Probably the most interessting feature of Svalbard is its meteorological and astronomical specialities.
Weather and Climate
Despite the high latitute the mean temperatures are not too low. The monthly means range from 5.8°C in July to -16.3°C in Febuary. While the temperatures are not variing too much throughout the summer, during winter incredable changes of up to 30°C can happen within one days time. As one might imagine, a little wind is necessary to achieve this - which makes it an even more unpleasant experience. Those changes usually happen, when an approaching cyclone is ending a period of stationary northeasterly winds, that brought really cold air. This usually goes along with a lot of snow in the air, which makes it completely impossible to navigate by sight, and not very advisable (to say the least) to do so by GPS. If you're staying for the spring term, you will most likely experience those white outs.
So during winter, be prepared for both very, very warm periods of around or even above the freezing point (yes, it can rain here, even in February), and quite cold periods of -20°C to -25°C. Although the negative temperature record is well below -40°C, temperatures below -30°C are not very common.
Astronomy
The most obvious feature here is of course the polar-night -- midnight-sun cylce. From October 26th to Feburary 16th the sun constantly is below the horizon. However during the first weeks and the last weeks there is twilight, which in combination with the bright snow cover makes a really nice blue light, that is sufficent to do most outdooring activities without a headlamp (at least during some hours of the day). From Feburary 16th to April 19th everything is completely normal, just the day length increases at a tremendous speed. Finally until August 26th the sun is always above the horizon.
During the dark season, the moon plays a major role as light source. It is constantly up above the horizon for the two weeks around full moon. When the moon is down, and there are no clouds, Svalbard could be a nice place to watch the stars. Unfortunately, Longyearbyen is lit up like a christmas tree, which makes it quite hard to do star observations directly from the barracks. Fortunately there are power failures ...
If you possess a star map valid for somewhere in Central Europe or Northern America, this will do here, too. You will just see a subset of the stars drawn in.
Weather and Climate
Despite the high latitute the mean temperatures are not too low. The monthly means range from 5.8°C in July to -16.3°C in Febuary. While the temperatures are not variing too much throughout the summer, during winter incredable changes of up to 30°C can happen within one days time. As one might imagine, a little wind is necessary to achieve this - which makes it an even more unpleasant experience. Those changes usually happen, when an approaching cyclone is ending a period of stationary northeasterly winds, that brought really cold air. This usually goes along with a lot of snow in the air, which makes it completely impossible to navigate by sight, and not very advisable (to say the least) to do so by GPS. If you're staying for the spring term, you will most likely experience those white outs.
So during winter, be prepared for both very, very warm periods of around or even above the freezing point (yes, it can rain here, even in February), and quite cold periods of -20°C to -25°C. Although the negative temperature record is well below -40°C, temperatures below -30°C are not very common.
Astronomy
The most obvious feature here is of course the polar-night -- midnight-sun cylce. From October 26th to Feburary 16th the sun constantly is below the horizon. However during the first weeks and the last weeks there is twilight, which in combination with the bright snow cover makes a really nice blue light, that is sufficent to do most outdooring activities without a headlamp (at least during some hours of the day). From Feburary 16th to April 19th everything is completely normal, just the day length increases at a tremendous speed. Finally until August 26th the sun is always above the horizon.
During the dark season, the moon plays a major role as light source. It is constantly up above the horizon for the two weeks around full moon. When the moon is down, and there are no clouds, Svalbard could be a nice place to watch the stars. Unfortunately, Longyearbyen is lit up like a christmas tree, which makes it quite hard to do star observations directly from the barracks. Fortunately there are power failures ...
If you possess a star map valid for somewhere in Central Europe or Northern America, this will do here, too. You will just see a subset of the stars drawn in.