Arctic Stations

A substantial number of field huts and more sophisticated field stations have been established across the Arctic and many of these can be accessed by UK researchers. The Arctic Office is establishing agreements with Arctic Rim nations to gain access to many of these facilities for collaborative research. This map provides the location of some of the long term monitoring stations.

(Please contact the NERC Arctic Office for new links to be added).

Canadian Arctic:

Canadian Polar Commission which includes a searchable map of research facilities in northern Canada, virtually all of which are now available to UK field programmes. These include:

Centre d’etudes nordiques Laval: Network of Arctic Stations

Includes information on:

Centre d’etudes nordiques Laval SILA (Climate) Network : Northern network of climate and environmental change observatories.

MacGill Arctic Research Station (M.A.R.S) - Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian High Arctic

Polar Continental Shelf Program: Provides an inventory of science and technology facilities in Canada’s North, including Eureka, Resolute Bay and Resolute Marine Laboratory, Fisheries and Oceans. Research activities in the Canadian North will often require permitting. Please consult the Nunavut Research Institute for further information on Canadian Arctic permitting.

Alert

Greenland:

Svalbard:

A large number of international research stations at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard can be potentially accessed by UK researchers through appropriate arrangements. Nations currently include, alongside the UK (NERC Station), a joint French-German facility, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Japan, China, South Korea and India. Spain are planning to establish a facility in the near future and the United States are a partner in the Ny-Ålesund Marine Laboratory.

The Mount Zeppelin atmospheric chemistry facility operated by Norway is located above the village. There is a satellite receiving facility operated by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Andoya Rocket Range (Norway) operate a launch pad for sounding rockets near Ny-Ålesund.

The Polish Polar Station, located at Polar Bear Bay, Hornsund Fjord, Spitsbergen is used by both Polish and Czech Republic research programmes.

The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) undertakes research out of Longyearbyen and has some field facilities.

Svalbard Science Forum: Provides information on research activities and institutions in Svalbard.

European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research: part of the Ny Ålesund Research Infrastructure facility.

Siberian Arctic:

The Hydrometeorological Observatory at Tiksi is jointly operated by Russia, USA (NOAA) and Finland. It has a sophisticated atmospheric monitoring capability. A clean air facility for atmospheric chemistry was recently added.

The joint German-Russian Samoylov Station is located on Samoylov Island in the Lena River Delta and is primarily a focus for permafrost research.

Teriberka Station, located in Northwest Russia, near the Arctic coast (69° 12N, 35° 6E).  Further information about the station and work carried out here, can be found from the PSMSL website and CDIAC website.

Cherskii Field Station, located in Northeast Siberia (62°N 161°E). This is open all year for international research focussing on Arctic biology and geophysics.

Further Siberian field stations that the Arctic Office can potentially assist in accessing are:

Northeast Science Station, Cherskii (69° N, 161° E) which sits in a boreal forest environment and offers year round facilities for Arctic biology, geophysics and atmospheric physics.

Spasskaya Pad Research Station (62°14' N, 129°37'E) - this is a year round facility which specialiese in boreal forest ecosystem studies and includes a CO2/CH4 gas flux tower.

Chokurdakh Research Tundra Station (70°48' N, 147°26'E) - this is located in a sub tundra environment and also has a CO2/CH4 gas flux tower.

Khibiny Station, Kola Peninsula, NW Russian Arctic (67º38'14"N, 33º 43'31”E), a year round station for glaciology, soil science, biogeography, landscape science, meteorology and geomorphology.

Shapsha-Mukhrino Field Station, Khanty-Mansiysk, West Siberia (60.9° N, 68.7° E) which focuses on process studies in both mires, (no permafrost) and a peat area underlain by permafrost.

Scandinavian Arctic:

Alaska, USA:

Other International Networks:

SCANNET: A Circum-Arctic Network of Terrestrial Field bases