The num­ber of SAR (search and res­cue) ope­ra­ti­ons car­ri­ed out annu­al­ly by the Sys­sel­man­nen and Red Cross has increased to 60-80. Less carefull plan­ning, poten­ti­al­ly due to the avai­la­bi­li­ty of modern com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on tech­no­lo­gy (satel­li­te pho­ne etc) may have con­tri­bu­ted to this deve­lo­p­ment.

Non-resi­dents are obli­ged to app­ly for per­mis­si­on for visits to most parts of Sval­bard. Insu­rance cover for poten­ti­al SAR cos­ts is com­pul­so­ry to obtain any per­mis­si­on. In prac­ti­ce, the Sys­sel­man­nen has, so far, usual­ly not clai­med cos­ts back from the res­cued person(s). As the cos­ts have increased with the num­ber of ope­ra­ti­ons, the bill from now on not be paid any­mo­re by the Nor­we­gi­an tax pay­er, but by tho­se respon­si­ble for the ope­ra­ti­on. This has, in theo­ry, alre­a­dy been the case, but it has usual­ly not been appli­ed, a prac­ti­ce that has now been announ­ced to be chan­ged. Most SAR ope­ra­ti­ons invol­ve heli­c­op­ter flights, which quick­ly invol­ves a bill of 100.000 NOK (curr­ent­ly ca 12.700 Euro) or more.

This appli­es for any trips that requi­re per­mis­si­on and insu­rance. Whe­re this does not app­ly, that is for tou­rists within admi­nis­tra­ti­on area 10 (Nor­dens­ki­öld Land, Dick­son Land, Brøg­ger­hal­vøya), the res­cued person(s) will also in the future have to car­ry the cos­ts only in cases of gross care­less­ness.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

Excep­tio­nal­ly strong cold in the hig­her atmo­sphe­re has in recent weeks led to the loss of about half of the stra­to­sphe­ric ozone. The cold as such is a natu­ral con­di­ti­on, but it inforces pro­ces­ses that lead to the des­truc­tion of ozone whe­re man-made “ozone kil­lers” such as FCKWs are invol­ved. This includes sub­s­tance that have been ban­ned for years, as they remain in the atmo­sphe­re for a long time befo­re they are final­ly bro­ken down.

As the polar air mixes with air mas­ses in lower lati­tu­des, sci­en­tists recom­mend to pay spe­cial atten­ti­on to sun pro­tec­tion against UV radia­ti­on during the coming spring.

Source: Sval­bard Sci­ence Forum