Climate Change Thaws World’s Northernmost Research Station

At the world’s northernmost year-round research station in Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard, 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. But scientific data is getting harder to access and sometimes it is vanishing before scientists can collect it, reports Reuters.

Scientists hoping to harvest ice cores 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 Ny-Ålesund’s weather records going back more than 40 years. But their work has become vitally important as climate change ramps up. That is because what happens in the Arctic can impact global sea levels, storms in North America and Europe, and other factors far beyond the frozen region.

Jean-Charles Gallet, a glaciologist with the Norwegian Polar Institute who has been coming to Ny-Ålesund for about 12 years, said that, whereas scientists could once travel into June, they cannot plan fieldwork after mid-May now.

Last year, Kings Bay AS, the state-owned company that manages the town, closed a laboratory where scientists processed samples from fish, snow and ice. Thawing permafrost had cracked its foundation.

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