NY-AALESUND, NORWAY — At the world's northernmost year-round research station, 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 around the tiny town of Ny-Aalesund, high above the Arctic circle on Norway's Svalbard archipelago, scientific data is getting harder to access. And sometimes it's vanishing before scientists can collect it.
Houses are seen in the town of Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, April 10, 2023.
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.
NPI (Norwegian Polar Institute) scientists ride their snowmobiles as the sun sets at the banks of Kongsfjord and the Kronebreen glacier near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, April 10, 2023.
Researchers have been studying the polar region for decades — with Ny-Aalesund's weather records going back more than 40 years. But their work has become vitally important as climate change ramps up. That's 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.
The Kronebreen glacier and its crevasses are seen as the sun sets near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, April 10, 2023.
While the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the world, in Svalbard temperatures are climbing even faster — up to seven times the global average.
The Kronebreen glacier is seen in Kongsfjord, near Ny-Aalesund, April 5, 2023.
Last summer was the hottest on record. August temperatures in Ny-Aalesund were on average 5.1C degrees, about 0.5C warmer than normal for the month.
Ice floes are seen in Kongsfjord, near Ny-Aalesund, April 6, 2023.
Polar bear sightings in Kongsfjord over the past four years have been higher than ever before, as the animals are left hungrier due partly to the loss of their sea ice hunting grounds and are more often prowling nearby islands in search of food as eight watchmen take turns patrolling the perimeter of Ny-Aalesund for polar bears.
Plumber and Kings Bay AS watchman Jakob Weiset, 31, uses his radio in front of a polar bear warning sign marking the settlement's safe area in Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, April 11 2023.
Resting harbor seals alongside nesting seabird colonies are drawing the hungry carnivores closer, said Joanna Sulich, a biologist with the Norwegian Polar Institute and Polar Bears International.
"For many researchers who are studying those birds, it's something of concern," Sulich said.
CNR (Italian National Research Council) station leader Ombretta Dell’Aqua, 43, stands lookout for polar birds in Ny-Aalesund, April 5, 2023.
French AWIPEV logistics engineers Tommy Jegoue (right) and Apolline Pibarot release a weather balloon into the stratosphere to measure weather parameters in Ny-Aalesund, April 6, 2023.
Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is seen near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, April 5, 2023.
Within the last decade, four buildings have been damaged by thawing permafrost, and last year Kings Bay SA, the state-owned company that manages the town, had to close down a laboratory where scientists processed samples from fish snow and ice due to thaw cracking its foundation.
Kings Bay AS contractors replace the foundation of Butikken building, the town store, after it was damaged by thawing permafrost in Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, April 5, 2023.
Bracing against wind gusts up to 15 meters per second (34 miles per hour), a team of scientists pitched camp this month on the Holtedahlfonna icefield, a 3-hour snowmobile drive from Ny-Aalesund riven with dangerous crevasses.
The Holtedahlfonna icefield is seen at 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) above sea level near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, Norway, April 10, 2023.
The team hoped to drill 125 meters into Dovrebreen glacier, hoping to collect two ice cores for studying 300 years of climate records – part of an effort by the non-profit Ice Memory Foundation to collect and preserve ice cores from melting glaciers around the world.
The Ice Memory drilling camp, where scientists found a pool of water 25 meters deep, is seen at 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) above sea level in the Holtedahlfonna icefield, near Ny-Aalesund, April 10, 2023.
The team was shocked when the drill, at only 25 meters deep, suddenly sloshed into a massive pool of water.
Members of the Ice Memory Foundation work to drill down into the ice and collect two ice cores, at 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) above sea level in the Holtedahlfonna icefield, April 10, 2023.
Norwegian Polar Institute glaciologist Jean-Charles Gallet (R) and Italian National Research Council glaciologist Federico Scoto pull sleds loaded with boxes of ice cores for Ice Memory from the Holtedahlfonna icefield waiting to be brought back for storage to Ny-Aalesund, April 10, 2023.
"We did not expect such a huge water flux coming out from the glacier, and this is a clear sign of what is happening in this region," said expedition leader Andrea Spolaor. "The glacier is suffering."
Italian National Research Council geochemist and expedition leader Andrea Spolaor walks along the Ice Memory drilling camp, near Ny-Aalesund, April 10, 2023.
On a snowfield a kilometer south of Ny-Aalesund, the chemist Francois Burgay filled plastic test tubes with snow, looking for chemical signals from marine algae blooms which travel from the ocean to the atmosphere and are deposited with the snow.
Paul Scherrer Institute Switzerland chemist Francois Burgay takes a snow sample to detect molecules connected to algal bloom in Ny-Aalesund, April 5, 2023.
Once these signals are identified, he hopes scientists will be able to use them to understand how Arctic waters have changed in the past, and project how they might change in the future.
Blue ice is seen at frozen Kongsfjord near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, April 8, 2023.
Kings Bay AS airport manager Vegard Sand, 39, looks at the ice walls inside a glacier cave close to Kongsfjord, near Ny-Aalesund, Svalbard, April 8, 2023.