To Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Arctic

This video is about a plane landing at LYR airport, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, in May 2007.

2 June 2013.

I have been to the Antarctic.

But I had never been to the high Arctic so far. The closest I came were the Lofoten islands of Norway, and Iceland, both near the Arctic circle.

Now, however, to Svalbard. This Arctic archipelago is about halfway between northern Norway and the North Pole. Outside Norway, the islands are often called Spitsbergen; in Norwegian, the name of the largest island.

First, our plane went to Oslo, the capital of Norway.

After some hours waiting, we transferred to a smaller plane.

At 10pm, it passed the Arctic circle, flying near Bodø in northern Norway.

23:05: we pass Bear Island, about half way between Svalbard and continental Norway. Officially, Bear Island is the southernmost island of the Svalbard archipelago. It is uninhabited now, except for a meteorological station.

Then, the plane reached the mountains of the west coast of Spitsbergen island.

This video is called Landing at Longyearbyen / Svalbard lufthavn (LYR) on 8 April 2009 on a flight from Ny-Ålesund.

Almost at midnight of 2 June, we landed at the airport of Longyearbyen, the capital (basically: the only sizable village) of Svalbard.

We drove from the airport to Longyearbyen village.

It is Arctic summer. So, the sun never sets now.

Svalbard is one of not so many countries where there has never been a visit to Dear Kitty. Some blog yet. Not that surprising: only 2,500 people live there, not all of them fanatical Internauts.

During the next days, there were will be photos of birds, other wildlife of Svalbard and other sides of Svalbard on this blog.

About Svalbard prehistory:

Bryozoans from the Lower Permian Treskelodden and Wordiekammen formations of southern and central Spitsbergen respectively, Svalbard, have been studied. Twenty species are identified, including one new genus, Toulapora gen. nov., with Toulapora svalbardense as type species and one new species, Ascopora birkenmajeri sp. nov. The taxonomic composition is typical Lower Permian, with species in common with Timan−Pechora and the Urals (Russia) and Ellesmere Island (the Canadian Arctic). Growth habits reflect a moderately to deeper shelf environment.

Related articles

• 2013 Svalbard ski-mountaineering expedition: Departure (pionieren.wordpress.com)
• Svalbard Dreams (takewithagrainofsalt.wordpress.com)
• 2013 Svalbard ski-mountaineering expedition: 04-05 First tracks! (pionieren.wordpress.com)
• Wanted: Polar bear spotter in Norway (stuff.co.nz)
• Svalbard Global Seed Vault: A Doomsday Safeguard (teenageconservationist.wordpress.com)
• Migratory Bird Day: Remember the Arctic! (blogs.dw.de)
• Svalbard – Norway (theworldisawindmill.com)
• Rare birds in Arctic Svalbard (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Tell me all about Svalbard, please! (ask.metafilter.com)
• 200,000 tons CO2 Storage (arnfinno.wordpress.com)