The rocket is launched!
5 December 2008
At 11:35 AM today the ICI-2 rocket was launched from Ny-Ålesund. The launch was a success, and the rocket reached a height of approximately 330 kilometers, before it landed in the ocean at 11:45 AM.
Rocket Man
27 November 2008
Adjunct Professor Jøran Moen is about to send up 10 million NOK into the atmosphere. The rocket’s name is ICI-2 and its mission is to uncover more of the secrets of the Aurora Borealis. Why? Because the aurora can cause electronic communication systems to be wiped out.
Boot ’em up!
22 July 2008
Passengers arriving at Svalbard airport are frequently met by an industrious Australian that asks them to show him the sole of their boots. The passengers could be carriers of foreign seeds that might threaten the delicate balance of the Svalbard flora.
A new glacier surge under way
23 June 2016
In April UNIS glaciologist Monica Sund discovered crevasses in the Comfortlessbreen. This can be the beginning of a surge, and Sund will now monitor the changes in the glacier to obtain more knowledge of the surge dynamics that we still know very little about.
Space suitcase to the Longyearbyen school
30 January 2008
Five pupils at the Longyearbyen high school got their own space science suitcase at UNIS yesterday with instruments to observe the sun, to photograph the Aurora, and monitor cosmic radiation.
The dynamics of Svalbard glaciers
31 October 2007
Calving and surging glaciers play a major role in delivering land ice to Arctic waters. Changes in calving frequency might impact sea transport, fisheries and oil exploration in the Arctic. However, these changes are poorly understood. A new PhD project at UNIS aims at increasing the understanding of glacier changes in a shifting climate.
CO2 free Svalbard under way
1 October 2007
The vision of a CO2-free Svalbard by 2025 is becoming a reality. Last week the first trial drilling for finding the best CO2 depository sediments started. This study will be implemented in the UNIS course portfolio next year.
Explaining the intrusion of warm water in West Spitsbergen fjords
1 June 2007
During the winter 2005/06, periods of sustained northerly winds generated cross-shelf exchange causing extensive flooding of the coastal waters with warm Atlantic Water from the West Spitsbergen Current (the last leg of the Gulf Current system). The seawater winter temperature of the West Spitsbergen Shelf and fjords reverted to that typically of fall, interrupting the normal cycle of ice formation in the region.
Warmer Gulf Stream waters melt fjord ice on Svalbard
11 May 2007
For the first time the warm West-Spitsbergen current is appearing near the surface at 79° N. This means that the fjord ice on Svalbard is disappearing at great speed. The observations were made at a recent UNIS geophysics cruise.