegian mountains were formed around 400 million years ago.  The land is mostly made of hard granite and gneiss rock.  Slate, sandstone and limestone are also common.

The Hessdalen valley is a North-South elongated isolated valley, 15km long, located 120 kilometres south of the city of Trondheim.

What makes the area so special?

Could it have anything to do with the regional bedrock?  And the existence of the massive mineral and metallic resources located at this particular area?

Basalt and Gabbro

When nature stresses certain rocks, electric charges are activated. It is as if you switched on a battery in the Earth’s crust…

An essential part of generating lights from rock is the need for mafic or ultra-mafic rocks in the environment.

Mafic rocks include things such as silicate minerals, magmas, and volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks, which contain relatively high concentrations of magnesium and iron.

The types of rocks that are particularly given to this phenomenon are basalts and gabbros, which have tiny defects in their crystals.

The geology of Hessdalen features both basalt and gabbro rocks.

When mechanical stresses are applied to certain rocks, electric charges are activated.

Copper and Zinc…

The 300-year old copper mines in the town of Røros nearby have connections with the Hessdalen geological structures.  There is also zinc…

One of the greatest fields of ore lies there.  It has been estimated to hold about 16 million tons of ore.  That is 3 times more than what was mined at Røros over 300 years.

It holds copper and zinc.

Thor Stuedal, Holtålen Municipality

The municipality of Holtålen has a long history of iron and copper extraction.

The last copper mine, Killingdal mine, was closed in 1989.

16 million tons of ore lay below ground.

 

In Hessdalen, we also find remains of iron mining which dates as far back as the Viking Age.  One thousand years ago.

Could the phenomenon at Hessdalen be linked to this massive concentration of metal ores and minerals?

Sulphurous Waters

Connecting the mineral deposits in Hessdalen to the phenomenon is only one of the hypotheses on offer.

Several old sulphur mines are also located along the banks of the river Hesja, a small tributary of the Gaula.

Some reported sightings of the Hessdalen lights have been connected to this particular mineral:

As we drove through Hessdalen, a bright light was following us.  And it came so close that we could count the trees.  After a while, a foul smell appeared.  It was sulphur.  Both sides of the road was lit up in several colours.

Oddmund Tamlag, Local Farmer

Around 3:00 a.m. things started to happen.

 

In 2004, we detected the phenomenon several times above this sulphur mine.  They all appeared at the same place.  So this mine must be very special.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

Could it be the sulphur?

Scandium, etc.

Thortveitite, a mineral consisting of scandiumyttriumsilicate (Sc,Y)₂Si₂O₇, was involved in the extraction of scandium – a rare and expensive metal – in the 1960s.

Scandium is an extremely hard material and was used in the production of Soviet fighter planes.

Thorveitite and Scandium are also present in the region.

Could it be the scandium?

 

2004 – A Long-Term Scientific Survey of the Hessdalen Lights

The recurrence of the Hessdalen light phenomenon and the existence of an instrumented observation station, the Hessdalen AMS, have made the area an ideal research site for scientists.

A lot of well known man-made and ionospheric signals were recorded and
identified.

In 2004, Massimo Teodorani examined the behaviour of the phenomenon in a survey using optical, radio, radar and night vision systems.

Until then, the global picture of the “Hessdalen Lights” phenomenon was that it generally consisted of light orbs of many forms and colours, characterized by pulsations, often with erratic motions, occasionally long duration, and the intense emission of energy.

Their dimensions ranged from a few decimeters up to 30 metres.

The data showed that the phenomenon’s radiant power varied, reaching values up to 19 kW – more than 10 times greater than that of a typical helicopter searchlight!

What we saw looked like a solid object.

These changes are caused by sudden surface variations of the illuminated area owing to the appearance of clusters of light balls that behave in a thermodynamically self-regulated way.

The apparent characteristics consistent with a solid were inferred from the study of distributions of radiant power.

Put simply, the aerial phenomenon looks like a uniformly illuminated solid-like ball of light.

Ball Lightning?

An ‘‘Abrahamson ball lightning’’ would seem to be one possible natural phenomenon fitting this light distribution.

Such a light ball, which is not a plasma but rather a concentration of heated, chained nano-particles deposited on a surface, might simulate a uniformly illuminated solid object.  Although the Abrahamson model specifically involves lightning electric discharges from the atmosphere.  And such discharges were never recorded in Hessdalen during observations.

Other characteristics included the capability to eject smaller light balls, and some unidentified frequency shift in the VLF range, together with the possible deposition of metal particles.

Teodorani showed an occurrence where a higher level of radioactivity on rocks was detected near the area where a large light ball was reported.  A Geiger counter reading of the powder deposited at the site, had a level of radioactivity of 20 μrad/hour, higher than background.

Another model best able to account for the solid-like ID shape of the lights may be Turner’s electrochemical model of ball lightning, which does involve a plasma.

No Fixed Pattern

However, the appearance of the phenomena does not seem to follow any fixed patterns.

Quite a curious phenomenon.

For example, the observed behaviour of the light balls is different from this prediction. They radiate more power as they increase in size.

If the orb is assumed to be a plasma that expands adiabatically, then the temperature should drop when the volume of the ball increases.

The Hessdalen light phenomenon also exhibits a photo-reactive capability when a laser beam is shined at it.

Geometric Shapes

Approximately 5% of sightings were characterized by aerial light phenomena of geometric or symmetric shapes.

The reason for these shapes is unknown.  It is not simply the result of video camera pixelation effects.  It cannot be explained by any available ball-lightning theory.

And the picture is further complicated by the fact that some of these shapes are just the nucleus of a cluster of lights producing a blinking light phenomenon.

Instantaneous Motion

Sometimes the light phenomenon, which appears very often several tens of metres over the top of the hills, shows a jerky motion along very short distances (d ≤ 100 m), with an almost instantaneous movement from one point to another.

Some observations made at Hessdalen suggest that ball lightning and earth lights may be two variants of a common basic structure.

 

Earthquake Precursors

Experiments demonstrated that electronic charge carriers are activated in high‐grade metamorphic and igneous rocks (in particular mafic and ultramafic rocks) when subjected to deviatoric stresses, thereby turning them into semi-conductors.

The abundance of quartz (the main possible source of piezo-electricity), copper and iron in the Hessdalen valley, favours an efficient liberation of electricity and electromagnetic fields.

Piezoelectricity

Piezoelectricity, or the piezoelectric effect, is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials — such as quartz crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins.

In 1880, French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered that electric charges could accumulate in certain solid materials in response to an applied mechanical stress, effectively turning them into semi-conductors.

The charge carriers derive from pre‐existing defects in the matrix of the minerals, electrically inactive in their dormant state as peroxy bonds (i.e., O₃Si/OO∖SiO₃).

The Earth Quake Light (EQL) Theory

Freund et al. 2014 describe lights being generated by crystals from gabbro and basalt being crushed just before an earthquake occurs.

When rocks are subjected to stress, mineral grains in gabbro and basalt slide along grain boundaries, causing peroxy links to break, which turn into highly mobile electronic charge carriers, referred to as positive holes or pholes.

Stress Activation of Pholes

Several types of pholes are generated during the stressing of rocks, characterized by lifetimes ranging from less than a second to longer than days.

As the long‐lived pholes diffuse outward, they can reach the Earth’s surface.  There, they form surface or subsurface charge layers, which cause locally high electric fields, often strong enough to ionize the air and trigger corona discharges, associated with the emission of visible light close to the ground, and the formation of ozone (O₃).

The highest charge carrier densities can be achieved if stresses increase so rapidly that even short‐lived pholes do not have the time to
recombine.  This implies that tectonic stresses deep in the Earth’s crust increase very rapidly in any given rock volume.

If these pholes are overlapping, and increasing in density, they can reach a critical point beyond which the electronic wave functions
of both the pholes and the coactivated electrons begin to overlap.

This is expected to create a plasma‐like state.

And so, if a plasma surfaces, it can generate dielectric breakdown of the air and cause spherical lights.

Earthquake lights can take many different shapes, forms, and colours.

Possible Causes for Geological Stress

Two situations can induce stress in these rocks:

• • fault stresses
  • stress from earthquakes.

When a seismic wave hits, electrical charges in the rocks may be released.

Norway sits in Northern Europe and lies between the Eurasian tectonic plate that runs from the north of Iceland all the way down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the Arabian plate to the south of Mainland Europe. 

Because of the long distance to plate boundaries, Norway is not normally prone to large earthquakes, nor is it near active volcanoes. 

Most seismic activity happens along the coast of Norway.  In Hessdalen, there have been few earthquakes documented between 1995 and today.

But the EQL theory cannot be disregarded, since basalt and gabbro are dominating a lot of the valley rock.

Even if tectonic stress producing piezo-electricity is due to other causes than seismicity, these conditions are present in the Hessdalen underground, and might be the triggering cause of the particular light phenomena which would properly be called ‘‘earth lights.’’

 

The 2007 Hessdalen Lights Conference

In 2007, a large group of international researchers visited Hessdalen as part of a conference organized by the US-based Society for Scientific Exploration.

Anomalous light phenomena occur elsewhere on Earth.  Many of the experts and scientists that come to Hessdalen to observe the local phenomenon, study similar phenomena in other places.

In Mexico, it disrupts air traffic and occurs near volcanoes.  In the U.S., the phenomenon is called the Phoenix Lights.  In England, the Longdendale Lights…

Hessdalen is a fascinating phenomenon because they just arise above the ground.  They are unpredictable whenever they arise.  They’re different shapes, different sizes, different intensities and different directions.  So it’s quite a curious phenomenon.

Marsha Adams, President IEA

The jury is still out.  We don’t know.

 

We have no explanation as to the cause at this time.  They could be related to natural geophysical phenomena: earthquake precursors, earthlights – these are atmospheric disturbances.  At this point, the jury is still out.  We don’t know.  But that’s part of it: the mystery.  That’s why it’s a good scientific subject.

Dr David Akers, USA

 

The Complex Electro-Chemistry of the Hessdalen Lights

At the conference, and for the first time ever, results of light spectrum analysis of the phenomenon were presented.

The preliminary findings suggested the following hypothesis:

• • The Hessdalen phenomena is composed of ionized gas, not a solid.
  • The dominant chemical elements are hydrogen (H), oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N), suggesting that this is “burning air“.
  • Other elements like silicon (Si), and metals such as iron (Fe), scandium (Sc), and titanium (Ti), suggest dust from the mining valley.

A complex chemistry might be at the origins of the Hessdalen light phenomenon.

The spectrum analysis of the lights identified elements like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and silica, which means air and dust.

And other elements including titanium and traces of scandium, only existent in Scandinavia.

Combustion of Airborne Dust

This lead researchers to suggest that the luminous phenomenon may be occurring in the valley of Hessdalen because of the large deposits of scandium there.

It’s air and dust from Hessdalen that burns.  But there is some other kind of element inside it: scandium.  It was very very surprising to find scandium in it.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

The Hessdalen light phenomenon may be a cluster of Coulomb crystals in a dusty plasma produced by radon decay in the atmosphere.

Radon decay produces alpha particles (responsible for helium emissions in the Hessdalen light spectra), including radioactive elements such as polonium (Po).

Thermoluminescence from Rock Dust Aerosols

Light balls can be produced when thin dust (aerosols) of rocks interacts with humid, sulphurous atmospheric air.

The electrostatic attraction amongst aerosol particles of opposite electrical charges (e.g. feldspar and quartz aerosols with negative charges, and calcite aerosols with positive charges) produces a fractal free floating structure (aerogel).

Fluorite, when decomposed by air acidity at high temperatures, reacts with quartz and produces heat (exothermic reaction).  Optically stimulated luminescence by long-wave UV radiation from quartz produces glow peaks in fluorite and calcite at different temperatures.

Complex Dusty Plasmas

Complex plasmas may naturally self-organize into stable
interacting helical structures that exhibit features normally attributed to organic living matter.

Dusty plasmas may also form in this structure.

The computer simulations have shown that dust immersed in ionized gas can organize itself into double helixes like some occurrences of the Hessdalen lights.

The study concluded that complex self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter that may exist in space provided certain conditions allow them to evolve naturally.

 

The Continuous Light Spectrum of the Hessdalen Lights

Since 1998, a real-time automated observatory, the Automatic
Measurement Station (AMS), has been operational in the
Hessdalen valley.

The station is equipped with automatic wide-angle and zoom
video cameras, a radar transponder and a magnetometer, capable of monitoring the phenomenon in real-time.

The scientists are measuring the radiation in the air, and photograph the valley in order to capture the fleeting luminous phenomena.

The equipment measures and analyses the obtained information to determine the phenomenon ‘fingerprint’:

These lights are different from anything else.  This camera has a very low shutter speed.  It also has a spectrum grid, which shows an optical spectrum of the lights.  This is the phenomenon’s fingerprint.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

A seminal photograph taken with an exposure time of 30 seconds in 2007 revealed that the light has a continuous spectrum like a solid object, or a plasma.

 

This spectacular picture was shot from Rogne mountain.  Approximately a thousand-metre altitude towards west.  It started happening approximately 9:30 in the evening. […]  Then we suddenly have a lot of flashes in the valley and then some huge lights suddenly turned out and moved with very high speed, low, south of the valley.  And one spectacular happening was one minute before 10:00 in the evening.  We had a big light that started out and moved very quickly north and south and there was this very very impressive picture which possibly is the best picture ever taken of the Hessdalen phenomenon.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

We see the Hessdalen phenomenon moves from start up here, and then moves down, and then goes up again.  The distance here is approximately 10-15 kilometres covered.

The camera has optical grating in front of the lens, and this grating makes this optical spectrum here.  The surprise with this spectrum is that it’s continuous.  The colours go directly over each other and you see no lines or dots here which gives us a signal that we have gas burning.  This looks like optical spectrum from a solid object or from plasma with high density or it could be a molecular chemical composition because some molecules’optical bands have very very narrow lines and I think that our equipment does not have the resolution to differ.  So different lines here.  So molecular band could give us something that looks like continuous spectra.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge, Østfold University College

This sighting registered on radar at the same time.  And while the lights were only visible to the naked eye for a few minutes, radar readings indicated that this particular occurrence of the Hesddalen lights was present in the sky for a total of 4 hours!

The optical spectra showed the chemical content of the lights.

This reveals that the Hessdalen aerial phenomenon consists of a couple of exotic substances, alongside the very common element oxygen and nitrogen.  Thorveitite and scandium!

And we are also very curious about the Hessdalen phenomenon which looks like a burning ball of fire that doesn’t expand.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge, Østfold University College

Combustion and Ignition

After the researchers photographed the luminous phenomenon thoroughly and analyzed its composition, they found that it occurs in a combustion process.

In a combustion process, things should expand like in a motor in a car.

In Boyle’s Law, the pressure is inversely proportional to the volume.

But Category 2 of the Hessdalen light phenomenon – the burning orb – keeps it in the same volume.  It doesn’t appear to expand at all.

 

A Scientific Enigma

The researchers are still at a loss on many points.

If it was burning gas, the light should expand and rise?

It doesn’t.

And how is the light turned on?

Something must ignite the fuel for a combustion process to follow.  It must ignite somehow!

The occurrence of scandium may provide a clue to this, and also explain why the phenomenon is only located in Hessdalen, a valley known for its metal mines.

Scandium reacts vigorously with acid and air, and may be the ignition mechanism behind the Hessdalen Lights.

The presence of titanium in the light spectrum may serve to explain the long-lasting duration of the light phenomenon.  Titanium is used to make spectacular fireworks.

It may be some kind of powerful whirlwind energy that remains invisible to us until it ignites.

The scientists think this might be due to the plasma nature of the phenomenon.

But the scientists also believe that if you understand how the Hessdalen phenomenon can store so much energy, it could pave the way for a completely new battery technology.

Something must be able to hold this phenomenon together like a ‘plasmoid’ – a magnetic field which entraps plasma and keeps it inside itself.  So, we are looking for the mechanism that stores the energy and why this energy source is so extremely powerful in the intensity.  If this is a kind of plasmoid then we have a localized magnetic field that is able to encomprise and keep a huge amount of energy, a plasma, inside a small ball for a long time.  And this storing mechanism is one of the most interesting thing to find out.  And this storing mechanism could also be possibly a new way of storing energy, instead of batteries, instead of petrol, instead of nuclear power.  Maybe we in the atmosphere have a natural storing mechanism for energy, which we never have been able to detect before.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

 

2014 – What are the Glowing Orbs of Hessdalen?

The Hessdalen phenomenon is alive.

The scientists claim to be on the verge of a revolution within Physics.  Could this be the energy source of the future we are looking at?

Phenomena from the Nothing – Zero-Point Energy

The idea of extracting energy from thin air or vacuum is not new.

As early as the 1920s, Nikola Tesla claimed to have discovered enormous energy potential in a flux field or vacuum field.

Today, science has named it zero-point energy.  Until now, there is no known method of extracting this energy.

Could this be what we can only glimpse at in Hessdalen?

Or is the phenomenon of a kind challenging us to expand our conceptions of reality even further?

Do the reports indicate that there is more to this than a ‘mystical’ energy alone?

Many physicists at the cutting edge claim that we should reach for a totally new view on reality.  If so, could Hessdalen be a portal to a different physical world?

We know there is a lot of energy.  We have a lot of data and some indication of the power and if we find out what this is, what this power is coming from, maybe we can use that power for mankind.  It can be free as a clean power source.  Who knows?  We don’t know but if we do necessary research, we maybe can find an answer to that question.  Can this be a new power which mankind can be using?

Erling Strand, Scientist, Østfold University College

Little Valley, Giant Battery?

The entire Hessdalen valley seems to be somehow highly electrified. 

Everywhere, both in the sky and close to the ground, flashes of light appear with durations of fractions of a second.  Flashes are mostly orb-shaped, but sometimes very elongated shapes have been recorded as well.

The presence in the valley of copper mines suggests that, assuming the Hessdalen lights are powered electrically, sub-surface metals may amplify any currents initially produced by piezo-electricity or the impact of cosmic rays.

Do the atmospheric weather conditions matter?

Could an electrically active inversion layer also account for the Hessdalen light phenomenon’s uncharacteristic behaviour?

The puzzling geometric shapes and energy content observed in the Hessdalen light phenomenon may yet be explained through a little-known solution of Maxwell’s equations to electric and magnetic field lines.

 

2024 – A Complex Scientific Problem

Four decades on since scientists began studying the light phenomenon at Hessdalen, the research continues.

Hessdalen Research Camp

As more and more data are gathered, finding the manpower required for the task is essential.

To be able to gather research data we are in need of a lot of manpower.  We need to establish science camps.  So, we have involved students and schools to join the teams.  We do surveys of 2 weeks where we have several locations with students in the mountains.

Bjørn Gitle Hauge,  Østfold University College

Our goal is to get the youth interested in Science, Maths and Nature.  So this whole thing is really a great motivation camp.

Peder Skogaas, HERA

Will we ever get a definite answer to the complex scientific problem that is posed by the Hessdalen light phenomenon?

Eliminating the Impossible…

Although there is no consensus for an explanation of the Hessdalen light phenomenon, a number of plausible hypotheses have been put forward:

• The Hessdalen lights is a product of piezoelectricity generated under specific rock strains, because many crystal rocks in Hessdalen valley include quartz grains which can produce an intense charge density.

• The Hessdalen lights can be attributed to an incompletely understood combustion of airborne dust from historical mining activities in the area.

• The Hessdalen lights are formed by a cluster of macroscopic Coulomb crystals in a plasma produced by the ionization of air and dust by alpha particles during radon decay in the atmosphere.

• Several physical properties of the lights (including oscillation, geometric structure and light spectrum), might be explained through a dusty plasma model.

• Computer simulations show that dust immersed in ionized gas can organize itself into double helixes like some occurrences of the Hessdalen lights.

• Radon decay produces alpha particles (responsible for helium emissions in Hessdalen light spectrum) and radioactive elements, such as polonium.

Collaborating Internationally

Since 2010, the French GEIPAN/CNES has been involved in the field work at Hessdalen.

In March 2023, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies announced their new partnership with Project Hessdalen…

Together, we can learn a lot about UAP on an international scale.  Our collaborative efforts with the SCU will hopefully one day lead to greater scientific understanding of anomalous activities.

Erling Strand, Scientist, Østfold University College

We are scientists.  And we don’t know yet what we are looking at…  But we don’t need to ‘believe’ in anything.  Just study more data.  Data don’t lie, do they?