Ny-Ålesund: Koldewey-Station

The Kol­dew­ey-Sta­ti­on is the sta­ti­on of the Ger­man Alfred Wege­ner Insti­tu­te (AWI) in Ny-Åle­sund. It is named after Carl Kol­dew­ey, the lea­der of the first Ger­man arc­tic expe­di­ti­on in 1868 which ended up in Spits­ber­gen. The term AWI­PEV also includes the French rese­arch faci­li­ties in and near Ny-Åle­sund. The­re is a lot of coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween the Ger­man and the French sci­en­tists.

The so-cal­led „Blue House“, more cen­tral­ly loca­ted behind the Amund­sen sta­tue, is also part of the Kol­dew­ey Sta­ti­on, but it is not the place whe­re most of the sci­ence is done. This is rather taking place in the buil­ding shown here. The sphe­re on the roof pro­tects a LIDAR. This is some­thing that works in a simi­lar way as a radar, but it is based on laser tech­no­lo­gy and not on radar waves. Scat­te­ring and reflec­tion of laser rays is for exam­p­le used to deter­mi­ne the con­cen­tra­ti­on of aero­sols in the atmo­sphe­re. Other rese­arch of the Kol­dew­ey Sta­ti­on is dedi­ca­ted to bio­lo­gy, main­ly mari­ne bio­lo­gy.

This litt­le buil­ding behind the main buil­ding of the Kol­dew­ey Sta­ti­on is also important. It is the bal­loon house, used to launch wea­ther bal­lons regu­lar­ly at the inter­na­tio­nal times for meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal obser­va­tions. The­se wea­ther bal­lons may reach ele­va­tions bey­ond 30 kilo­me­t­res and they coll­ect data inclu­ding stan­dard meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal para­ma­ters such as air pres­su­re, tem­pe­ra­tu­re and humi­di­ty but also ozone con­cen­tra­ti­ons to moni­tor what is com­mon­ly refer­red to as the arc­tic „ozone hole“.

← Back