Svalbard
Spitsbergen is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, located about midway between Norway and the North Pole. The present climate of Spitsbergen is arctic, situated at the border between cold arctic air from the Polar Basin and mild maritime air from the oceans to the south and is also in a region where the North Atlantic current is weakening. Meteorologically, this border zone is, at times, very active with cyclones generating unstable, often stormy weather.
The sites at Spitsbergen will supplement the records from Arctic Norway as the area is very sensitive to reduced inflow of warm water and to small changes in the westerly airflow. Biological proxy records from freshwater lakes represent the only terrestrial archive on Spitsbergen that has recorded climate changes throughout the entire Holocene [32-34], and these will be used for the seasonal reconstructions. The area also contains numerous glacial catchments and distal glacier-fed lakes that are ideal for reconstructing glacier activity. Both the University Studies at Svalbard (UNIS) and the Norwegian Polar Institute will provide help with logistics on Spitsbergen through their established research stations.
Sist endret: 2.11.2012