Isfjord Radio

I have now made it to the farthest western settlement of Svalbard. In order to arrive here, I had to travel by open boat for 2.5 hours. We were given survival suits which is a bright orange water proof/wind proof suit with built in rubber boots. We were also given big warm hats, gloves, and ski goggles. When I arrived, I thought I was not going to be able to have feeling in my toes ever again. Riding close to a river that flows into the Bering Sea / Arctic Ocean is really really cold.



It was also really beautiful. There is a set of cliffs the sea birds have inhabited and they, shall we say, fertilize the cliffs so it is the only place around with greenery.




The Russians used to mine coal along this coast until the 1960s. There is still evidence of their settlements. There is a law in Svalbard that any sign of human activity on the island before 1945 is not to be disturbed - they are cultural monuments.



I had no idea how many birds come up for the short arctic summers. It was amazing to see birds match pace with our boat as we rode through the fjord.



So, yes, yes the ride was beautiful and cold. But why am I here? We do not have a static IP address set up for our system out here. That means we cannot automatically download data everyday. We have no idea how the system is doing until we go out and check on it. I am here to download the data as well as to try and set up an internet connection of some sort.

Our data acquisition system resides in the closet of the 'honeymoon suite'. It is a cabin about 100 feet away from the the main building.





When I went to check on the system, it appeared that everything was functioning normally and that I might not have to do any hardware manipulation. Yay! The plots below show the Isfjord Radio station as compared to Longyearbyen.



Longyearbyen is on the left and Isfjord Radio on the right. The plots are quite similar, with a little bit of noise on the ISR one. It appears that the coils are working just fine and my main mission is to try and come up with a way to get the data to us regularly. The cabin where the acquisition system is located does not have ethernet or wireless internet. Tomorrow is the day to figure out the best option for getting the data from one place to another. The future is pretty cool. I can get into a system halfway across the world, but only if that system has a wire connecting it to the wall. How limited I am by this!

One last thing, this evening after dinner, I was getting ready to go out and take a picture of our coils. I had my bird stick and hard hat (the arctic terns are fiercely defending nests here as well!), when I heard a commotion from the lounge area. Everyone was gathered by the windows and they beckoned me to look out. There was a polar bear walking nigh 200 feet from the main building!



Needless to say, I did not go out and check on my coils. I am going to try and stay inside as much as possible over my remaining days here. I was told that I should not travel the 100 feet to the house where my acquisition system is without a gun. I have never shot a gun before! I believe they are going to equip me with a flare gun if I need to go out again. I also hope that I can persuade someone to accompany me. It turns out that polar bears are real.