July 18th-26th: I spent 7 days in the field with my collaborator Dr Tris Irvine-Fynn, conducting fieldwork on the Midtre Lovénbreen glacier, Kongsfjord, Spitsbergen. Supporting Tris as a field assistant, and lodging at the NERC Arctic Research Station in Ny Ålesund, I spent more than 60 hours in the field, on the glacier itself and its margins and forefield.

Map showing retreat of Midtre Lovénbreen in 20th century

We collected several datasets, mostly concentrating on ice surface roughness (including a novel stereographic imaging approach to measurement), local distribution and mobility of cryoconite (supraglacial bioactive dust) during ablation, glacier-scale cryoconite distribution and provenance, and mineralogical chronosequences along 3 transects in the glacier forefield. This complemented Tris’ extensive and ongoing work on supraglacial hydrological processes.

Four panoramas around Kongsfjord: (1) View from Midtre Lovénbreen (2) View from Gåsebu beach (3) View of Midtre Lovénbreen (4) View from Ny Ålesund, 2330 hrs 23rd July 2010