Ню-Олесунн: Самое северное поселение для научных исследований

Ny Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and operated by Kings Bay, which provides facilities for permanent research activities by 19 institutions from 11 countries. The town is ultimately owned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment and is not incorporated (i. e. is not recognised as a town by the Norwegian government). Ny Ålesund has an all year permanent population of 30 to 35, with the summer population reaching 114. Its facilities include Ny Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben, Svalbard Rocket Range, a port and Ny Ålesund Town and Mine Museum, as well as a number of buildings dedicated to research and environmental monitoring activities. It is the northernmost functional civilian settlement in the world. The town was founded in 1917 by Peter Brandal and his mining company, Kings Bay Kull Comp. Initially mining was carried out until 1929, but it was unprofitable for most of the 1920s. There were a series of air expeditions launched from Ny Ålesund towards the North Pole. The company was nationalized in 1933 and the town was used for tourism and as a fishing port. Mining resumed for some months in 1941 and then from 1945. After several fatal incidents occurred including a mining accident on 5 November 1962 that killed 21 miners in what became known as the Kings Bay Affair, mining activity was terminated and Gerhardsen's Third Cabinet resigned. Kongsfjord Telemetry Station opened in 1967 and the town gradually transformed into a research settlement, with the Norwegian Polar Institute having had a year round presence since 1968. As of 2021, 18 institutions from 11 countries have a more or less permanent presence in Ny Ålesund – five of them with year round activity, the remaining primarily present during the spring summer autumn field season.

Ny Ålesund is located on the north shore of Brøggerhalvøya, a peninsula of Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen. The town is located on the southern shore of Kongsfjorden (literally "the King's Bay"), a bay on the west coast of Spitsbergen which connects to Forlandssundet of the Greenland Sea. Across from Ny Ålesund is the island of Blomstrandøya and the former settlement of Ny London. As Ny Ålesund has no legal existence as a town, it lacks any formal area. If the land owned by Kings Bay is used to define the town, it would have an area of , which would encapsulate both the north and south shores of Kongsfjorden. Kings Bay retains ownership of all land in the area, although the mining claims are held by Store Norske.

Eighteen research institutions from eleven countries have a more or less permanent presence in Ny Ålesund. Five of these have a year round presence, while the others are active primarily during the spring summer autumn field season. In addition there are several institutions which carry out research without having a permanent presence. Most research is centered around environmental and earth sciences (atmosphere, glaciology, terrestrial ecology and marine research), taking advantage of the town's latitude, close access to pristine nature and relatively mild climate. Compared to other locations at such a latitude, Ny Ålesund research station provides a well developed infrastructure in terms of facilities, laboratories, access and communication. Ny Ålesund is owned and operated by Kings Bay, which provides services to visiting scientists. Representatives for the participating institutions meet in the Ny Ålesund Science Managers' Committee (NySMAC) twice per year. NySMAC's main goals are to distribute information on existing research and provide input to the coordination and prioritising of future research and research infrastructure. The Svalbard Science Forum (SSF) is an agency which acts as an information and coordination facilitator for research throughout Svalbard. Based in Longyearbyen, it is chaired by the Research Council of Norway. Among SSF's tasks is the management of the Research in Svalbard (RiS) database, which contains information on all previous and ongoing research on the archipelago. Kings Bay participates in SSF and requires all researchers to register their projects with RiS. The Americans do have a presence in the form of a National Science Foundation funded group known as Svalbard REU which conducts research on the surrounding glaciers annually. The following is a list of all actors engaged in research and environmental monitoring on a permanent/semi permanent basis in Ny Ålesund. It states the name of the facility, the institute operating it, the nationality, the year the facility was established, and the nature of the research carried out. + Key institutions, Ny Ålesund Research Station Facility Institution Nationality Est. Research Amundsen–Nobile National Research Council of Italy Italy 2009 Atmospheric Arctic University of Groningen Netherlands 1995 Ecology and others Arctic Yellow River Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration China 2004 Environment, glaciology, meteorology, marine ecosystems, meteorology, space–Earth measurements British British Antarctic Survey United Kingdom 1991 Earth and life sciences Corbel French Polar Institute Paul Émile Victor France 1963 Atmospheric sciences, hydrology, glaciology Dasan Korea Polar Research Institute South Korea 2002 Atmospheric chemistry glacial and periglacial geomorphology and hydrology Dirigibile Italia National Research Council of Italy Italy 1997 Environment and climate Himadri National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research India 2008 Atmospheric sciences, marine ecosystems and pollution Japanese National Institute of Polar Research Japan 1990 Atmospheric physics, glaciology, meteorology, oceanography and terrestrial biology Koldewey Alfred Wegener Institute Germany 1991 Atmospheric physics, biology, chemistry and geology. Part of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network. Marine Laboratory Kings Bay Norway 2005 Marine biology Rabot French Polar Institute Paul Émile Victor France 1999 Atmospheric and life sciences Rocket Range Andøya Rocket Range Norway 1997 Sounding rockets Sverdrup Norwegian Polar Institute Norway 1999 Various VLBI Norwegian Mapping Authority Norway 1992 Very long baseline interferometry Zeppelin Norwegian Polar Institute Norway 1988 Atmospheric

The French and German activities are all part of the joint AWIPEV Arctic Research Station since 2003.

The coal seams are located between the town site and towards the mountain of Zeppelinfjellet. The coalfields are about wide in the east–west orientation, and about wide in the north–south direction. There are six seams, located at a ten to twenty degree angle towards the surface. The seam thickness varies from a few centimeters (about an inch) to The varying thickness increased the complexity of mining. From the top the seams are named Ragnhil, Josefine, Otelie, Advokat, Sofie and Ester. Most of the latter three are located below sea level. Each shaft was named for the seam it connected to. The area has further been subdivided into areas: Eastern, Agnes, Eastern Center, Western Center, Western and Lagoon. Only three have seen production, the Agnes, Eastern Center and Western Center. Ny Ålesund Harbour is operated by Kings Bay. In addition to serving the research community, it is open to commercial and recreational vessels. It has one large berth which is International Ship and Port Facility Security Code compliant and is commonly used by cruise ships. To reach the Zeppelin Station, located at above mean sea level, there is an aerial tramway which runs up Zeppelinfjellet. Kings Bay charters Lufttransport to fly two to four weekly flights using a Dornier 228 aircraft to Svalbard Airport, Longyear. Tickets are only available after permission from Kings Bay. Svalbard Rocket Range is a launch site for sounding rockets. Owned by Andøya Rocket Range, its high latitude makes it well suited for launching rockets to investigate Earth's magnetic field. It is the world's northernmost launch site. From the implementation of the Svalbard Undersea Cable System in 2003 Ny Ålesund had a twin 155 megabits per second microwave connection to Longyearbyen. Two redundant fiber pairs were laid in 2014, increasing capacity to 10 gigabits per second. The fiber line is owned by Uninett and cost NOK 90 million (roughly €9.2 million) to install. The very long baseline interferometry station at Hamnerabben is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation in certain frequencies. Thus there is enforced a exclusion zone for devices transmitting at between 2.1 and 2.5 GHz. The ban includes mobile telephones, Bluetooth, Wi Fi and other wireless devices. Telenor Maritim Radio operates a VHF maritime radio transmitted in Ny Ålesund, which is remotely controlled from Bodø Radio.

Ny Ålesund is located in a high Arctic ecosystem within the tundra zone. It sits amid the richest fauna and flora areas of Svalbard, especially along the rim of Kongsfjord and particularly in its innermost parts. Some of the cliffs are heavily populated by birds; Ny Ålesund is the archipelago's richest area for birds, especially waders. The Svalbard ptarmigan is the sole bird to winter. The vegetation is poor and vulnerable, mostly consisting of lichen. Mammals in the area include the Svalbard reindeer, the Arctic fox and the polar bear. All people in the settlement must carry rifles because of the bears, and all doors in town remain unlocked for the sake of people seeking cover in the event of an attack. The sun does not set from 18 April to 24 August (midnight sun) and does not rise from 25 October to 17 February (polar night). But there is no nautical twilight between December 11 to December 30, it only has 24 hour of darkness called astronomical twilight. The site is sufficiently isolated that it can be used to measure the background pollution levels in the high Arctic troposphere.