Events

31.012023

Participation of IF PAS employees in Polar Night Week

The fifth edition of SIOS Polar Night Week (PNW) was held in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen (Svalbard) from January 23-27.

This is an annual event for the SIOS (Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System) community, during which scientific seminars, working group meetings and plenary discussions are held.

The conference began with a formal presentation of the SESS Report 2022 (The State of Environmental Science in Svalbard - an annual report) open to all Svalbard residents. Six reports on research conducted on Svalbard were presented in the inspiring interiors of the Svalbard Museum. As many as four reports were presented by Poles, including two by Dr. Adam Nawrot from IG PAS.

Throughout the week Institute employees were involved in all activities during the PNW: participation in SIOS working group meetings, presentation of posters, seminar presentation (Dr. Zuzanna Świrad) and active discussions. On Wednesday, scientists from the Institute led a workshop on citizen science. Dr. Zuzanna Swirad discussed the results of a survey conducted among conference participants, Dr. Agata Goździk presented the experience of citizen science pilot projects coordinated by the Institute as part of the European BRITEC project, and Dr. Bartłomiej Luks moderated a very interesting discussion on the possibility of using this method in research projects conducted by SIOS members.

The meeting was also an opportunity to present the new polar project CRIOS (Cryosphere Integrated Observatory Network on Svalbard), funded by the EEA. CRIOS is coordinated by the University of Silesia, and IG PAS is a project partner. Dr. Bartlomiej Luks will be responsible for one of the project's monitoring activities (Glacier and snow monitoring).