Text by: Roman Juras and Vojta Moravec
The Polar Adventure Begins
The first Polar Winter School on the Svalbard Archipelago has begun, and we’re excited to share our experiences. It's Friday, April 19th, just before lunch, and Vojta and I are boarding a bus from Prague to Berlin airport. Our luggage includes two pairs of touring skis, ski gear, large bags, an electric avalanche backpack, a photobackpack, and laptops, all of it on the edge of weight limits. We're heading to the Arctic, and preparation is key, especially for a school with 8 Czech and 8 international students and 9 lecturers. We’re filled with anticipation and a bit of anxiety about how everything will turn out.
Course Goals and Objectives
The idea of showing students life and research in the Arctic has been on my mind for a long time. The Arctic, particularly Svalbard, is undergoing rapid changes due to global warming. Our main goal is to teach students how to conduct basic scientific measurements on glaciers and their surroundings, something you can't just try anywhere. They will gain practical experience, collaborate with peers worldwide, and understand how different cultures approach science. Therefore, it was very convenient that the Czech Arctic Research Station of the University of South Bohemia is located in the capital of Svalbard - Longyearbyen, which provided us with facilities for the whole week.
Journey to the North
Before reaching Svalbard, we have a long journey ahead: a flight to Oslo, an overnight stay, and then a flight to Longyearbyen. After 30 hours of travel, we arrive in the world’s northernmost city, greeted by temperatures around zero and landscape covered with less snow than expected, worrying given our planned glacier and snow research. The sudden warm spell has reduced the snow, but we press on with our plans. The week before our arrival, temperatures were well below zero, reaching as low as -28°C. A few days later, however, the weather warmed up dramatically and the snowfall was also noticeable.
Preparations and Terrain Mapping
Sunday is dedicated to preparations before the students arrive. In Svalbard, where polar bears roam, safety is paramount. We rent rifles, ammunition, flares, a satellite phone, and a snowmobile. If, heaven forbid, a bear were to attack, a well-aimed shot from a rifle is probably the only possible defense. But this is a last resort, and one that both you and the bear want to avoid. Most of the time, a flare gun is enough to scare off a curious bear or just make a lot of noise. Thanks to the endless light of polar day, we spend the rest of Sunday exploring the sites we want to work on the following days with the students. On this occasion, we test out the borrowed ski equipment from Summit Trade, especially the waterproof jacket and pants. We push through a bit of a blizzard combined with fog, so we decided to return and go home earlier than we planned. Because if a polar bear would stand just ten meters away from us, we wouldn't have seen each other anyway, because of its b(e)arly visibility in the fog!
Fieldwork and Research
Monday morning is a preparation day for the fieldwork. The students who we help to get to their accommodation are landing in the Longyearbyen airport, which is great! Vojta and Tomas use some time to take a snowmobile and take some footage in Björdalen and the adjacent valleys. One of the important tasks of our expedition is also to document the beauty and specifics of the whole area. It's a great way to show the world how fascinating the Arctic can be and why it deserves not only our scientific attention. In the evening, we are already looking forward to a lecture from local scientist Eero Rinne from the UNIS University Centre on safety in Svalbard. In addition to the basic lessons on how to behave when encountering a bear (i.e. never go outside the town alone and unarmed, and if you see a polar bear, huddle into a large noisy group), we also learned some interesting facts about the high prevalence of chlamydia in the town. This is quite valuable information, especially if you are going to date a local.
First Field Measurements
“Hello everyone!”. We greet the assembled group of enthusiastic students in front of the 102 hostel on Tuesday morning to take our first field measurements. Before we all head out onto the Longyearbreen Glacier, we have a short briefing on how to move around on the skis and how to do a group check, or group avalanche search. I take the first two groups with Pavel and Leena. We'll be analyzing the snow profile together and Pavel will be showing them how to use the avalanche equipment. We find a lovely spot just before the glacier face where the snow cover is almost a meter deep, which gives us plenty of material for our measurements. I am really excited to find a layer of depth hoar crystals in the profile, which are typical of polar regions and form during the long freezing periods. And we are lucky. The bottom layer spills out under our hands and under a magnifying glass we can observe beautiful large crystals that you just don't see in Czechia. We also find several ice layers that were probably formed from the previous melting or rain-on-snow period. Reporting ice layers is really useful for Leena, a snow expert from Finland, whose research focuses mainly on the structure of polar snow. Pavel explains to his group how stability tests are done, specifically the extended compression test (ECT). We find that the snowpack is quite solid and the unstable layer is deep enough that is why we didn't observe any cracks. It's worth mentioning that this is in line with the avalanche danger level 2 (moderate) which was announced that day. We write everything down and then hurry back to the hut for the afternoon lectures.
Continued research and data collection
Wednesday sees us analyzing more snow profiles and mapping snow depths across the glacier. Jenda and Pavla take the other two groups to map the snow depths across the whole glacier. Jeník is an expert in glacier research, and the data collected during Polar Winter School on snow depth will help him to determine if there is currently enough snow on the glacier compared to previous snow seasons. In addition, Pavla will also look at the pollution of the snow by various substances. Pavla Waldhauserová is an expert on air pollution in polar regions and she kindly explains how dust in the air settles on snow and glaciers, making them darker and melting faster. Their group was tasked with finding out the origin and composition of the dust on Longyearbreen Glacier. Although it may not seem like it, the air around the capital of Svalbard is very polluted due to coal mining. That's why we set out later in the afternoon to sample the snow pollution around the last active mine, which is called Mine 7.
Detailed Glacier Mapping
Thursday is dedicated to comprehensive glacier mapping. We dig a profile higher above the glacier face to see the differences in snow texture on and off the glacier. We also take glacier ice samples for further laboratory analysis. The Longyearbreen glacier is not large, which allowed us to finish early and explore the ice cave at the upper of the glacier.
Exploring Longyearbyen and the boat trip
Friday is all about the sightseeing of Longyearbyen, for example exploring the local church, museum and maybe even checking out the local ski slope. There's also some time for data processing, which all groups present on Saturday. And we're so lucky that we have time for a boat trip to the other side of the bay. It's such a wonderful experience, we even get to pass by all those broken stacks and chunks of ice. It's so beautiful and really adds to the adventure! Luckily, it is still a polar day, so the fact that the cruise lasts until midnight doesn't seem to be limiting. We get to enjoy the polar sea landscape, where we catch a glimpse of a seal rolling out on an ice floe here and there.
Conclusion
On Saturday, those who've been working so hard to make the presentation ready to present head into town to satisfy their shopping spree. Those who were idle on Friday are putting the final touches to their presentation. The afternoon is all about student presentations and a friendly celebration of the Polar Winter School. As we leave the runway of Longyearbyen Airport on Sunday and the plane takes a southerly course, we're all smiles and full of memories of a lovely little over week behind the Arctic Circle in the land of no one and everyone at the same time.
Acknowledgments
We couldn't have organized this winter school without our generous partners. Our big thanks go to the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Alim Nadir Arslan, and the Nordic Snow Network for financial support, and the Czech Arctic Research Station for accommodation. Thanks also to Summit Trade for the avalanche and ski equipment.
