Nordic expedition to Svalbard

3.9.2005 11:00
A Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian group of 8 researchers will travel to the most northerly part of Svalbard, Nordaustlandet.

A Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian group of 8 researchers will travel to the most northerly part of Svalbard, Nordaustlandet, next week to reconnoiter a historical research station built as Swedish-Finnish-Swiss co-operation in 1957, with a view to re-opening it for a broad international research operation there in 2007 – exactly 50 years after station was built.

Kinnvika, the site of the old station was well chosen. Nordaustlandet is the northernmost piece of land of Europe. Its 80 degrees North latitude places it only about 1000 km from the North Pole. This remote arctic desert region is home to numerous polar bears and it holds strong scientific interest due of the impact of global warming in the high Arctic.

The Kinnvika station was built from wood and it has room for 15 people, electricity was then produced by generators, and there were separate storage and research buildings as well as a sauna. After 1958 there was no funding to keep the station running. Since then it has been largely forgotten, except by occasional visitors. According to their information, the dry climate has preserved the station reasonably well.

The reconnaissance visit next week will be made by on board a chartered ship, the Norwegian M/S Farm leaving from Longyearbyen Monday September 5th. A feasibility study and assessment of the possibilities to reactivate the station, evaluate the fixing and renovating costs and other logistics for the planned research work will be carried out. The reasonable proximity to well established monitoring facilities in Ny Ålesund on opposite, west side, of Svalbard bring regional sense to scientific work and makes it logistically relatively simple. The current centers of research on Svalbard, Hornsund in the south, Ny Ålesund in the west and Longyearbyen in the center, will be complimented by Kinnvika located in the much more extreme northeastern climatic zone. It will thus provide an important addition for monitoring parameters indicative of global and environmental change.

The project enjoys wide international interest: there are 77 scientists from 15 countries participating in the scientific planning. The project is also truly Nordic co-operation as its steering group has members from research institutes and universities from all Nordic countries and this preparatory trip is supported by funding of Nordic Council of Ministers. One of main motivations is to strengthen both Arctic research and logistical co-operation by Nordic Countries.

The Kinnvika-project has been endorsed as part the world wide research operation, International Polar Year, IPY, which will be implemented in 2007-08. The project has a potential for major Nordic input for the international IPY efforts. Like all IPY-projects, Kinnvika is in a process of seeking funding for its final implementation.

The group of 8 researchers and experts that will visit Kinnvika Base next week come from: Uppsala University, Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, Norwegian Polar Institute, Finnish Marine Research Institute, Finnish Antarctic Research Logistics and the Arctic Centre that is leading the project.

More information about the project is available at web-addresses:
www.arcticcentre.org/kinnvika 
and
http://www.eld.geo.uu.se/IPY/

A new address www.kinnvika.net will be opened after a week. If an internet connection from the Kinnvika functions, you can follow daily developments of the trip from these pages.

If more information is needed, please contact:

• Flinkman, Juha - Senior Scientist, Finnish Institute of Marine Research, +358 40 750 3911, juha.flinkman at fimr.fi
• Isakson, Elisabeth - Dr. Elisabeth Isaksson, Norwegian Polar Institute, The Polar Environmental Centre, N-9296 Tromsø, Norway, elli at npolar.no
• Kalakoski, Mika - Planner, Finnish Antarctic Logistics, +358 50 359 2792, mika.kalakosk at fimr.fi
• Kankaanpää, Paula – Project Leader, Director, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland,  +358 40 7777 825, paula.kankaanpaa at ulapland.fi
• Moore, John - Senior Researcher, Arctic Centre +358 40 5007775, john.moore at ulapland.fi
• Pohjola, Veijo – Docent, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, +358 46 18 471 2509, veijo.pohjola at geo.uu.se
• Wråkberg, Urban – Dr, Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions & Royal Institute of Technology. +46 707898134, urban at spkp.se