dagenlys

Dagenlys is a Norwegian term that denotes the period of daylight in a 24-hour day. In modern Norwegian, the standard form is dagslys, while dagenlys is a historical or dialectal variant that can appear in older texts or regional language usage. The concept refers to the time from sunrise to sunset when the sun is above the horizon.

The length of dagslys varies with latitude and season. At higher latitudes, the duration can be very short in winter and very long in summer, with extreme cases in the Arctic where polar night (no daylight) and midnight sun (continuous daylight) occur. Lower latitudes experience more moderate changes in daylight throughout the year.

In meteorology and everyday usage, dagslys is defined by the times of sunrise and sunset. It is distinct from various forms of twilight, such as civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight, which describe periods when the sun is below the horizon but still illuminating the sky. Dagslys is a key factor in planning outdoor activities, transportation safety, energy consumption, and various environmental and agricultural considerations.

The concept also intersects with daylight saving practices, where clocks are adjusted to shift the apparent daylight toward the evening in certain seasons, thereby affecting social and economic routines even though the actual duration of dagslys remains unchanged.

In summary, dagenlys refers to daylight hours, primarily understood in ordinary Norwegian usage as dagslys, the interval from sunrise to sunset, whose length is determined by geographic location and time of year. See also dagslys, sunrise, sunset, polar day, polar night.