Research News
Aerial view of the science site Ny-Ålesund on the western coast of Spitsbergen. Photo: Joe Haschek, AWI
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Anniversary in the Far North
Party time at the northernmost research site in the world: On 26 April, the Arctic station AWIPEV on Spitsbergen celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the German-French co-operation between the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Institut Polaire Paul Emile Victor (IPEV). The celebrations were topped off with the AWIPEV being the worldwide first station to receive the GRUAN seal of quality for standardised atmospheric measurements.
Established in 2003 as a symbol of joint European polar research, the AWIPEV is, in addition to marine biology, renown in particular for the exact investigation of the atmosphere and the climate. For instance, the researchers use research balloons to send radiosondes to heights of up to 30 kilometres. These sondes measure temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity by the second and transmit the data to ground control. Thus are compiled exact height profiles of these measured values, which are collected over years, always by the same method. These data allow the scientists to derive long-term climate trends and compare these with computer model calculations.
Yet the decisive factor in the compilation of global climate models is the fact that the collected data from all measuring stations is comparable. To this end, the international climate reference network GRUAN has developed a requirements catalogue stipulating standards for such measurements.The AWIPEV is the worldwide first meteorological institution to have received the GRUAN seal of quality. It is the first station implementing all these standards in its measurements.
As yet, the up to 150 German and French scientists working at the AWIPEV station each year are deployed across six research and living quarters in the research village of Ny-Ålesund. In co-operation with the Bremen-based "School of Architecture", plans for a centralised new building are currently being devised. However, the collaboration within the German-French team is excellent already in spite of the scattered workplaces: "The best proof of that is our joint winter team, which we put together since five years ago and jointly train for the task. On site, it is no longer an issue who comes from Germany and who from France", says AWI station co-ordinator Roland Neuber.
