Panorama from the first Auroral station in Adventdalen. Click on image to view full resolution. Photos: Nick Lloyd (1982/83).

Today we received a history preview from Dr. Nick Lloyd from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada of the Auroral station in Adventdalen. The panorama dates to the winter season 1982/83. Dr. Nick is a pioneer in optics and has been key scientist for the Odin-OSIRIS satellite project since 1994. He was vital to our Red-Sky Enigma paper back in 2005.

Nick was digging through some old photos and found a panorama of photographs lined up in old-fashion way paper style. He took it at the first station close to Endalen, which was part of the multi-national Svalbard Auroral Expedition (1978-83).

At the time, he was scheduled as a student from University College of London to run a Fabry-Perot at Ny-Ålesund but was delayed in Longyearbyen for a week, waiting for good weather conditions. He recalls that the big Bell helicopter had been damaged after suffering a hard landing and was unavailable for flights.

Sysselmannen authorized a ride on the Dornier aircraft up to Ny-Ålesund but had to delay the flight waiting for full-moon and good weather. Consequently, Nick had lots of time on his hands, and he took this series of photographs. They were taken near winter solstice close to midday, when it is really, quite dark. The exposure was 10-15 seconds in length.

Nick was in Svalbard collaborating with Dr. Roger Smith, who at the time, was at the Belfast Polytechnic in Northern Ireland. He was running his Fabry Perot at the Endalen station as part of a bi-static operation with the Fabry-Perot in Ny-Ålesund. Roger's instrument operated out of the brown hut in the middle of the bottom row. The Fairbanks team from University of Alaska used the green World-War II spotlight to collect light for their optical equipment. See third slide bottom row. Nick recalls that:

The Aeroflot personnel, who were always very interested in our operations, were particularly interested in the spotlight.

In the middle row, lights reveal that both Mine 7 and 6 was in operation. The coal buckets are also seen along the cable car going to the central (Vinkelstasjonen) before directed to Longyearbyen and the Hotel Point (Hotellneset).

The 4-wheel Subaru was the first station car provided by our old advisor Prof. Kjell Henriksen from Nordlysobservatoriet i Tromsø. He was a great advocate for polar and auroral science. Kjell was also an excellent host, and Nick remember spending a few pleasurable evenings at his house in Tromsø and at Huset in Longyearbyen.