Friday 19th of June The day began at 9:15am with lectures on oceanography. The first was with Helen Johnson from Oxford University who gave us an overview of oceanographic principles. She gave us a few ideas about possible future scenarios depending on climate change impacts on thermohaline circulation. She focused on the importance of high latitude circulation, especially the region near Svalbard. This is where warm Atlantic Ocean currents flow into the Arctic Ocean. She is working on an IPY project called Arctic/Subarctic Ocean Fluxes (ASOF). The project is attempting to quantify the flux of freshwater output through the Nares Strait which is located between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. The next lecture was given by Yngve Kristofferson from the University of Bergen. He ...

The third day of the IPY field school kicked off with another brisk stroll down to UNIS. Weather conditions were much clearer and warmer; the sun even popped its head out every now and again to see how the IPY students were getting along. The first lecture of the day was given by Prof. Hanne Christiansen, giving a thorough background on the Geology of Svalbard. Following Prof. Hanne Christiansen was a series of lectures given by PhD student Monica Sund covering glaciology and in particular the amazing glaciers covering the Svalbard landscape. It is very interesting to learn of the vast historical record that the geology of the region contains and the picturesque landscape made the task even better. Following the lectures and a brief lunch, the students met up at Nybyen for the geomo...

After a rough night with beds shaking from the wind, the IPY field course students worked their way through the gusts of winds to the UNIS building. There, the first two lectures were given by Ole Humlum, a professor of physical geography at the University of Oslo. He has lived in Longyearbyen and still teaches here part time. He lectured about Arctic Climate Change in the Present and Past. He used some interesting historical examples, like the Spanish Armada fleet being surprised by extremely bad weather and the coasts of England and Ireland being covered with broken Spanish ships, which happened during the Little Ice Age. Also during the Little Ice Age the Arctic cod was not present in Northern waters near Norway, and the Swedish army was able to reach Copenhagen on sea ice, which left t...

Hi from 78°N! Some of us have been here for a couple of days now so we are updating you all on what we have been doing. During the long flight from Oslo we were lucky to have clear views of the sea ice and southern Spitzbergen. Amazing! In Svalbard, we are staying in the student accommodation in Nybyen about 3km from UNIS in old mining barracks. Unfortunately this means a 30 minute walk to UNIS, not a pleasant experience in gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures, although it gives an opportunity to get to know the 22 other people from 11 different countries! Whilst waiting for the field school to begin we took advantage of the good weather and went hiking up Longyearbreen (the local glacier) near our accommodation (with a rifle in case of polar bear encounters!). Part way...