POLAR RESEARCH HEATS UP

Arctic scientists at center of climate change impact

At the Arctic, scientists are racing to understand how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing and what those changes may mean for the planet’s future.

They are hoping to harvest ice cores but are finding glaciers inundated by water. Research sites are getting harder to reach as earlier springtime melt leaves the ground too barren for snowmobile travel.

Researchers have been studying the polar region for decades, with weather records in Ny-Aalesund, a small town high above the Arctic circle on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, going back more than 40 years. But their work has become vitally important as climate change ramps up.

The Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the world and what happens there can impact global sea levels, storms in North America and Europe, and other factors far beyond the frozen region.

Established as a mining settlement in 1916, Ny-Aalesund became a hot spot for international researchers after several deadly mining accidents shuttered operations in the 1960s.

Today, 11 countries, including China and India, have a presence in Ny-Aalesund, which has only about 35 year-round residents.

In summer, Ny-Aalesund’s population swells to more than 100 as scientists fly in from across the world.

“One of the special things about this place is there are a lot of different scientists. I’m a chemist. There are biologists, geologists,” said visiting researcher Francois Burgay of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

“It’s one of the few places in the world where these kinds of exchanges are so informal and so spontaneous.”

That cross-disciplinary collaboration is important for climate research. Svalbard is warming faster than almost anywhere else in the Arctic and cooperation can be critical for understanding how climate impacts will ripple through the polar ecosystem, from ocean to atmosphere, plants to animals.

One of the special things about this place is there are a lot of different scientists. I’m a chemist. There are biologists, geologists ... It’s one of the few places in the world where these kinds of exchanges are so informal and so spontaneous.”

Francois Burgay,

researcher

An airport manager looks at the ice walls near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 8.

A geochemist walks along the Ice Memory drilling camp near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 10.

Top: Scientists drive snowmobiles across the Arctic during sunset near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 10. PHOTOS BY LISI NIESNER / REUTERS Above: Members of the Ice Memory Foundation work to drill down into the ice and collect two ice cores, at 1,100 meters above sea level in the Holtedahlfonna icefield near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 10.

Accountant Sunniva Berge Mo, 33, hugs her dog Zelda at the dog yard in Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 9.

Above: Engineers release a weather balloon into the stratosphere to measure weather parameters in Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 6. Below: A resident cycles next to buildings in Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 6.