Scientists in the high Arctic are raising their laboratories into the air to avoid damage from melting permafrost. Ny-Ålesund, located in Norway's Arctic, is the world's northernmost settlement. A team of scientists, surrounded by glaciers, polar bears, walruses, and Arctic foxes, calls this challenging environment home while researching the Arctic's ice, ecosystems, and atmosphere.
"The polar night is always the hardest," explains Marion Maturilli, a scientist studying Arctic climate dynamics with the French and German Polar Institutes, who is based at the station.
For over 50 years, Ny-Ålesund has been home to an international community at the top of the world, just 1,200 km (745 miles) from the North Pole. Remnants of scientific equipment from the mission that mapped the lines of longitude defining our time zones still stand in Ny-Ålesund. More recently, NASA utilized the base for its satellite lasers and measurements of the Earth's electrical field. Now, scientists from ten countries reside there to conduct their research. For almost three months at a time, they wake and sleep in darkness, carrying out experiments that span from space sciences to the mysteries of phytoplankton, microplastic pollution, walrus behavior, and changes in Arctic cyclones.
The need to protect this unique polar archipelago resulted in the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act, one of the world's first international environmental protection agreements. Nonetheless, the impact researchers leave on this pristine landscape is considered necessary, as the scientists emphasize.
Maturilli's team has been recording a long-term series of temperature and solar radiation measurements at Ny-Ålesund. For 30 years, every day, the team at the German station deployed a weather balloon equipped with a radiosonde—a small instrument that measures atmospheric conditions. This process requires careful handling to prevent icing in the clouds. The results contribute to accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and document long-term temperature changes in the upper atmosphere of the region. These measurements hinge on having precise reference points made at the station's high latitudes, which provide global coverage and help define our position in space.
"It may not sound spectacular, but our daily measurements have produced reliable data for an international climate reference observing network," Maturilli notes."It's incredibly sad. Over the last 15 years, I've seen it change far too much," shares Iain Rudkin. To limit the settlement's environmental impact, only around 30 people are permitted to live at the research station year-round.
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"We do everything we can, from planning to execution, to change the Arctic as little as possible, but this research is vital," explains Iain Rudkin, the Arctic Operations Manager for the British Antarctic Survey. Efforts to mitigate their environmental impacts are a high priority, according to Geir Gotaas, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute at the base.
Scientists are careful to collaborate and avoid duplicating research. Teams at the base share data and boat rides for Arctic specimen collection and are planning to transition to electric snowmobiles, though challenges remain. "In the field, researchers typically cover long distances and transport a lot of heavy equipment, and currently, EV snowmobiles aren't up to that task," Gotaas states.
While protecting the rare ecosystem is enshrined in the Svalbard Treaty, it’s also essential to limit the carbon footprint so that science isn’t hindered.
"It's very important to limit our carbon footprint when working in such a unique environment," Maturilli stresses. She explains that if a vehicle, engine, or snowmobile visits the atmospheric lab, the data for those periods becomes unusable due to increased carbon levels.
"Worsened battery performance in cold conditions, along with any projects involving sea or diving activities, makes logistics challenging due to resource usage," she adds. "We coordinate within the international community of climate researchers, each contributing a piece of the puzzle to ensure we optimize activities for mutual benefit."
The site has enabled long-term research in the Arctic and unique collaboration among countries and disciplines. Researchers share equipment, ranging from meteorological balloons to used winter clothing. One notable example of cross-country collaboration is the Korean Polar Institute’s team, which utilized results from a German-Nordic project to publish a paper on Arctic ecosystems' behavior during the dark.
Yoo Kyung Lee from the Korean Polar Institute mentions that she minimizes her carbon footprint at the station by freeze-drying her plant samples for transport.
The Korean Polar Institute's team is an example of successful cross-country collaboration. They utilized results from a project conducted by a German-Nordic partnership, leading to the publication of a paper detailing how Arctic ecosystems function in darkness.
Yoo Kyung Lee, a researcher at the Korean Polar Institute, minimizes her carbon footprint at the station by freeze-drying plant samples to transport back to South Korea for further, energy-intensive experiments. These frozen samples reveal multi-generational changes in Svalbard's plant life. From the base, Lee monitors these plants, creating DNA markers to differentiate populations and later sequencing their genomes to study their adaptations to the changing climate.
In addition, the Norwegian and Italian bases are collaborating on the Ice Memory operation, which collects ice cores to preserve valuable environmental records before they disappear. The cores are sampled in pairs: one is used for research while the other is sent for preservation, ensuring that future generations of scientists can access high-quality samples to study the planet's environmental conditions long after glaciers have vanished due to global warming.
During the busy summer research season, when the sun never sets, the population at the research station remains under 200. Food and waste management are strictly regulated. Researchers share meals in a single room to limit container ship deliveries, and the waste generated is sorted into 10 to 15 categories (referred to as 'fractions') such as food, cardboard, and glass, which are shipped to the Norwegian mainland for recycling. Most produce is sourced from Norwegian wholesale suppliers, as there is no agricultural production in Svalbard. Gotaas explains that they aim to minimize food waste by only preparing the necessary amount of food for the current number of people in Ny-Ålesund.
Leftovers are typically served for lunch the following day, and any remaining food waste is shipped to the Norwegian mainland for composting and waste processing. While conducting their projects, scientists are subject to spot checks on their power usage; electronic device use is limited to conserve electricity. The power station that provides electricity and hot water still runs on diesel, although heat exchangers have been installed to maximize heat and energy recovery from the power generator exhausts. Additional measures include installing efficient ventilation systems in laboratories, replacing regular light bulbs with LED lights, using motion sensors to automatically switch off lights, and lowering temperatures in unused rooms.
Research instruments are meticulously tracked across this remote landscape, each registered in a Geographic Information System (GIS) layer, with every project's tools mapped and constantly updated. All projects are required to have a start and end date, ensuring that inactive instruments are collected promptly, as Gotaas explains. Due to the importance of providing high-quality environmental data, Geir emphasizes that it is in the best interest of everyone to minimize the local carbon footprint to avoid disrupting sensitive measurements.
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The research stations are as vulnerable as the ecosystems they study. The buildings, which serve as both living quarters and laboratories, were constructed as early as 1910 and as late as the 1960s. Improvements to insulation are typically made during renovations of these old structures. However, many of the oldest buildings in Ny-Ålesund are protected as cultural heritage, limiting the changes that can be made. Therefore, scientists focus on enhancing efficiency and have installed heat exchangers for this purpose.
Due to melting permafrost, the stations are shifting and tilting, with doors no longer fitting their frames and pools of water damaging their wooden foundations. To address this issue, the teams have devised an engineering method to lift the stations using car jacks and then lower them onto new steel girders. In some cases, engineers must drill 50 meters (164 feet) into the bedrock and reinforce concrete pillars, replacing the original wooden supports.
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The emissions from the travel involved in reporting this story were 0 kg CO2, while the digital emissions are estimated at 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. More information on how this figure was calculated can be found here. When the station was initially built, the permafrost was stable enough that this was not necessary. However, changes from global warming over the past few decades have caused significant thawing of the permafrost, necessitating these measures for several of the older buildings.