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Home → August, 2018
Monthly Archives: August 2018 − News
Guidebook “Spitzbergen-Svalbard”: next edition soon available
The first edition of my guidebook Spitzbergen-Svalbard came out in German in 2007, followed by the first Englisch edition Spitsbergen-Svalbard in 2008 and the first Norwegian edition Svalbard – Norge nærmest Nordpolen in 2017. The German version soon became popular amongst Spitsbergen-travellers and enthusiasts, so I could develop the book through several editions. The 5th German edition came out in 2015 and it is now out of print, the new (6th) edition of the German version is currently in print and expected to be available in September 2018. I have updated the book comprehensively, both the text and the index have been improved and enlarged so the new edition will have 580 pages (the old edition has 560 pages). Maps and fonts have been improved. My knowledge and experience keep growing also after more than 20 years of learning and living the Arctic in theory and real life and all this becomes part of updated editions, and so does new relevant legislation, recent developments in Longyearbyen and so on and so forth.
The newest German edition of the guidebook Spitzbergen-Svalbard is in print and due to be released in September 2018.
Many professional guide colleagues use this book (including its English and Norwegian versions) on a daily basis in their arctic lives, referring to it as the “Svalbard bible” (or Spitsbergen bible, whatever you prefer)! A compliment that I as the author am happy to accept.
The English version Spitsbergen-Svalbard has been updated thoroughly in early 2018, and the same goes for the Norwegian version Svalbard – Norge nærmest Nordpolen which came out in 2017.
All three versions of the guidebook can be ordered on this website including the German version. If you order the German version, you will get the new, 6th edition as soon as it is available (expected in September 2018).
Bed available in ladies cabin on Antigua (11-21 September 2018)
Spitsbergen under sail with SV Antigua, 11 intense days – a dream journey for friends of the Arctic at a time when sunsets have started to bring amazing colours to these high latitudes again. Now there is the opportunity to join on a short notice – there is a vacancy in a ladies cabin. Click here to read more about this trip. This trip will be German speaking, so the description is also in German.
Spitsbergen under sail with SV Antigua in September 2018: Space available in a ladies cabin.
So – go ahead and welcome on board!
Just get in touch with Rolf Stange (contact) for any questions regarding the trip, the ship, Spitsbergen … or get in touch directly with the Geographische Reisegesellschaft for reservations and booking.
Again, negative records from the arctic: ice cover low, temperatures high
It comes hardly as a surprise: once again, there are negative records of the current sea ice situations. As the Norwegian Ice Service released on Twitter, there has never been as little ice around Svalbard as currently since beginning of the recordings in 1967. As the latest ice chart shows, both Svalbard and neighbouring Frans Josef Land are completely free of sea ice:
Ice chart of 22 August 2018 (by MET Norway).
According to the Norwegian Ice Service, the sea ice cover in the Svalbard area was 123,065 square kilometres, which is 105,139 square kilometres less compared to the long-term average (1981-2010), a loss of almost 50 %!
But scientists are even more worried about the loss of ice north of Greenland, which is also visible in the ice chart above. Northernmost Greenland is an area where ice is pushed against the coast by currents, so it is – was – building up a very solid ice cover averaging 4 m in thickness and reaching more than 20 m thickness in places! This ice cover was, however, weakened by warm air incursions such as the extreme event in February. The weakened ice could be moved around by wind much more easily, and this is exactly what happened now in a large area north of Greenland. Even if the water surface freezes again soon, the damage is now done and it is hardly reversible: as the term multi-year ice suggests, it takes many years to replace a lost area of such ice, but it is hardly expected that this will happen at all given current climate developments.
Svalbard furthest north: Rossøya (left) and Vesle Tavleøya completely ice-free, mid-July 2018.
It fits into this picture that Longyearbyen has now got an unbroken series of 90 (!) months with temperatures above the long-term average. A dramatic development, but hardly a surprise.
News-Listing live generated at 2024/April/25 at 01:33:01 Uhr (GMT+1)
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