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Web blogs of researchers in Svalbard

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Updated 26 May 2011

More and more scientists are reporting directly from their field work in Svalbard in form of web logs, so called blogs. Here is a list of active or recent blogs.

If you know about more blogs or are writing one yourself, please let us know: post@svalbardscienceforum.no

2012:

Polar Night Cruise
Follow the first ever cruise into the polar night with University of Tromsø research vessel Helmer Hanssen.

Blog: http://blogg.uit.no/aba001/

The Netherlands Arctic Station
The Netherlands Arctic Station is located in Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen. During summer news about ongoing field work is published regularily.

The station: http://www.arcticstation.nl
Blog: http://www.arcticstation.nl/weblogoverview.php?language=UK&year=2011 (in English and Dutch)

2011:

AUUAV Imaging the Cryosphere

Unmanne Aerial Vehicales (UAVs) over Greenland and Svalbard

Blog: http://niflheim.nilu.no/vauuav/

ICE cruise 2011

ICE, the Norwegian Polar Institute`s Centre for Ice, Climate and Ecosystems, focuses on ice and climate related research and monitoring of the polar areas. One of the aims of ICE is to increase the accuracy of climate models. The first step towards this goal is the collection of data that can be used to improve the models. This part of the cruise is all about marine bioloy and ice diving (blog by Haakon Hop, NPI)

Blog: http://ice.npolar.no/en/news/archive/2011/2011-28-04-haakonblog.html

CryoSat Arctic campaign

Follow the teams through the Arctic as they gather ice measurements for ESA's CryoSat mission

Blog: http://blogs.esa.int/cryosat-ice-blog/

Annual population monitoring of Svalbard Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea): point count survey of territorial cocks in spring
The objective of the study is to determine the relative abundance of territorial Svalbard Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea) males in order to monitor long-term trends.

The project: http://zope.data.npolar.no/svalbard/search/select_index_html7_script?project_id=2240
Blog: http://freezingstudents.com/One/Blog/Blog.html (in English and Norwegian)

2010:

RENU mission blog
Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling, or RENU, is a sounding rocket mission designed to investigate neutral upwelling in the cusp. The campaign is lead by Dr. Marc Lessard (University of New Hampshire) and involves scientists from UNIS, the Andøya Rocket Range and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Project and Blog: http://www.rocketrange.no/?page_id=751&campaign_id=1&post=35

ICE research cruise
ICE, the Norwegian Polar Institute`s Centre for Ice, Climate and Ecosystems, focuses on ice and climate related research and monitoring of the polar areas. One of the aims of ICE is to increase the accuracy of climate models. The first step towards this goal is the collection of data that can be used to improve the models. In August 2010, 19 scientists conduct the first ICE cruise with the research vessel RV "Lance" in order to measure how ice, snow and the related ecosystems are affected by climate. The cruise from Rijpfjorden northwards towards the ice edge is joined by a Norwegian journalist.

Project: http://npweb.npolar.no/Artikler/2010/1281962086.02
Blog: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/troms_og_finnmark/1.7251840

EPOCA - European Project on Ocean Acidification
The EU FP7 Integrated Project EPOCA (European Project on OCean Acidification) was launched in June 2008 for 4 years. The overall goal is to advance our understanding of the biological, ecological, biogeochemical, and societal implications of ocean acidification.
EPOCA aims to document the changes in ocean chemistry and biogeography across space and time; to determine the sensitivity of marine organisms, communities and ecosystems to ocean acidification; to integrate results on the impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems in biogeochemical, sediment, and coupled ocean-climate models to better understand and predict the responses of the Earth system to ocean acidification; and to assess uncertainties, risks and thresholds ("tipping points") related to ocean acidification at scales ranging from subcellular to ecosystem and local to global.

Project: http://www.epoca-project.eu/
Blog: http://epocaarctic2010.wordpress.com/

Climate Change Tower Integrated Project
At the Italian station Dirigibile Italia in Ny-Ålesund, a large set of instruments were installed to investigate physical and chemical properties of atmosphere as well as the exchange fluxes of mass, the radiation and chemical substances at the atmosphere-land interface. Final aim is to create a scientific platform able to complement research activities provided by other international research groups and obtain a comprehensive data set useful to determine all components of the energy budget at the surface, their temporal variations, and role played by different processes involving air, snow, ice and land (permafrost and vegetation). Key element of such platform is the new Admundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower (CCT), that, with an height of 32 m and large possibility to host and operate many instruments, permits to deeply investigate energy budget in the surface layer, PBL dynamics and exchange fluxes (heat, momentum, chemicals) at the atmosphere-land interface. The multidisciplinary approach will able us to obtain a closure of the energy budget at the surface and connect in a better way the most part of processes involved in.

Project: http://www.isac.cnr.it/~radiclim/CCTower/?Home
Blog: http://www.polarnet.cnr.it/content/blogcategory/35/116/8/8/lang,it/ (in Italian)

GreMeCA - Greenhouse gases and Mercury in a Changing Arctic
The objective of the project is to determine the importance of greenhouse gases, as well as mercury, for chemical and biological exchange processes in the marine environment with focus on Polar regions and their feedback mechanisms in the context of a changing climate. The project aims to investigate the mechanisms controlling the temporal and spatial variability in the processes driving the fluxes of greenhouse gases and mercury in the sensitive polar ocean. The exchange of species between sea – atmosphere- sea ice – snow, as well as the control mechanisms, will be studied in laboratory experiments as well as in field studies, with emphasis on the impact of changes in sea ice cover, precipitation, temperature, changes in UV radiation, and a high carbon dioxide scenario.

Project: http://zope.data.npolar.no/svalbard/search/select_index_html7_script?project_id=3659
Blog: http://gremeca.wordpress.com/ (in Swedish)

The Netherlands Arctic Field Station
The Netherlands Arctic Field Station is located in Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen. During summer news about ongoing field work is published regularily.

The station: http://www.arcticstation.nl
Blog: http://www.arcticstation.nl/weblogoverview.php?language=UK&year=2010 (in English and Dutch)

Kongsfjord - the documentation
A documentary film about global warming and the accompanying danger for one of the most sensitive living spaces on our planet – the Arctic.

The film team plans to capture the Arctic biota both land- and seaborne, in HD quality, with one focus on their ability to live and survive under extreme living conditions. The other focus is on life and work of the international scientists
in Ny Ålesund.

Project: http://www.kongsfjord.com/site/
Blog: http://www.kongsfjord.com/site/en/weblog (in English and German)

2009:

Project: http://www.epoca-project.eu/
Blog: http://epocaarctic2009.wordpress.com/

CASIE - Characterization of Arctic Sea Ice Experiment
NASA is establishing a new science field campaign in 2009 to study sea ice roughness and break-up in the Arctic and high northern latitudes. This mission will combine the use of a variety of remote sensing methods, including satellite observations and uninhabited aerial vehicles, to provide fundamental new insights into ice roughness on the scale of meters to tens of meters in the context of larger-scale environmental forcing. In addition, the mission offers a technological and operational testbed to demonstrate the value of autonomous vehicles for long-range, long-duration remote sensing science.

Project: http://www.espo.nasa.gov/casie/
Blog: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/CASIE/

Icebound - Research expedition to Northwestern Spitsbergen
The project aims to reconstruct the geometry of the last glacial ice sheet covering Svalbard and the age of its deglaciation. The reconstruction of this geometry is the first step to reconstruct the timing of the freshwater input into the Arctic Ocean in the Svalbard region at the end of the last glaciation. This is important information because atmospheric circulation models that are used to predict future climate change are tested against abrupt climate change scenarios in the past. The field campaign in Northwest Spitsbergen lasts from mid-April to mid-May 2008 and 2009. The team lives in tents, collects rock samples for dating and studies the area in order to compare the data with satellite images and aerial photographs.

Project: http://www.icebound.no/
Blog: http://blogg.nrk.no/rastlos/

Vagabond
Vagabond is a dedicated base camp for DAMOCLES, which main objective is to study Arctic Ocean sea ice and its future. France Pinczon du Sel and Eric Brossier bring their polar yacht and their experience to work with scientists for 4 years, on the East Coast of Spitsbergen (2004-2008). In October 2006, just before the beginning of the International Polar Year, in collaboration with the French Polar Institute IPEV, Vagabond started her third wintering at polar bear land.

Project: http://vagabond.fr/index.en
Blog: http://vagabond.fr/news (in English and French)

COPOL - Contaminants in Polar Regions
Contaminants in Polar Regions: Dynamic range of contaminants in polar marine ecosystems (COPOL) is an IPY project aiming to study and compare uptake and transfer of contaminants in food webs representing different water masses (Arctic and Atlantic).

Project: http://www.copol.net/
Blog: http://feltdagbok.copol.net/ (Norwegian only)

If you know about more blogs or are writing one yourself, please let us know (ssf@npolar.no)!

2008:

Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) 2008
The objective of the expedition is to study an extreme Mars-like environment using instruments and techniques that may be used for future planetary missions. The goal is to understand how this harsh environment is conducive to life by studying the geology, geophysical features, biosignatures, and possible life forms of volcanic complexes, warm springs, and sedimentary deposits; settings thought by researchers to be analogous to sites on ancient Mars.

Project: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/amase/intro_contd.html
Blog: http://amase2008.arc.nasa.gov/articles/welcome-to-arctic-mars-analog-svalbard-expedition-amase

ARCTIC AUKS – The impact of climate conditions on Arctic marine predators
The purpose of this study is to determine the impact that contrasting oceanographic regimes have on the foraging and reproductive behavior of Little Auks.

Project: http://projects.pomona.edu/arctic/about/
Blog: http://projects.pomona.edu/arctic/

Icebound - Research expedition to Northwestern Spitsbergen
The project aims to reconstruct the geometry of the last glacial ice sheet covering Svalbard and the age of its deglaciation. The reconstruction of this geometry is the first step to reconstruct the timing of the freshwater input into the Arctic Ocean in the Svalbard region at the end of the last glaciation. This is important information because atmospheric circulation models that are used to predict future climate change are tested against abrupt climate change scenarios in the past. The field campaign in Northwest Spitsbergen lasts from mid-April to mid-May 2008. The team lives in tents, collects rock samples for dating and studies the area in order to compare the data with satellite images and aerial photographs.

Project: http://www.icebound.no/
Blog: http://blogg.nrk.no/rastlos/

KINNVIKA – Arctic Warming and Impact Research
The Kinnvika project re-opened an old research station at Nordaustlandet from the previous polar year to conduct arctic warming studies and impact research. KINNVIKA is a IPY cluster and includes projects about the atmosphere, glaciology, sociology and many others. The aim is to investigate how the environmental and anthropogenic dynamics have changed recently in comparison with past records of change from existing expedition logs and photographs, proxy climate data from ice-, lake- and sea-sediment cores, and dynamic studies both on terrestrial as marine ice. It is a major multi-national multi-disciplined project involving over 70 scientists from 15 countries.

Project: http://www.kinnvika.net
Blog: http://kinnvikaexpedition.wordpress.com/

The significance of viruses for polar marine ecosystem functioning (VIRPOL) - Vissen op virussen
The Dutch project VIRPOL within the IPY cluster PAME studies viruses and viral mediated processes in polar environments. It's objectives are 1) to examine the abundance and composition of viruses and their host (prokaryotes and phytoplankton) in bipolar marine environments, 2) to compare the significance of viruses and their impact on microbial mortality and geochemical cycling in the aquatic polar ecosystems (Arctic vs. Antarctic), and 3) to unravel the impact of climate and global environmental change on the ecological role of viruses and their activities.

Project: http://www.nwo.nl/projecten.nsf/pages/2300134963
Blog: http://pooljaar.nl/virussen (partly English, partly Dutch)

Consequences of climate change for Arctic marine pelagic microbial communities (CAMP) - Gletsjermelk & Microben
The Dutch project CAMP within the IPY cluster PAME studies the effects of temperature and irradiance on phytoplankton, bacterial and viral activity and species composition in Kongsfjorden. Climate change induced changes in meltwater input and water turbidity are also addressed.

Project: http://www.nwo.nl/projecten.nsf/pages/2300134871
Blog: http://pooljaar.nl/gletsjermelk (Dutch only)

iAOOS-Norway
iAOOS-Norway contributes a share to an integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System (iAOOS) through building on pieces of an ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere observing system already in place in Norway, and broadening this system – geographically, technologically and in scope – for the IPY.

Project: http://www.iaoos.no/
Blog: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/troms_og_finnmark/1.5645769 (Norwegian only)

NESSAR - Norwegian component of the Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic and Arctic Regions
NESSAR is a sub-project of the IPY-cluster ESSAR, which investigates physical effects on artctic ecosystems. NESSAR studies the effect of climate change on the structure and function of marine ecosystems in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.

Project: http://polararet.no/prosjekter/Nessar (Norwegian only)
Blog: http://www.imr.no/arktis/toktdagbok (Norwegian only)

WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker
For the last 4 years, the WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker has followed polar bears in the Arctic. Their positions are beamed from collars on the bears’ necks, via satellite to scientists, which results in regular updates about how the polar bears behave in their arctic environment and how they may be affected by climate change.

Project: http://polarbears.wwf.ca/
Blog: http://polarbears.wwf.ca/

If you know about more blogs or are writing one yourself, please let us know (ssf@npolar.no)!

2007:

Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) 2007
The objective of the expedition is to study an extreme Mars-like environment using instruments and techniques that may be used for future planetary missions. The goal is to understand how this harsh environment is conducive to life by studying the geology, geophysical features, biosignatures, and possible life forms of volcanic complexes, warm springs, and sedimentary deposits; settings thought by researchers to be analogous to sites on ancient Mars.

Project: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/amase/intro_contd.html
Blog 1: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/amase/index.html
Blog 2: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM2ZPUL05F_education_0.html

The Netherlands Arctic Field Station
The Netherlands Arctic Field Station is located in Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen. During summer news about ongoing field work is published regularily.

The station: http://www.arcticstation.nl
Blog: http://www.arcticstation.nl/weblogoverview.php?year=2007 (in English and Dutch)

iAOOS-Norway
iAOOS-Norway contributes a share to an integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System (iAOOS) through building on pieces of an ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere observing system already in place in Norway, and broadening this system – geographically, technologically and in scope – for the IPY.

Project: http://www.iaoos.no/
Blog: http://kriss-iaoos.blogspot.com/ (Norwegian only)

BearHealth
The aim of this project is to identify region specific health effects (biomarker responses) of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and climate change in polar bears. For this purpose samples from polar bears are taken in Svalbard and the Barents Sea and will be compared with data from oterh Arctic areas.

Project: http://www.biologi.no/bearhealth-eng.htm
Blog: http://www.biologi.no/bearhealth.htm (scroll down the page; Norwegian only)

SciencePub
The project SciencePub aims to: 1) advance our fundamental knowledge on natural climate and environmental change in the Arctic during the last ice-age (130 000 years) by improving system understanding and quantifying certain climate components; 2) advance our understanding of human adaptation strategies to past rapid and large-scale changes in the physical environment following the decay of the last ice-sheet starting 15 000 years ago; and
3) generate public outreach strategies that will leave a lasting legacy of increased public awareness of the natural environmental systems of Arctic

Project: http://www.ngu.no/sciencepub/eng/
Blog: http://sciencepub.blogg.no/ (English and Norwegian)

Polartrec
PolarTREC is an educational research experience, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and managed by the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., in which K-12 teachers participate in polar research, working closely with scientists as a pathway to improving science education.

During the IPY, Teacher Matt Moore and researcher Mike Retelle and his team will travel to Svalbard, Norway, located high in the North Atlantic. The team will investigate how high latitude glaciers, melt-water streams, and sedimentation in lakes and fjords respond to changing climate.

Project: http://www.polartrec.com/
Blog: http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/climate-change-svalbard

Svalbard Scientific Skiing Expedition
As outreach project during the IPY, the expedition has made education about the Arctic one of its primary goals. It aims to: 1) educate the students (as well as the general public) about the role of the Arctic in the global climate system and its implications; 2) demonstrate that not all scientists wear white coats and sit in unorganised and overflowing offices

Project: http://www.frozenfive.org/
Blog: http://www.frozenfive.org/ --> News-Blog (in English, French, Czech and German

A field blog can be written almost anywhere where there is space for a notebook (Picture: M. Daase).

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