Winter sunset at Lulea River in northern Sweden

EarthSky Facebook friend Birgit Boden captured this image at sunset on February 3, 2013 – around 3 in the afternoon – near Boden, Sweden. It’s a view along the Lulea River, which flows through Boden to the Baltic Sea. This location is very far to the north on Earth’s globe, nearly at the Arctic Circle. So the nights are long now, and the daylight very brief. But the amount of sunlight is growing longer, each day.

By the way, on October 27, 2011, Facebook announced that their first datacenter outside the U.S. would be built in the city of Lulea, just 40 kilometers to the southeast of where Birgit captured this photo. Facebook apparently chose the location because of, not in spite of, the extreme cold at this high latitude on Earth. The cold will help to keep the company’s racks of high-performance computers cool. Another reason for the choice: low-cost hydropower energy from this river.

Read more about Facebook data center in Lulea from Daily Mail.

Bottom line: Photo of the Lulea River from EarthSky Facebook friend Birgit Boden. The photo was taken at sunset, around 3 in the afternoon on February 3, 2013. Post your image on EarthSky Facebook, or email it to images@earthsky.org.