News Archive

7 July 2020 It has been hot, very hot, in the fjords of Svalbard since 2006. But over the past year we have seen a cooling down. More cold and fresh Arctic water has followed the coastal flow along the west coast and inflow of warm Atlantic water has slowed down, as low autumn and winter temperatures have cooled the fjords so that sea ice has formed again.

26 June 2020 Frozen marine deposits which are widely distributed in the fjord-valleys in Svalbard are particularly vulnerable to thawing under present and future climate conditions. This spring several piles were set up on the plain east of UNIS. These will contribute to more knowledge about permafrost thawing in Svalbard.

16 June 2020 Since the gradual reopening of UNIS, we have managed to carry out fieldwork for important research projects and projects that have time series measurements that are essential to maintain.  

8 June 2020 June 8 is World Oceans Day and in commemoration of this we focus on the Nansen Legacy project and UNIS activities within the project in 2019.

5 June 2020 Happy World Environment Day! UNIS/UiO/NCCS PhD candidate Peter Betlem is exploring Svalbard for carbon capture, utilization, and storage potential.

4 June 2020 In February this year there was a tragic avalanche accident on Fridtjovbreen, where two people perished. Now the accident report has been published, penned by the Arctic Safety Centre at UNIS.

27 May 2020 In 2019, 743 students spent shorter or longer periods at UNIS, including both course students and guest master’s students. 50% of the students came from programmes of study at Norwegian universities, the rest from international universities.

22 May 2020 Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity or World Biodiversity Day. We mark this important day by having a couple of our scientists present the work they do within marine biodiversity in Svalbard, whether in the sea ice on the east coast or in Isfjorden outside Longyearbyen.

14 May 2020 Siiri Wickström has studied the regional changes in the atmospheric flow pattern in the high latitude North Atlantic and their impacts locally over Svalbard. The ongoing climate change is amplified at the high latitudes and Svalbard is a hotspot of warming, especially in the winters, Wickström concludes in her PhD thesis, which she will defend digitally on 19 May 2020.

12 May 2020 The pandemic stopped the field plans for the geology course AG-222 - but it did not stop the authentic exercise. The course teachers organised a virtual field excursion instead, which was conducted online over two days in Mid-April 2020.