Longyearbyen · 78.22 N 15.63 E

Svalbard Wire

Est. 2026

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Monday 9 November 2026No. 15In full

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Safety and preparedness

“The ongoing climate change and its global and regional drivers” with Siiri Wickström

Svalbard WirePublished 7 OctoberThe notice of UNIS in full, as published in English.

The University Centre in Svalbard, a dark red building in Longyearbyen, seen from a road under a cloudy sky.
The University Centre in Svalbard in Longyearbyen, seen from the road under a cloudy sky. File picture, June 2025. Photo: Stefan Brending (2eight), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons.

Monday 12 October

Møysalen, UNIS (the University Centre in Svalbard)

18:00-20:00 / 18:00 to 20:00 (UTC+2)

The lecture will only be held in-person

Wickström will talk about how these climatic changes impact local weather and climate as well as the cryosphere (sea ice and glaciers) and natural hazards such now avalanches and land slides.

Drawing on examples of impacts in Svalbard and Longyearbyen, she will talk about the climate changes today and in the future, in an Arctic wide context.

This lecture is a part of a pilot project at UNIS, but will be open to anyone. The lecture will be given in English.

About the presenter:

Siiri Wickström has a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Bergen that was conducted at UNIS. Her work focused on changes in atmospheric circulation and how these changes affect regional and local climate in the European Arctic. After her PhD she worked with climate related risk in a project called ARCTRISK hosted by the Arctic Safety Center.

Since 2023 she has worked as a consultant at Skred AS working with a wide range of projects within natural hazard management in Norway. At Skred AS she works with the avalanche forecasting for exposed infrastructure in Longyearbyen.

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