The full list of projects contains the entire database hosted on this portal, across the available directories. The projects and activities (across all directories/catalogs) are also available by country of origin, by geographical region, or by directory.
The GeoBasis programme collects data describing the physical and geomorphological environment in Zackenberg, North East Greenland. This includes meteorology, carbon flux and energy exchange, snow cover and permafrost, soil moisture, –chemistry and nutrient balance, hydrology, river discharge and – sediment
MOSJ (Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen) is an environmental monitoring system and part of the Government’s environmental monitoring in Norway. An important function is to provide a basis for seeing whether the political targets set for the development of the environment in the North are being attained
The main mission of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) is coordination of atmospheric data collection at existing and newly established intensive Arctic atmospheric observatories. Data of interest to the IASOA consortium include measurements of standard meteorology, greenhouse gases, atmospheric radiation, clouds, pollutants, chemistry, aerosols, and surface energy balances. These measurements support studies of Arctic climate change attribution (why things are changing), not just trends (how things are changing). IASOA is responsive to growing evidence that the earth system may be approaching environmentally critical thresholds within decadal time scales. The information from IASOA will not only enhance scientific understanding but will also support decisions by the global community regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Main gaps: Not all observatories are members of established global networks such as GAW and BSRN. It is recommended that IASOA observatories that are not members of these global networks be evaluated for potential membership and that roadblocks to membership be investigated. Other types of measurement gaps include, but are not limited to: (1) Radar-lidar pairs at each observatory to assess cloud properties; (2) Flux towers at each observatory for methane and CO2 fluxes; (3) Aerosol measurements at each observatory; and (4) Surface and upper air ozone measurements at each observatory. Network type: Predominantly atmospheric measurements.
Project aims indicate of changes of main terrestrial cryosphere components – glaciers and permafrost. Research on glaciers assumes both to inspect recent changes (mass balance, geometry, thermal structure and widely understood dynamics) and to reconstruct past events (especially in base on subaqual records in the marine-part forefields of the tide-water glaciers). Selected research results are part of the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). The most widely studied are Waldemar Glacier, Irene Glacier and Elise Glacier. Several research aspects, such as geometry of glaciers are investigated for more than 30 years, since first NCU Polar Expedition in 1975. Permafrost investigations are focused on the depth of the summer active layer thawing and thermal properties of it. Selected results constitutes a part of Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) programme.
The GeoBasis programme collects data describing the physical and geomorphological environment in Zackenberg, North East Greenland. This includes CO2-flux, snowcover and permafrost, soil moisture, –chemistry and nutrient balance, hydrology, river discharge and –sediment. GeoBasis also supports the ClimateBasis programme with service and datahandling during the field season.
In order to estimate the effect of rising global temperatures on organic carbon (OC) stocks in the temperature-sensitivity Arctic environment, our project aims at investigating the transfer of terrestrial OC from permafrost soils to the Arctic Ocean. Detailed compositional analyses of bulk soil and sediments along a transport trajectory combined with compound-specific isotopic (13C and 14C) analysis of selected lipid biomarkers will be used to study alteration processes of organic matter occurring in the soil and its during transport. Sub-goals include to a) identify suitable biomarkers for soil organic carbon in permafrost soils, b) determine residence times of selected biomarkers in permafrost soils, fluvial and marine sediments, and c) quantify carbon transfer from source (soil) to sink (marine sediment) and its timescale.
The ZERO database contains all validated data from the Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations Basic Programmes (ClimateBasis, GeoBasis, BioBasis and MarinBasis). The purpose of the project is to run and update the database with new validated data after each succesfull field season. Data will be available for the public through the Zackenberg homepage linking to the NERI database. The yearly update is dependent on that each Basis programme delivers validated data in the proscribed format.
Project Description: - Landform mapping of the periglacial and glacial structures using remote sensing / aerial photography and field observation - Genetic studies of ground ice using geochemical and stable isotope techniques - Studies of microbial life in extreme periglacial environment
Monitoring of the active layer near Ny Ålesund as part of the international monitoring scheme CALM (Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring)
Part of the international project Arctic Costal Dynamics (ACD) were Department of Physical Geography, University of Oslo participates. The working group consists of Trond Eiken (UoO), Bjørn Wangensteen (UoO) and Rune Ødegård (Gjøvik University College). The aim of this part of the ACD-project is to quantify coastal cliff erosion by the use of terrestrial photogrammetry.
3-D GPR (ground penetrating radar) profiling of permafrost deposits and examination of their geocryologic and sediment properties for verification of GPR profiles. The scientific project has the following aims: To improve the understanding of how GPR (ground penetrating radar) reflections are generated in frozen ground; to reveal the main factors (geophysical and sedimentary) controlling electromagnetic reflection characteristics and their spatial continuity as examplarily studied along a continuous permafrost section, i.e. to distinguish between physical (dielectricity, conductivity and density) and sedimentary (ice/water content, grain size distribution, content of organic matter, texture) properties and estimate their proportionate quantity on the origin of the wave reflections.
The active layer, the annually freezing and thawing upper ground in permafrost areas, is of pivotal importance. The moisture and heat transfer characteristics of this layer also determine the boundary layer interactions of the underlying permafrost and the atmosphere and are therefore important parameters input for geothermal or climate modeling. Finally, changes in the characteristics of the permafrost and permafrost related processes may be used as indicators of global ecological change provided the system permafrost-active layer-atmosphere is understood sufficiently well. The dynamics of permafrost soils is measured with high accuracy and high temporal resolution at our two sites close to Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Using these continuous data we quantify energy balance components and deduce heat transfer processes such as conductive heat flux, generation of heat from phase transitions, and migration of water vapor.