Well, its certainly getting lighter here, although I still haven't seen the Sun! this weekend was the start of a fortnight long celebration called something like Sunfest, but its been overcast and snowing, so the Sun maybe above the mountains, but I still haven't seen it! As you can see though, we've had some nice blue sky over the last few days.

We somehow managed to miss the majority of the festivities this weekend (Brendan and Dayle mucking about with their scooter again) so we decided to go for a walk past some of the abandoned mine paraphenalia instead. this eventually took us down to the sea ice (a lot of which had gone since friday, meaning there were no seals to be seen this time!) and finally for a nice lunch in the Lompen centre.

I guess I should apologise for the lateness of this blog, I found it difficult to find something to talk about, so I'll tell you about my transformation to domestic god! this week I've made bread, cheesecake and, with Colin, chocolate covered marzipan balls. the problem with food up here is that if you want it to taste good you either have to pay a ridiculous amount for it or make it yourself. I would like to point out to Hannah, if shes reading, that I can not only make a very respectable victoria sponge, but also a great lemon cheesecake (no photo, you'll have to take my word for it) and passable bread (which is about the best you can hope for up here!), at least it doesn't cost about £3 per loaf!

I've also decided that if they are not going to give us much work to do, and if I haven't got a snowmobile to be off visiting places, then i should use my time in an attempt to get fitter. to this end, I yesterday attended 5 aside football in the Svalbardhallen sports centre. due to my lack of trainers, I am suffering for it today! I have cuts or blisters or something under both big toes, a bruise on the inside of my foot, and worst of all a slight swelling where my leg impacted a goal post! We'll see how committed I am to getting fit at 6 oclock tomorrow morning when i have to get out of bed for morning swim!

I'll keep you posted!

Ash

KHO, Icebreaker and a black out

well, it turns out it was the latter (although not completely), our trip to the Kjell Henriksen observatory was a bit of a wash out because cloud cover prevented us from seeing any Aurora (and we could see from satellite and magnetometer data, and a live feed from Eiscat Svalbard Radar) that there were precipitating particles and hence would be Aurora. We spent some time looking at the different instruments and performing what the lecturer kept refering to as a 'filter tilter calibratrion' on the Meridian scanning photometer (anyone interested should visit the KHO website!). On the third day, despite the cold and the snow in the Air, we braved going onto the roof to preform the seasons callibration of two of the instruments which involved shining a light at a mirror, but turned out to be more difficult and time consuming than you can imagine. i spent most of the time wandering around with the rifle on Polar Bear watch!
The fact we had to look out for Polar Bears should give some indication of how isolated the KHO is. in fact, it is inaccessible by road. we have to take a minibus to mine 7 (the only mine in Longyearbyen still active if I remember rightly) and then travel the rest of the way up the mountain in something the lecturer refered to as the 'bandwagon'. it turned out to look like some sort of left over military vehicle:

Colin, Nils, Marta and Brendan in the back of the bandwagon

so, other than a bit of time on the roof and looking at some instrument. we spent the rest of the time watching a 'coupling' dvd Brendan had brought and monitoring computer screens. All-in-all not a very successful trip to the observatory!

So, I could enjoy a nice long lie in saturday morning, after being at the observatory until half one in the morning, right? wrong! I had to get down to UNIS early to set up my Viking longboat themed table for the ice breaker party. which ended up taking a few hours, erecting the mast proving the most problematic. but I must say I think it looked really good (as did all the other decorations), and I'm strangely proud of it!

So before long it was time to party! everybody put lots of effort into dressing up, which was great, the food and Cake were good (and there was loads leftover to eat the next day whilst cleaning up) and everyone seemed to enjoy the party games and disco!

(left to right): James from 'the end' table dressed as a Palin supporter (later brandishing a sign saying 'Palin 2012'), Lisa the alien from Future table, Silje as a pyramid, 1960s Brendan from the woodstock table, Max (taking the 'before humans' theme a little too literally) dressed as a sperm cell, Marta also from the 60s

Yesterday, the world started crumbling around us here in Longyearbyen. first we lost the internet, then, with half an hour left of the Man U v Inter football game (and apparently, Desperate housewives!) the power and consequently the water supplies went off. Being sensible students, we all decided the best thing to do would be to rush outside and look at the stars:

(2 minute exposure) which were really amazing with no artificial light to ruin the view, the milky way was clearly visible, people were pointing out constellations and we were watching satellites traverse the sky. Well, I've given away what the first instinct of an electricity deprived group of students in the arctic is: to go outside. any idea what the second and third are?

Second: huddle together for warmth, and jump up and down to warm up. we must have been quite a sight, about 15 people huddled together in the middle of the road in Nybyen jumping up and down. at least the lights were off!

third: decide to drink until the lights come back on! the lights went out at 10ish and we spent about an hour outside, so we had mainly brandy and whisky (to warm up) or, for the more interpid, frozen beer from our cold room (!) until the lights came back on at midnight. At which point we decided we weren't ready for the power to come back on, so we turned all the kitchen and corridor lights off, and continued!

Thats it for today, I've got another lecture and then its 'Mamma Mia' at film night. Woohoo!

Ash

Igloo drinks, Aurora and the Icebreaker party preparation

Hello there and sorry for the delay. I've either been busy or lazy, I'll let you decide which it is! First, continuing a recent theme, heres an Aurora picture from friday 13th. On that day the cantina was busy, so we held friday gathering around a camp fire outside the Barracks in Nybyen

but far more exciting was our drinks in the Igloo, as you can see (and I'm ashamed to admit) the roof requires some tinkering, as it started to collapse inwards!


Colin and Brenda enjoy some cans

Despite our intention to make this Longyearbyen Gentlemen's club, we were also joined by barrack 4's Judith and Lisa.

James, Colin, Lisa and Erik in the Igloo

But for the moment anyway, rebuilding the Igloo has been put on hold. Every semester the new students organise a party called the Icebreaker party, with different groups organising theme, food, drink etc. The theme this year is periods of time, so we have tables themed 'before humans', 'Vikings', 'ancient greece and Rome', 'stone age', 'Knights and princesses', 'cowboys and Indians' and the interestingly themed 'the plague' and 'the end'! each table is decorated according to its theme, so I've been hard at work building a stern and bough, a mast and sheilds for a Viking Longboat.

its all built from carboard and tape! the head, modelled, I assure you, on a dragon, reminds me of the worlds most evil mallard! I'm planning on having the bough and stern connected to each end of the table, with the mast between the two connected to a sail hanging from the ceiling and shelilds on the back of each chair. Watch this space for pictures!

About the only other thing of interest at the moment is that we are off to the Kjell Heinrichson observatory tonight 5 til 12 and the same on thursday and friday. However, its really cloudy and most of the instruments are for optical Auroral observation, so it could end up being wasted time! again, watch this space.

Well, I'm off now to finish my longboat, until next time, goodbye!

More Aurora, Polar Jazz, Snow Scootering, more Jazz and an Igloo

Well, you wait ages for the Aurora, then they all come along at once, only a couple of days after I posted the previous Aurora pictures, we were treated to another display, which the more intrepid of my barrack mates watched from the roof!

For the more photographically inclined of us, it was another cold hour or so out near Sacrofagen, with tripods and fleeces, taking long exposures. the photograph below is a 30 second exposure which shows some, albeit faint, sign of the rarer red Aurora. I think everyone was left cursing the almost full moon and light pollution around Nybyen.

This 15 second exposure doesn't show the red Aurora, but shows nicely the variable structure and the magnetic field lines the particles are spiralling down.

However, since the third of February, we have seen no more Aurora, despite the clear skies, heres hoping for the next few nights.

I should also mention that its got a lot colder and a lot lighter at midday here. I'm not sure that its as bright as daylight at midday, because its been so long since I saw daylight that I have no basis for comparison, But it gets brighter everyday, and is lighter for a longer time everyday, so going out to take photos of the valley is irresitable. Also, It seems to have got cold enough for ice to form on the fjord, so maybe we'll see some seals!

Other than the usual chat about the cold, the light and the Aurora, I must admit I've got quite a bit to talk about this week, its been a busy week. Theres been a Jazz festival on here; Polar Jazz (Cold place, Hot music, or so there slogan goes!) so a large group of us students attended the opening concert (which just happened to be the cheapest) at the Radisson SAS Polar Hotel down by UNIS. It was a very good and well attended night (So full I had to sit on the floor) of which the highlight (for me anyway) was a male voice choir singing Billy Joel's longest time in Norwegian! there were also some good instrumental groups and singers. After the concert it was a choice between over priced drink in the hotel bar or (relatively) early night. I (perhaps unexpectedly) opted for the earlier night so I could go to the free swimming for UNIS students down at the Sports Hall, requiring waking up at 6am!

On Friday all Geophysics and Technology students attended a snow scooter course, But I, sans driving license, was relegated to the back seat. We first learnt about vehicle maintainence and operation and packing a trailer, then after lunch came our practical experience. Because by now it was the middle of the day, it was quite light so we were afforded a fabulous view of the valley through which we rode. We crossed the Advent valley (just to the right of pictures of UNIS, the Fjord and the mountains) and into one of the valleys on the otherside, where we practiced turns and shifting our weight to keep the snow scooters balanced, as well as what to do if you become bogged down etc. On the return we were able to test the speed of the machines, but as the UNIS speed limit is 45, the less I say about that the better! we also saw the Adventdalen Auroral station and Eiscat Svalbard radar stations where we will be conducting field work in the near future. oh, and there were reindeer out in the valley, but no Polar bears!

So, that brings us to friday, which of course means friday gathering. After a few cans it was off to Huset (Bar, club etc) for another night of Jazz (and continued drinking!). this is perhaps part of the reason why I felt a quite saturday was in order! Sunday, though, is a whole different story. for we built an igloo! Well, it was already a good few feet high sunday morning, but over the course of sunday we added a roof, and L shaped entrance tunnel (so the wind doesn't get in) and dug out the floor to leave bench around the outside. We cut blocks of snow and ice out of the perma frost and wedged each layer in or poor small amounts of water in the cracks to freeze then in place. The roof, as could be expected, was the hardest part, but we did it!

Jørgen delicately shapes another roof tile with a saw!

Fellow Igloo construction experts Colin, James and Jørgen.

This picture was taken whilst it was still light. By the time it was dark the roof was finished and the last thing to do was lift two massive blocks of snow/ice (which required 4 people) to cover the entrance tunnel. I'll post some pictures of the finished Igloo in the near future, we plan to christen in with a few beers tonight (if my aching muscles allow it!)

bye for now, and well done Wales!

Ash

Northern lights

well, I've been here a month now and on Saturday night we finally saw some good Aurora. I'm going to assume in this case that a picture says a thousand words, and just show you the Pictures I took. For anyone interested they are long exposures (mostly 10 seconds) at 10mm (16mm equivalent) f/3.5, ISO 800.

I think this is my favourite (I have 84 to choose from from Saturday, so its hard to be sure!) Barrack 9 is on the right with Hotel 102 on the left and the ghostly figure of Colin standing centrally watching the display.

This one is looking past barrack 9 to barrack 13 in the distance, I love the twisty structure visible in the arc just before the mountain side.

This is looking across the road from barrack 9 to barrack 4, by now you can see that the Aurora really did fill the sky the other night.

As a Physicist, I like this one because there is evidence of vertical stripes in the arc which represent the geomagnetic field lines the charged particles are following.

Looking Southward at Barrack 9 and 4 shows how impressive the display was.

After a while we trekked up past barracks 11 and 13 (the Longyearbreen and Larsbreen glaciers are in the far in the background) this is another contender for my favourite shot!

And finally (just to show I don't just shoot landscape) the Auroral arc over the western side of the valley behind barrack 4.

Finally I can justify the cost and transport of my tripod, the shots would not have been possible otherwise, with shutter speeds this long, handholding is not an option and any shorter shutter speeds are too dark to show any of the structure.

I guess, given I have posted so recently (I couldn't wait to put these pictures up) I haven't got much else to say. The temperatures are finally starting to fall again, perhaps by as much as 10 degrees today alone, which means we'll probably be around minus 20 this week. Having said that, the wind is really picking up so its going to feel alot colder! Its also snowing alot here. I went with Dayle on his snow scooter up to Longyearbreen glacier yesterday in an attempt to find the elusive snow cave, but the visibility was bad (due to snow) and we decided that straying off the scooter track would not be a good idea.

other than that, nothing to report, but I here there is an Earth directed coronal hole, So I'll keep a look out for more Aurora, but it seems that, due to the snow, we're not going to have many clear nights for a while. I've seen green Aurora, now I want to see red ones!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I did!

Ash

I'm free! since being up here in longyearbyen I've had the spectre of my Semester 1 Aberystwyth Exams looming over my head. This is perhaps part of the reason why my blog hasn't been more exciting a read of late, I haven't been trekking along Glaciers and Mountains and visiting Ice and Moraine caves, learning to ski or digging and sleeping in Ice caves. i've been revising (although, as you may remember it hasn't all been work as witnessed by my swimming last week). but now I'm free! I've had a very busy week though, my exams in Electromagnetic theory and Quantum physics were on tuesday and wednesday, so all my lectures from The Upper polar atmosphere and radar diagnostics of space plasma had to be moved to monday, thursday and friday. consequently we've had 6 hours of lectures some days, which, trust me, with material like this can be quite heavy going! I should probably, before moving on to more interesting things than work, say a little more about the exams. well, to be frank, none of us liked them, but i think on the whole we are reasonably confident we have passed because our coursework grades have been pretty good, but only time will tell!

Ok, moving on, I've been told to put more pictures on my blog (not quite sure what that says about the quality of the text!) so this week i'm trying to put up quite a few, including some from this morning. As you can see its getting much lighter here in the middle of the day (although the sun still hasn't made an appearence which is starting to affect Colin!), meaning on the way to UNIS you can see the hills on the opposite side of Adventfjorden (who wouldn't want to go to a university in a setting like that?), and can look up towards the Glaciers from Nybyen and see views like the one to the right (from this morning). It also means I can show you a picture in which you can actually see the barrack that is to be my home from the next few months (woo! Brakke 9!) and not just an outline of a building in the dark as per earlier posts. quite a winter wonderland, I think you'll agree! which leads me nicely on to the climate. Its still too hot! I walked home from friday gathering last night with no hat or scarf or gloves and with my sleeves rolled up, but I guess I did have my beer jacket on! There was a rumour circulating last night that the worlds most northernly kebab van was going to be open, it wasn't when I passed at about 11.45, but apparently it did open later, but which point I was safely tucked up in bed!

Anyway, back to climate, the forecast is for the weather to get much colder on monday, back down to around minus 25 degrees with stronger winds, but encouragingly its going to be quite settled and clear, so we may have a good chance to see some Aurora when the particles from an earth directed coronal hole reach the geomagnetic field some time next week! we're starting to believe that the Aurora are just a myth perpetuated by scientists who make a living lecturing about them! whilst on the subject of science, we have a new lecturer on the radar diagnostics of space plasma course who is hopefully taking us up to the Adventdalen Auroral station next week to see the Eiscat Svalbard Radar (something with which we get practical experience later on in the semester), which is used to measure various plasma parameters in the Earth's ionised upper atmosphere.

okay, on a less scientific note, it was barrack mate Marie's birthday on thursday, so we had a hat party, I, having got home from lectures quite late decided to make a cake (I know Hannah, two in a week!) which turned out to be one of three at the party, which was probably a good thing given the number of people who turned up. we were encouraged to wear a stupid hat, or if we lacked a stupid hat, to make one. I, ever inventive and environment conscious, recycled six pages of quantum mechanics revision notes and fashioned then into a large (although not large enough for my head) Bishop's Mitre! various other people made indian headbands or hats out of beer can boxes, whilst others wore snow scooter helmets, caving helmets and russian hats! Hope you like the pictures of Pirkka, Nils, Marta, brendan and Michi (left) and Jennifer, Laura and Margrete (right) enjoying stupid hats and Amsterdam Beer in the kitchen!

So, as you can see its been a quiet week! other than all this, I've also managed to obtain a D number, which kind of makes me a citizen of Svalbard, which is quite cool, and entitles me to the same hunting and national park access as locals (I think), meaning I'm no longer a tourist! However, given I'm now free and Svalbard is ready to be explored, I'm starting to get mixed feelings about not having a driving license. I'm disappointed that I don't have one because i can't (legally) drive a snow mobile, but relieved because if I could i'd have probably bought one by now and hence would be living off corn flakes for the next few months!

Ash

I'm alive mum! admittedly it was a stupid idea, but about twenty other people seemed to think it was a good idea, and so, today, we went swimming in the fjord in the Polar night! Apparently the strong wind we've been having the last few days blew some of the ice from the fjord away, so the water was accessible. Its still relatively warm here, so I think it was a good day for it. We walked down to the ice edge, stripped down to our swimming shorts and costumes, or, for the more adventurous, less and all got in together!

I include, to the left, some proof that the stupidity of students, particularly those deprived of sunlight for three weeks, knows no bounds. I do, though, have to admit one thing, When I say 'swimming' I actually mean, wading in until the water is deeper than your waist, splashing each other a bit and then running back to the ice and getting out. We were in the water for a very short period of time, but it was sufficient for pretty much everyone to loose the feeling in their feet! once out it was important to get clothes on as quickly as possible, so it was off with wet swimmers and socks, on with a towel and as many clothes as possible as quickly as possible! next time, if there is a next time (!) logistics are hopefully going to let us use the suanas to warm up! well, I have to go, its friday, which means friday gathering down here in UNIS, a few 1 pound cans of Cider and an early night is just what I need, plenty more electromagnetic theory revision to be done this weekend

Thanks to Jørgen and Elisabeth for the photos!

Ash