The course will offer insights into permafrost history and its distribution globally; permafrost temperatures in various parts of the World (climatic and other controls); methods of permafrost observations, focusing on drilling, coring and instrumentation; permafrost databases and their use in permafrost analyses; how permafrost affects local community infrastructure and cultural life; interaction between carbon and water in permafrost landscapes; and how sensitive permafrost landforms are towards climate change.

You can take this course either as a 5 ECTS point course, finishing with an oral graded presentation in the summer school. Or you can do in addition an individual science project based on the course knowledge, to be submitted by the end of the autumn/fall semester following the summer field school, and then graded, and you will obtain 10 ECTS. Students doing 10 ECTS will be given preference to the course.

Application deadline: 15 April 2014, using the UNIS online application system

There is no tuition fee for this course. There will be a possibility for non-European students to apply for a travel stipend to attend this course. Accommodation for students during the course will be in student housing in Longyearbyen, and it will cost app. 3125 NOK corresponding to app. 370 Euro. 

The course will be taught by partners of the Thematic Network on Permafrost:
•  Prof. Dr. Kenji Yoshikawa, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA
•  Prof. Dr. Hanne H. Christiansen, The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, Norway & Center for Permafrost, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
•  Prof. Dr. Mikhail Prisyazhniy, North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russia  
•  Prof. Dr. Atsuko Sugimoto, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
•  Prof. Dr. Ole Humlum, The University of Oslo and UNIS, Norway
•  Prof. Arne Instanes, The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, Norway and Instanes Polar
•  Dr. Guido Grosse, The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science, Germany
•  Dr. Paul Overduin, The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science, Germany  
•  PhD. Student Samuel Faucherre, Center for Permafrost, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.


Contact for further questions:
Hanne H. Christiansen (hanne.christiansen@unis.no)
Kenji Yoshikawa (kyoshikawa@alaska.edu)