Norway’s centuries-long watch on the northern lights.

A field station of the Tromso Geophysical Observatory and the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, or EISCAT, project outside Tromso, Norway, Jan. 21, 2026. Norway’s northern region has led the scientific quest to understand the aurora borealis, with a 10,000-antenna radar system expected to begin the next phase of exploration this summer. (Michal Siarek/The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL The world’s first permanent northern lights observatory occupies a small stone…