The entire journey from Oslo to Troll went splendidly. And it is simply beautiful here right now, greets Morten Hervik (38) from Troll.

Morten arrived in Antarctica

Today, Thursday, it was straight onto safety training. We arrived together with seven or eight other Norwegians and among them some Germans on their way to their stations. The flight out was a fantastic experience.
The guys say that the same weather is forecast for about a week ahead. This could mean a good start to the mission.

For three months they will be in Antarctica in temperatures down to around minus 30 degrees and build up a completely new station for NORSAR. It was supposed to be established at Troll, but because the government has decided to upgrade the Troll research station and, among other things, build a wind power station for green energy, NORSAR had to move the measurement station away from this facility. 

The direct cause is the noise the wind turbines will create. The observatory is to be made autonomous to reduce the need for supervision. That is what we are going to build in the coming weeks, says Ravn and continues: Because the weather now looks good, not least with little wind, we hope to get out and possibly start the work already this weekend.

It is about an hour's travel by tracked vehicle from Troll to where we are going to set up the station. Of course, it would be nice with a good start. Then we can celebrate Christmas with a clear conscience. We only work half a day on Christmas Eve. Every other day we work full shifts.

Morten and Ravn before departure

We will be following Ravn and Morten in the coming weeks as they establish the new NORSAR station in Antarctica.