Ny-Ålesund
Encyclopedia
Ny-Ålesund is one of the four permanent settlements on the island of Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

 in the Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

 archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

. It is located on the Brøgger peninsula at Kongsfjorden
Kongsfjorden
thumb|Kongsfjorden as seen from [[Blomstrandhalvøya]]Kongsfjorden is an inlet on the west coast of Spitsbergen, an island which is part of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The inlet is long and ranges in width from 6 to 14 km...

. Like the rest of Svalbard, Ny-Ålesund is administered by the Kingdom of Norway.

Ny-Ålesund is one of the world's northernmost settlements
Northernmost settlements
Some of the northernmost settlements in the world are:-Larger cities north of the Arctic circle:-See also:*Southernmost settlements*Extreme points of Earth*The world's most northern bagpipe orchestra, city, capital, zoo etc....

 at 78°55′N 11°56′E, and is the world's northernmost functional public settlement.

Today, it is inhabited by a permanent population of approximately 30-35 persons. All of them work for one of the research stations — e.g. the Norwegian Polar Institute
Norwegian Polar Institute
The Norwegian Polar Institute is Norway's national institution for polar research. It is run under the auspices of the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The institute organizes expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions and runs a research station at Ny-Ålesund...

 — or the logistics and supply company "Kings Bay AS
Kings Bay AS
Kings Bay AS is a government enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry that operates the entire settlement of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. The settlement, the most northerly in the world serves research staff...

", which 'owns' and runs the research village. In the summer the activity in Ny-Ålesund is greatly increased with up to 120 researchers, technicians, and field assistants. At present, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 all maintain research stations at Ny-Ålesund, although not all are inhabited year-round.

Ny-Ålesund is home to the new Arctic Marine Laboratory (the northernmost in the world), which was officially opened on 1 June 2005. With many open rooms and wet and dry lab spaces alike, the marine lab is particularly useful for countries which do not maintain permanent research stations in the area.

There are weekly flights between Ny-Ålesund and Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway. It is located on the western coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, on the southern side on Adventfjorden , which continues inland with Adventdalen...

 for transport of scientists and other personnel. On ship cruises, Ny-Ålesund is a typical shore break. However, this tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 may cause interference with the sensitive scientific devices in the settlement, so tourists are closely observed. Visitors are supplied with a local map and are required not to stray off the marked path — a round-trip of about one km from the pier. A number of storyboards are placed strategically to explain the history and purpose of the various buildings; many are research establishments. There is one shop, a tiny museum and small post office, the northernmost in the world. In summer Arctic terns nest on the ground alongside the path and may "dive-bomb" visitors who get too near.

Also in this area, to protect the local VLBI antenna, there is a 20 kilometre exclusion zone for devices transmitting between 2.1 and 2.5 GHz. This includes bluetooth, WLAN, and other wireless devices. The settlement is served by the airport Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben. Near Ny-Ålesund there has been since 1997 SvalRak
SvalRak
SvalRak is the name of a launch site for sounding rockets in the neighbourhood of Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen at . The launch site SvalRak has been in service since 1997 and is suitable for the launch of rockets for the investigation of the earth's magnetic field. SvalRak is owned and operated by...

, a launch site for sounding rocket
Sounding rocket
A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

s.

History

  • 1916 — founded as a coal mining
    Coal mining
    The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

     town, at first named Brandal City after the founder Peter S. Brandal
  • 1926 — Roald Amundsen
    Roald Amundsen
    Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....

     starts his North Pole
    North Pole
    The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

     flight in the Airship Norge
    Norge (airship)
    The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out what many consider the first verified overflight of the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America...

  • 1962 — Kings Bay Affair
    Kings Bay Affair
    The Kings Bay Affair was a political issue in Norway that reached its apex in 1963 and brought down the government of Einar Gerhardsen and formed the basis for non-socialist coalition politics in Norway that persisted to the end of the 20th century....

     - mining disaster (1962-11-05) kills 21 people; Norwegian government
    Norway
    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

     resigns in August 1963 due to this event, and mining is discontinued
  • 1968 — the Norwegian Polar Institute
    Norwegian Polar Institute
    The Norwegian Polar Institute is Norway's national institution for polar research. It is run under the auspices of the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The institute organizes expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions and runs a research station at Ny-Ålesund...

     opens a research base
  • 1980s/90s — other nations increase their scientific activities, turning Ny-Ålesund into an international Arctic
    Arctic
    The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

     research base
  • 2004 — China inaugurates the Arctic Yellow River Station
    Arctic Yellow River Station
    The Polar Research Institute of China established its Arctic Yellow River Station in Ny-Ålesund, on Svalbard, in 2003.Scientists at the station conducted research into the Aurora Borealis and microbes in the ice-pack, glacier monitoring, atmospheric research.-References:...

    , its first Arctic research station, in Ny-Ålesund on 2004-07-27
  • 2008 — India inaugurates the Himadri Station
    Himadri Station
    Himadri Station is India's first Arctic research station located at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. It is locatedat the International Arctic Research base, Ny-Ålesund.The station is operated by National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research....

    , its first Arctic research station, in Ny-Ålesund

External links

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