Explore Ny-Alesund: The Cleanest Town in the World

The town of Ny-Alesund on the island of Spitsbergen, in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, is likened to the cleanest air in the world. Located in a region known as the desert of the Arctic, the air at Ny-Alesund is extremely dry, cold below freezing, causing every breath of air exhaled by a person's mouth and nose to instantly turn into crystals. small stone.

Ny-Alesund is a micro-town at the foot of the Zeppelinfjellet mountain, with a population ranging from 45 in winter to 150 in summer. The town is the closest inhabited area to the world's north pole, just 1,231 kilometers from the Earth's north pole, according to the BBC.

The town of Ny-Alesund on the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago.

No wifi, no phones

During 1916-1962, Ny-​Alesund was a coal mining town. After the mine explosion left 21 people dead, the Norwegian government closed the coal mine in the town. Since then, Ny-Alesund has become a place to serve research activities of scientists.

In 1989, the Zeppelin scientific research station was built on the side of Zeppelinfjellet mountain at an altitude of 472 m, about 3 km from the town of Ny-Alesund. This facility is used to monitor the level of atmospheric pollution. In recent years, Zeppelin has played an increasingly important role in measuring greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

The inhabitants of Ny-Alesund are mainly scientists from all over the world such as France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Korea, USA and China.

There are only 2 flights per week to Ny-Alesund from the town of Longyearbyen also in the Svalbard archipelago.

In Ny-Alesund, there are about 30 buildings named after major cities such as Amsterdam, London, Mexico City. This is a way of reminding the need to maintain friendly relations between countries in a remote, remote place, with harsh living conditions.

All mobile phones and wifi transmitters are prohibited in Ny-Alesund. To keep the space as quiet as possible, Ny-Alesund also does not allow radio broadcasts. Anyone wanting to use radio transceivers will have to obtain a special license.

Lasers are used to measure air pollution levels in Ny-Alesund.

Extreme weather is a challenge for anyone who lives and works in Ny-Alesund. Temperatures are often below freezing, the coldest time can drop to -37.2 degrees Celsius. But in March, the temperature reached a record high of 5.5 degrees Celsius. before it was 5 degrees Celsius in 1976.

The Svalbard Islands are the natural habitat of polar bears. This animal often appears near residential areas. As a result, the residents of Ny-Alesund are required to never lock the doors of buildings, so that anyone can find a safe haven if faced with a polar bear or in an emergency.

"Bears like to follow the river, they often go on the road from Ny-Alesund to Zeppelin. There are times when bears appear at the observation station, we have to wait for it to pass before leaving the work place," Christelle said. Guesnon, an expert at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said.

After work ends at 16:30, people in Ny-Alesund mostly stay inside buildings. Because there are no communication devices, any evening community activities or social interactions are usually scheduled in advance.

The town's cafeteria is a place where people often meet, socialize at lunch or dinner sessions, exchange stories about the aurora or polar bears they face.

Those who have worked for a long time at Ny-Alesund say the natural landscape has changed dramatically, as a result of global warming.

"More and more warm water from the Atlantic Ocean has completely changed the ecology of the fjord outside Ny-Alesund. It also affects the polar bears, which have to change their diet. Previously , bears only catch seals on sea ice. Now we see large numbers of polar bears hunting eggs from bird nests, catching seals on land," said Rune Jensen, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute. know.

Pollution begins to penetrate

Despite the fresh air, there are already signs that the air quality in Ny-Alesund has been affected. Atmospheric currents sometimes carry polluted air from Europe and North America to Svalbard. Not only air pollution, new forms of pollution carried by the wind to Svalbard also worry scientists.

"Zeppelin is located in a remote wilderness, far away from pollution sources. If pollution can be measured here, it means the pollution has spread globally," said Ove Hermansen, an air expert at the company. Norwegian Research Institute, said.

Five days a week, an employee of the Norwegian Polar Institute rides a cable car to Zeppelin to take air samples and change the device's filter. Because of its remote location, at an altitude above the atmospheric layers that can trap pollutants emitted by the town of Ny-Alesund, Zeppelin is the ideal place to build a complete picture of the state of the atmosphere. Earth book.

Cable car to go to Zeppelin observatory.

In addition to greenhouse gases, sensors at the observatory also measure chlorine-based gases such as CFCs, heavy metals in the air, organic pollutants such as pesticides, and pollutants from fossil fuel combustion. such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, microscopic particles.

"Observations at Zeppelin cover a wide range of issues. Environmental toxins have a major impact on the Arctic, and measurements of greenhouse gases and dusts are particularly important for building a global picture of the impact. of climate change," said Hermansen.

The Zeppelin Observatory can also provide early warning of ongoing changes in the atmosphere.

For example, atmospheric methane concentrations in Zeppelin have increased since 2005 and reached record levels in 2019. There is growing concern that human emissions of methane threaten the goal of limiting the rise in temperatures. The Earth is at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Scientists in Zeppelin also saw concentrations of sulfates, microscopic particles and metals such as nickel and vanadium in the air over Ny-Alesund during the summer due to increasing numbers of cruise ships heading to the North Pole.

Russian industrial plants on the Kola peninsula also release heavy metals into the air such as nickel, copper, and cobalt, plumes that sometimes push them to the North Pole in winter and spring.

But in the middle of the forest of bad news, there are still positive signs. Scientists have seen reductions in concentrations of heavy metals such as lead and mercury as a result of tighter regulations on waste and industrial activity in the EU, US and Canada.

Efforts to reduce the use of organophosphorus pesticides have helped reduce the amount of toxic chemicals found in pesticides in the Arctic atmosphere.

Recently, scientists began to detect increased levels of microplastics in snow samples collected in Zeppelin. Microplastics can be carried by the wind very far away from the source of dispersion.

"Microplastics are composed of very stable polymers that contain a variety of chemical mixtures. We are concerned that microplastics could bring harmful chemicals to the North Pole, which by themselves cannot travel that far. , potentially damaging the fragile ecosystem here," warned Dorte Herzke, an expert at the Norwegian Air Research Institute.