A Short Summary of my Activities in Norway

         Traveling by ship on Isfjorden. 

 

My name is Knut Christianson and I am an American Fulbright grantee spending one year in Northern Norway.  My grant in Norway has two primary components.  The first is taking courses in Arctic Geophysics and Geology at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS).  The second component is working with the Norwegian Polar Institute (NP) on a project called EnviTools which studies the interaction of microwaves with snow and ice.  EnviTools aims to develop new methods for retrieval of cryospheric variables from Earth Observation (EO) data in order to increase the usefulness of EO data by environmental authorities and the research community. 

Just as my grant has two components, I will be spending my time between two places.  I spent my first semester in Longyearbyen, Svalbard taking classes in Arctic Geophysics at UNIS.  I also took a short trip to Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard in late September to help my supervisor at NP, Dr. Jack Kohler, with the annual fall mass balance program.  When not taking classes or working in glaciers on Svalbard, I enjoy the hospitality of the Norwegian Polar Institute and work at the Polar Institute in Tromsø.  I will be working at the Polar Institute in January and February.  Then I will return to UNIS to take a short duration course in Glaciology in March.  Following that course I will return to Ny-Ålesund in order to participate in the spring field season during April and May.  Although I will be helping out with several projects in the field, my specific task is to calculate and spatially map the water content on a glacier called Holtedalfonna from ground-based ice-penetrating radar data.  After completing the field season I will return to Tromsø in mid-May to tie up any loose ends with my research.  

This blog got started a little late so there will only be some summary entries about my activities first semester with some more frequent entries in the spring.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  Enjoy!

Below are some pictures from my first few days on Svalbard.  Click on the photo for a larger image. 

My mom and I at basecamp near Esmark glacier.

The calving front of Esmark glacier.

Peering into a crevasse on Esmark glacier.