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Station
Camp
Shelter
Laboratory
Station
Camp
Shelter
Laboratory

Background

CO

AWIPEV

http://www.awipev.eu/

Arctic

Open

Station

France-Germany

Observer station

2003

Year-Round

Introduction

AWIPEV Artic Research Base at Ny-Ålesund / Spitsbergen is owned by the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) which operate their research stations as the joint French-German Arctic Research Base. This base includes the Koldewey Station, the Rabot Station, and the Jean Corbel Station buildings.

AWIPEV Arctic Research Base is located in the research village of Ny-Ålesund situated on the southern shore of Kongsfjorden on the island of Spitsbergen. The village hosts more than 10 national research stations which shares facilities run by the Kings Bay company. AWIPEV operates and runs a second research base Jean Corbel situated at 5 km southeast of Ny-Ålesund.

Spitsbergen belongs to one of the northernmost archipelagos in the Arctic. Ny-Ålesund on the west coast is an international center for various modern Arctic research activities. The village is one of the world's northernmost human settlements and is surrounded by glaciers, morains, rivers, mountains and a typical tundra system. Most of the fauna living in Svalbard is represented in the area with birds (auks, kittiwakes, terns, barnacle geese, …), reinders, foxes, polar bears and often visible in the fjord seals and sometimes belugas and walrus.

Ny-Ålesund was a mining town for commercial exploitation of the coal deposits in the Kongsforden area from 1916 to the closure of the mines in 1963. After the mining activity Ny-Ålesund developed into a research village providing laboratories, facilities and research infrastructures to scientists from many nations interested in polar research. The French research base Jean Corbel was established in 1963 at 5 km from Ny-Ålesund village and has a capacity of 8 persons in summer. In 2003, AWI and IPEV decided to jointly operate their three Koldewei, Rabot and Corbel stations as the AWIPEV Arctic Research Base. The station provides logistical resources: boats, snowmobiles, vehicles, storage facilities (cold and warm, cooling facilities), field equipment, workshop and office facilities and scientific resources: laboratories, scientific equipment and sampling tools.

Research covers a large field of scientific disciplines. Both, long term and short term projects of atmospheric studies, marine and terrestrial biology, or cryosphere studies, are carried out at the AWIPEV Research Base. Many different measurements as well as field expeditions are possible at the base. Prominent examples are atmospheric long term measurements, scientific diving, glacier expeditions, seabirds as indicators of global changes in the marine ecosystems, installation of measuring systems in the permafrost and launches of research balloons. An overview on research at AWIPEV and accessible data can be found at www.awipev.eu/awipev-observatories/

There is no permanent population living and activity is mainly linked to science. The local community is mostly a mixture of staff from the Kings Bay Company and scientists of various nationalities. Visits of tourists coming mostly onboard cruise ships for just a few hours are relatively frequent in summer. The closest town is Longyearbyen (population c. 2000). During the summer season the Ny-Ålesund population reaches 150-180 persons down to the 30-40 permanent staff during the winter months. 3 persons constitutes the AWIPEV Arctic Research station permanent staff.

A regular air shuttle service organized by Kings Bay with a small plane (14 passengers) connects Longyearbyen with Ny-Ålesund. The flight takes c. 25-30 minutes. Access is also possible by ship but there are no regular ship transport to Ny-Ålesund. Transport of freight is possible with a monthly freight ship excepted during winter. Fjord shores and islands are easily accessible using small boats and local transportation is possible by cars, snowmobiles or bicycles.

Operator

French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)

Government

French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)

management@awipev.eu

http://www.awipev.eu

Data Source

Roland Neuber

management@awipev.eu

2018-02-05

Partner Institution

Yes

Alfred Wegener Institute

Germany

French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor

France

Location

CO

78° 55' 24'' N

11° 55' 15'' E

European Arctic

20

0

1500

Longyearbyen (2000 inhabitants)

110

0

0

Ice-free ground

Climate

Continuous

High Arctic

Snow and Rain

400

14.4

SE

01/01/06 to 31/12/15

-3.3

-7.4

-9.3

-10.8

-8.4

-2

3.2

6.1

4.8

1.8

-3.7

-6.7

-7.6

07/07/05

19.6

13/02/96

-35.4

None

April; May

April; May

June; July; August; September

Features

Biological features; Blue ice; Ice cap or glacier; Lake; Mountain; Permanent snowpatches; Rivers; Shoreline; Valley

Graminoid tundra, peatlands, wetlands

Disciplines

Atmospheric chemistry and physics; Climatology; Climate change; Environmental sciences; Fishery; Geocryology; Geodesy; Geology; Geomorphology; Geophysics and seismology; GIS; Glaciology; Hydrology; Isotopic chemistry; Limnology; Mapping; Marine biology; Microbiology; Oceanography; Paleoecology; Paleolimnology; Pollution; Sedimentology; Soil science; Terrestrial biology

Ecosystem functioning, terrestrial biodversity

Human Activities

No

Norwegian coal mine

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Infrastructure

CO

1220

610

Biology; Chemistry; Geology; Geophysics; Scientific diving

Corbel base 150m² at 5Km from the village

25

347

24

Yes

Yes

Fossil fuel; Renewable

220

24

No

Staff Capacity

3

24

3

0

30

20000

Scientific Equipment

See www.awipev.eu/resources/scientific-resources/ including for example:

- Basic laboratory equipment (glassware, beakers, pipette, syringe, balance..),

- Lab fume hood,

- Sink (wet lab),

- Refrigerator 150L / +5°C,

- Freezer 200L / -20°C,

- Freezer 35L / -80°C,

- Incubator/sterilizer UNB 200 Memmert 32L.

- Maintenance of automated measurement systems,

- Long term monitoring of environmental variables, including critical climate change parameters,

- Support for visitors.

See www.awipev.eu/awipev-observatories/ including for example:

- Atmosphere observatory,

- Lovenbreen Glacier Monitoring,

- Under Water Fjord observatory, incl. Ferry Box system,

- Permafrost observatory.

Medical Facilities

Yes

10

Nurse

0

Basic

110

1

1

110

No

No

Vehicles

Small boats (lenght < 7m) - see www.awipev.eu/resources/logistic-resources/transport/boats/

Car, Electric car, Tractor, bikes - see www.awipev.eu/resources/logistic-resources/transport/vehicles/

Workshop facilities

ICTS (Staff available to assit with constructions)

Metal, wood, plexiglass workshops

Communications

Computer; E-mail; Internet; Printer; Satellite phone; Scanner; Telephone; VHF

Access

CO

Air; Sea

Aircraft landing facilities

1

800

60

Gravel

Yes

Transport and freight

Airplane; Helicopter; Ship; Skidoo

0

March; April; May; June; July; August; September; October; November; December

Pier/Jetty; Port

2

January; February; March; April; May; June; July; August; September; October; November; December

Access To The Facility

The Research in Svalbard (RiS) Portal by law monitors all research on Svalbard and all projects have to be registered. www.researchinsvalbard.no

Some protected areas exists. permits is required for access to these areas.

sysselmannen.no/en/

firmapost@sysselmannen.no

www.awipev.eu

Pictures