New UNIS weather station at Fritham
The UNIS Logistics team set up the new weather station at Fritham in December 2021. Photo: Charlotte Sandmo/UNIS.
Top image: The UNIS Logistics team set up the new weather station at Fritham earlier this week. Photo: Charlotte Sandmo/UNIS.
UNIS has added one more weather station to our portfolio – this time at Fritham. The data is available online for the public.
10 December 2021
Press release from the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS)
This weather station is a replacement for station previously in the same area, but which never was available online. New instruments and technology ensure that the weather data is updated every hour and accessible for the public.
The station at Fritham is located where the valleys Todalen, Bødalen and Gangdalen meet. It is one of the few meteorological stations inland in central Svalbard, and at the same time located in approx. 400 m above sea level and measures the valley meteorology.
The station measures the usual meteorological parameters and has a camera that can look at the snow depth conditions in the area. The camera is online as well.
Popular route
Fritham is part of the “little round” (lillerunden), a popular roundtrip for locals during the snow scooter season. This station will be a valuable asset for people planning to drive this route in winter.
“The station is located in the middle of the “little round”, which should have value for locals who travel there. In addition, there is often an avalanche danger at Fritham, so that data from the station can help in assessing the conditions”, says Marius Jonassen, associate professor in meteorology at UNIS.
Earlier a borehole for recording the permafrost temperature was established in the same area, as part of the SIOS InfraNOR project.
“It is therefore also important to be able to collect meteorological data from the same area in order to understand the connection between ground- and atmosphere temperatures, in an area where there is relatively thick snow cover for Svalbard”, Jonassen explains.
The Fritham weather station data is available here: http://158.39.149.184/Frithamn/index.html
Links to all the UNIS weather stations are found here: https://www.unis.no/resources/weather-stations/
