Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago)

Tidewater glaciers on the east coast of Svalbard were examined for surface elevation changes and retreat rate. An archival digital elevation model (DEM) from 1970 (generated from aerial images by the Norwegian Polar Institute) in combination with recent ArcticDEM were used to compare the surface elevation changes of eleven glaciers. This approach was complemented by a retreat rate estimation based on the analysis of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images. In total, four of the 11 tidewater glaciers became land-based due to the retreat of their termini. The remaining tidewater glaciers retreated at an average annual retreat rate of 48 m year−1, and with range between 10–150 m year−1. All the glaciers studied experienced thinning in their frontal zones with maximum surface elevation loss exceeding 100 m in the ablation areas of three glaciers. In contrast to the massive retreat and thinning of the frontal zones, a minor increase in ice thickness was recorded in some accumulation areas of the glaciers, exceeding 10 m on three glaciers. The change in glacier geometry suggests an important shift in glacier dynamics over the last 50 years, which very likely reflects the overall trend of increasing air temperatures. Such changes in glacier geometry are common at surging glaciers in their quiescent phase. Surging was detected on two glaciers studied, and was documented by the glacier front readvance and massive surface thinning in high elevated areas.

A review of the ecology and status of white whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in Svalbard, Norway

The Norwegian Polar Institute initiated a research programme on white whales in 1995 to gather biological information relevant for the species’ management; the results of which are reviewed herein. Satellite tracking from two periods (1995–2001 and 2013–16), between which sea ice diminished markedly, showed that the whales in waters off the archipelago of Svalbard spent most of their time foraging close to tidewater glaciers. Transits between glaciers typically followed the coastline, with the whales moving rapidly from one glacier to another. During the later period, the whales spent some time out in the fjords, suggesting that they might be targeting prey in the Atlantic Water masses that now prevail in Svalbard’s west-coast fjords. Most of their dives were extremely shallow (13 ± 26 m; maximum 350 m) and of short duration (97 ± 123 s; maximum 31.4 min). Fatty-acid analyses indicated that polar cod (Boreogadus saida) was the main prey during the first sampling period. An aerial survey in 2018 estimated the population numbered 549 (CI: 436–723) animals. Svalbard white whales are genetically separate from populations off west Greenland and in the White Sea. Predation by killer whales appears to have influenced white whale behaviour in Svalbard; they are often silent, despite having a normal vocal repertoire for the species and their coastal movements take place in very shallow water. This population has extremely high contaminant levels. Climate change poses a threat to this small population of white whales.

Atmospheric composition in the European Arctic and 30 years of the Zeppelin Observatory, Ny-Ålesund

The Zeppelin Observatory (78.90° N, 11.88° E) is located on the Zeppelin Mountain at 472 m above sea level on Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Established in 1989, the observatory is part of the “Ny-Ålesund Research Station” and an important atmospheric measurement site, one of only a few in the high Arctic and as a part of several European and global monitoring programs and research infrastructures, notably the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), the Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS), the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network, and the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). The observatory is jointly operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Stockholm University and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). Here we detail the establishment of the Zeppelin Observatory including historical measurements of atmospheric composition in the European Arctic leading to its construction. We present a history of the measurements at the observatory and review the current state of the European Arctic atmosphere, including results from trends in greenhouse gases, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), other traces gases, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals, aerosols and Arctic haze, and atmospheric transport phenomena.

Preliminary assessment of thaw slump hazard to Arctic cultural heritage in Nordenskiöld Land, Svalbard

Permafrost-dependent landslides occur in a range of sizes and are among the most dynamic landforms in the Arctic in the warming climate. Retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) are enlarging landslides triggered by thawing and release of excess water from permafrost ground ice, causing smaller or larger collapses of ground surface, which in turn exposes new permafrost to rapid thawing and collapse. In this study, a preliminary assessment of previous thaw slump activity in Nordenskiöld Land area of Svalbard is made based on remote sensing digitisation of 400 slump-scar features from aerial images from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). RTS properties and distribution are analysed with an emphasis on their implications for the preservation of the Svalbard’s cultural heritage (CH). Our analysis shows that the areas where RTS scars and CH co-exist in Nordenskiöld Land are, at present, limited and cover mainly areas distributed along north-west (Colesbukta, Grønfjorden, Kapp Starostin), north-east (Sassendalen and Sassenfjorden) and south-west (Van Muydenbukta) coastlines. Taking into consideration the preliminary aspect of this inventory and study, it can be stated that for now, RTS and CH sites do not have a high level of co-existence, except for eight sites which are located at less than 100 m to a RTS and one site that is located inside a currently inactive slump-scar. Further mapping of RTS will be undertaken in order to have a complete picture of these climate triggered landslides potentially threatening the Arctic CH. The results of this study, even if preliminary, can be used by local authorities and stakeholders in prioritising future documentation and mitigation measures and can thus present a powerful tool in disaster risk reduction.

Open Polar: a new freely search service of publications and research data of Polar Regions

<p>Research data plays a key role in monitoring and predicting any natural phenomena, including changes in the Polar Regions. The limited access to data restricts the ability of researchers to monitor, predict and model environmental changes and their socio-economic repercussions. In a recent survey of 113 major polar research institutions, we found out that an estimated 60% of the existing polar research data is unfindable through common search engines and can only be accessed through institutional webpages. In social science and indigenous knowledge, this findability gap is even higher, approximately 84% of the total existing data. This raises an awareness sign and the call for the need of the scientific community to collect information on the global output of research data and publications related to the Polar Regions and present it in a homogenous, seamless database.</p><p>In this contribution, we present a new, open access discovery service, Open Polar, with the purpose of rendering polar research more visible and retrievable to the research community as well as to the interested public, teachers, students and decision-makers. The new service is currently under construction and will be hosted by UiT The Arctic University of Norway in close collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute and other international partners. The beta version of the Open Polar was made available in February 2021. We welcome comments and suggestions from the scientific community to the beta version, while we plan to launch the stable production version of the service by summer 2021. The beta version of the service can already be tested at the URL: www.openpolar.no</p>

A compiled open-access geological map of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

<p>Geological mapping and investigation of the mountain chain in Dronning Maud Land (DML) has been carried out by a number of geologists from South Africa, Japan, India, Germany, Russia and Norway over the last 40-50 years. The produced geological maps of these teams are, for a large part, based on fairly old data which makes these maps inhomogeneous. The maps are at different scales, contain different levels of details, and the standards for classification of the rock units may also differ between the maps. This limits the ability to use these maps to draw an overview tectonic model of the evolution of Dronning Maud Land.</p><p>In this contribution, we present a newly compiled geological map and GIS database of the Dronning Maud Land. The map will be available soon as an open-access database, but the readers can test a test version of it at: https://geokart.npolar.no/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer=Geology_DML. The geological importance of the Dronning Maud Land to understanding the evolution of the southern parts of the Gondwana supercontinent was the main motivation factor as the DML is considered as the missing link between the geology of South Africa, Australia and Indian subcontinent.</p><p>The new database covers the area between 20<sup>o</sup> W and 45<sup>o</sup> E and was compiled at a scale level of 1:250 000. However, the database provides another scale level of 1:5 000 000 to put the DML in the regional framework of the Gondwana. The geological map is descriptive based on the new topographic dataset of the Landsat 8. The project was based at the Norwegian Polar Institute from 2014 to 2018 and supported by a research grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.</p>

A volumetric census of the Barents Sea in a changing climate

The Barents Sea, located between the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, is one of the main pathways of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Changes in the water mass transformations in the Barents Sea potentially affect the thermohaline circulation through the alteration of the dense water formation process. In order to investigate such changes, we present here a seasonal atlas of the Barents Sea including both temperature and salinity for the period 1965–2016. The atlas is built as a compilation of datasets from the World Ocean Database, the Polar Branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and the Norwegian Polar Institute using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) tool. DIVA allows for a minimization of the expected error with respect to the true field. The atlas is used to provide a volumetric analysis of water mass characteristics and an estimation of the ocean heat and freshwater contents. The results show a recent “Atlantification” of the Barents Sea, that is a general increase in both temperature and salinity, while its density remains stable. The atlas is made freely accessible as user-friendly NetCDF files to encourage further research in the Barents Sea physics (https://doi.org/10.21335/NMDC-2058021735, Watelet et al., 2020).

A volumetric census of the Barents Sea in a changing climate

Due to its location between the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, the Barents Sea is one of the main pathways of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Changes in its water masses potentially affect the thermohaline circulation through the alteration of the dense water formation process. In order to prospect such changes, we present here a seasonal atlas of the Barents Sea including both temperature and salinity for the period 1965–2016. The atlas is built as a compilation of datasets from the World Ocean Database, the Polar Branch of Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, and the Norwegian Polar Institute using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) tool. DIVA allows for a minimization of the expected error with respect to the true field. The atlas is used to provide a volumetric analysis of water mass characteristics and an estimation of the ocean heat and freshwater contents. The results show a recent Atlantification of the Barents Sea, i.e. a general increase of both temperature and salinity, while its density remains stable. The atlas is made freely accessible as user-friendly NetCDF files to encourage further research in the Barents Sea physics (https://doi.org/10.21335/NMDC-2058021735, Watelet et al. (2020)).

All the world’s polar research data in one place

Data from the Polar Regions are of critical importance to modern research. Regardless of their disciplinary and institutional affiliations, researchers rely heavily on the comparison of existing data with new data sets to assess changes that are taking effect. In turn, knowledge based on as broad and comprehensive a selection of polar data sets as possible is used to inform politicians and decision makers. Although individual researchers and their institutions are aware of the importance of making collected data openly available through institutional websites, the infrastructures that are used for these purposes at many institutions, are often poorly interoperable, and therefore make valuable data difficult to find and reuse. In a recent survey of 113 major polar data providers, we found that an estimated 60% of the existing polar research data is unfindable through common search engines and can only be accessed through an institutional webpage. This findability gap limits the ability of researchers to establish robust models by which changes in the polar regions can be predicted. In this contribution, we present a new, free-to-use discovery service covering the global output of openly accessible polar research data and publications, with the purpose of rendering polar research more visible and retrievable to the research community as well as to the interested public, teachers and students and public services. The new service is currently under construction and will be hosted by UiT The Arctic University of Norway in close collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Is there anything natural about the polar?

Are similarities of temperature, snow and ice cover, and (certain) marine mammals sufficient to warrant both polar regions being considered a single object of study or governance? We argue that their treatment as a unit is an invitation to examine the motivations behind the choice to be polar rather than Arctic or Antarctic. For individuals such as James Clerk Ross or Roald Amundsen, logistical requirements and analogous goals facilitated careers spanning both the Arctic and the Antarctic. This trend continued through the 20th century as individual scientists studying phenomena such as glaciers, sea ice, or aurora defined their research as “polar” in nature. Organisations such as the Scott Polar Research Institute and Norwegian Polar Institute could draw on traditions of national exploration in both polar regions, while the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg gained its southern mandate with the importance of the International Geophysical Year. By comparison, neither the Arctic Institute in Copenhagen nor the Argentine Antarctic Institute felt any need to become polar. The creation of polar identity is ultimately a matter of geopolitics, of the value states see in instruments and symbols that speak to polar rather than Arctic or Antarctic interests. In cases such as Finland’s icebreaker industry, a technological capability justified Antarctic interest even without any national research tradition. We conclude by asking whether there is anything more natural about the polar regions than there is about the concept of a “tripolar” world in which the high alpine regions form a natural unit along with the Arctic and Antarctic.