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News archive
26.10.2009 Report from the Kinnvika 2009 expedition
22.5.2008 Report from the Kinnvika by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
Read the report from the expedition to Kinnvika written by the Swedish research partners.
15.4.2008 Blog from the Kinnvika spring expedition
Read the blog from the expedition from here. The posts are written based on the satellite phone calls by Emilie Beaudon and Venkta Gandikota by Professor John Moore.
29.10. 2007 Metsä Tissue donates 1 million SEK to climate research.
The money enables extra research expeditions to Kinnvika. Read press release here (PDF).
4.10.2007 Kinnvika August report.
Read report about Kinnvika activities in August (PDF).
14.9.2007 Year 1957 Kinnvika Expedition in the web.
Visit this website to learn more about 1957 Kinnvika expedition (in Swedish).
31.8.2007 Notes from the summer expedition.
Swedish Polar Secretariat has published Kinnvika Short Reports. Read the document here (PDF).
22.8.2007 Veijo Pohjola reports from Kinnvika Summer Expedition.
Read Veijo’s diary from Expeditions page.Swedish TV4 also visited Kinnvika.
22.8.2007 Huippis-leirikoulu vierailee Huippuvuorilla osana Kinnvika-hanketta.
Seuraa leirikoulun vaiheita blogista.
21.5.2007 John Moore’s diary and photos from Spring Expedition.
Check out diary&photos from 2007 Spring Expedition page .
23.4.2007 Spring Expedition Udpate
Check out news from Spring Expedition.
23.4.2007 Spring Expedition update
Researchers John Moore, Veijo Pohjola, Ulf Jonsell and Emilie Beaudon have arrived in Kinnvika and started working, John Moore reports via satellite phone:
"Norwegian ship brought most of our equipment to the area on 19th of April and we used helicopters to move the cargo to our base. We have now installed automatic weather station on the edge of the ice. Original plan was to set up a camp at the ice, but very windy conditions has prevented us from doing that so far. It took several hours to find route from camp to ice. Now it takes about one and a half, two hours for one-way trip with a snowmobile.
It has been sunny but very windy lately with temperatures ranging from -5 to -15 Celsius. There is also plenty of snow. When we arrived in Kinnvika, we found out that the stove in Sysselman’s cabin had broken down due the old age and rust. Needles to say, it has been quite chilly even inside the cabin, since only heating we get comes from the stoves used for cooking.
We also spotted two polar bears, one really big one and probably two years old youngster. They were very curious about us and the camp, so we had to chase them away for two kilometers with snowmobiles and warning shots."
10.4.2007 Spring expedition to Kinnvika
The first scientific expedition to Kinnvika is underway. A team of four scientists will fly with helicopters to Kinnvika from Longyuearbyen and stay there from 16th of April to 10th of May. Since the station is empty, the first expedition will also deliver a major load of equipment and rations.
Research activities include inserting aluminum pipes to measure mass balance and ice velocity and installing weather stations on Vestfonna ice cap.
The summer expedition will depart Longyearbyn on July 25th onboard the Polish vessel M/S Horyzont. The ship will also carry cargo for the spring 2008 expedition.
20.9.2006 Information about recent funding decisions
2005 Nordic preparatory expedition to high Arctic, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard
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Read the travel log and see photos from the expedition
See an 8 minute clip made for YLE
A Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian group of 8 researchers will travel to the most northerly part of Svalbard, Nordaustlandet
A Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian group of 8 researchers will travel to the most northerly part of Svalbard, Nordaustlandet, next week to reconnoiter a historical research station built as Swedish-Finnish-Swiss co-operation in 1957, with a view to re-opening it for a broad international research operation there in 2007 – exactly 50 years after station was built.
Kinnvika, the site of the old station was well chosen. Nordaustlandet is the northernmost piece of land of Europe. Its 80 degrees North latitude places it only about 1000 km from the North Pole. This remote arctic desert region is home to numerous polar bears and it holds strong scientific interest due of the impact of global warming in the high Arctic.
The Kinnvika station was built from wood and it has room for 15 people, electricity was then produced by generators, and there were separate storage and research buildings as well as a sauna. After 1958 there was no funding to keep the station running. Since then it has been largely forgotten, except by occasional visitors. According to their information, the dry climate has preserved the station reasonably well.
The reconnaissance visit next week will be made by on board a chartered ship, the Norwegian M/S Farm leaving from Longyearbyen Monday September 5th. A feasibility study and assessment of the possibilities to reactivate the station, evaluate the fixing and renovating costs and other logistics for the planned research work will be carried out. The reasonable proximity to well established monitoring facilities in Ny Ålesund on opposite, west side, of Svalbard bring regional sense to scientific work and makes it logistically relatively simple. The current centers of research on Svalbard, Hornsund in the south, Ny Ålesund in the west and Longyearbyen in the center, will be complimented by Kinnvika located in the much more extreme northeastern climatic zone. It will thus provide an important addition for monitoring parameters indicative of global and environmental change.
The project enjoys wide international interest: there are 77 scientists from 15 countries participating in the scientific planning. The project is also truly Nordic co-operation as its steering group has members from research institutes and universities from all Nordic countries and this preparatory trip is supported by funding of Nordic Council of Ministers. One of main motivations is to strengthen both Arctic research and logistical co-operation by Nordic Countries.
The Kinnvika-project has been endorsed as part the world wide research operation, International Polar Year, IPY, which will be implemented in 2007-08. The project has a potential for major Nordic input for the international IPY efforts. Like all IPY-projects, Kinnvika is in a process of seeking funding for its final implementation.
The group of 8 researchers and experts that will visit Kinnvika Base next week come from: Uppsala University, Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, Norwegian Polar Institute, Finnish Marine Research Institute, Finnish Antarctic Research Logistics and the Arctic Centre that is leading the project.
If more information is needed, please contact:
- Flinkman, Juha - Senior Scientist, Finnish Institute of Marine Research, +358 40 750 3911, juha.flinkman at fimr.fi
- Isakson, Elisabeth - Dr. Elisabeth Isaksson, Norwegian Polar Institute, The Polar Environmental Centre, N-9296 Tromsø, Norway, elli at npolar.no
- Kalakoski, Mika - Planner, Finnish Antarctic Logistics, +358 50 359 2792, mika.kalakosk at fimr.fi
- Kankaanpää, Paula – Project Leader, Director, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, +358 40 7777 825, paula.kankaanpaa at ulapland.fi
- Moore, John - Senior Researcher, Arctic Centre +358 40 5007775, john.moore at ulapland.fi
- Pohjola, Veijo – Docent, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, +46 18 471 2509, veijo.pohjola at geo.uu.se
- Wråkberg, Urban – Dr, Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions & Royal Institute of Technology. +46 707898134, urban at spkp.se
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