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Fieldwork in Finmark 1. 9. - 12. 9. 2016

Waiting for a ferry in place called Breivik.

To shorten the travelling distance on a way from Tromsø to Alta.

Passing by Lyngen Alps.

Staying in Fosselv camp for the night. A short cloud free period at 1:00 offered some aurora displays.

Brief period of decent brightness.

But mostly a rather faint and barely visible with bare eye.

Still a very bright night in the north at solar midnight.

Next day close to Alta. A view from above.

While practicing on a tree ...

... how not to rappel :)

Ascending practice.

By the Alta River in the evening.

Camping site by the river.

Unlike in other parts of Europe, there are many cabins to stay.

Repeating the scene but with northern lights.

Typical Sami river boats.

Next day at the plateau in the inland.

Loaded with full backpacks.

Marching towards Alta River Canyon.

Over swampy terrain, as always in Norway.

And crossing rivers.

Getting closer to the one of the main tourist attractions of Finnmark.

Looking for the best spot to do the work.

I think they have a plan.

We do the southeast exposition there.

And the north exposition here.

Sebastian is taking photos of the action. Safe rappelling this time :)

And drilling holes for the rock temperature loggers.

It helps if the drill is turning in the correct direction :)

And jumaring back up after the work is done.

Tourists 300 m below.

Moving to the second location.

Waterfall in a side gorge.

Water moved a riverbed here.

Panorama of the canyon.

Installed logger on the rock face up right can be read out from more than 100 m distance.

Close-up of the site. North facing rock walls receive very low sun radiation and are exposed to cold temperatures in winter thus are very prone to permafrost development.

Setting up anchors on trees.

Sloveig is belaying.

Repeating the exercise at the second site.

Screwing the logger rings.

Removing a nut and jumaring back.

Ang going back to Alta.

Crossing a lake at Áidejávri next day.

A big palsa on the other side.

The main aim was to visit palsa mire and read out loggers.

And set ground control points for drone flights.

This one looks in a slightly better shape.

Finding a logger in a lake.

Weather is slowly got better.

Drunken reindeer fence.

Finding loggers outside palsas and peat plateaus is a bit more challenging.

Sealing the iButton after reading it out.

Kris is waiting for Sebastian to bring a logger.

Ups... It happens from time to time.

It is safer with snowshoes.

Sealing the last logger for today.

The sun is setting and we are done just in time.

A local helped us with getting to the other side of the lake.

Kris for a measure on the top of the palsa.

An evening from palsa.

A church in Kautokeino.

With Kautokeino in the dusk. Almost clear sky is promising another evening with northern lights.

And they came sooner than expected.

And for few minutes they were so strong that were easily visible beside the city lights.

Later, slightly out of the town.

Green rain! It must for sure be coming from chemtrails :)

Slightly different selfie.

Ski jumping is popular also in this, less mountainous, part of Norway.

In front of the cabin in Kautokeino.

that becomes kitchen.

On a road to Lakselv. Most of the trees have already lost their leaves here up on Finnmarksvidda.

Returning back to "early October" when approaching the coast.

A hike to another palsa mire.

Passing meadow guards.

The mire close to Lakselv.

First taking care of loggers outside the mire.

Maze of palsas and peat plateaus.

Wind weather ...

and nice lenticular clouds formed by descending wind from nearby mountains.

Barbecue stick is showing where is the logger.

Again, snowshoes are helpful.

Rain doesn't always bring bad things.

Peat plateau in the middle of the mire.

The only freshly growing palsa in this area.

Colourful evening work.

Another evening and another aurora display, this time at Austmo.

Lakselv next day.

And another mire close to Iškoras.

Except for alpine bearberry (Arctostaphylos alpina), all the vegetation has here already lost autumn colours.

Air temperature reference station.

Shrubs, which normally don't grow in water, show that the palsa is subsiding.

More peat plateaus.

A farm at Šuoššjavri.

The main farming activity is a reindeer herding.

Deploying more ground control points for drone.

Another palsa mire.

More eroding and subsiding palsas...

A lake with moss forms after a palsa subsides.

Are barbecue sticks sinking or is moss growing so fast?

At the rim of a former palsa.

Trond is setting up the octocopter.

Armed with camera for taking airphotos.

The most of the work does the autopilot.

Flight transects.

Back to Iškoras.

Maintaining a borehole station.

Radio tower and Norwegian army base behind the fog.

Setting up geoelectrical resistivity measurements with Bernd.

Panorama to northeast form Iškoas Mountain.

And to southwest.

Returning back to the mire in the evening.

Finding and ...

... reading out some more loggers.

Iškoras "Mountain".

Back in Lakselv with

guests from Stockholm.

Selecting a site for a peat profile and permafrost core.

The easiest is to saw peat out.

Oh dear! We got a visit.

There are black sheep and white reindeers? Or they are rather getting winter fur?

The mire from the opposite hill.

The Lakselv fjord.

That stretches towards north all the way to Nordkapp.

Beach ridges now pretty far from the sea.

Again at Šuoššjavri, waiting for Sebastian and our equipment to arrive.

Shooting of "Survival in Finnmark" :)

Dangerous journey through marshes with traps and beasts.

Arriving safely with the equipment.

Some more geoelectric surveys in mires.

Red colour is very likely permafrost.

Meanwhile swedish girls are already done with the active layer part of the peat.

Now the steel piping starts.

Getting the pipe out at each 10 cm depth.

Getting the core out.

And proudly showing it to others.

Bernd is trying the coring.

Karasjok Town was our place to stay for last few days. It is a capital of sami people, which are indigenous inhabitants of Northern Norway.

Sami parliament.

It was built in 1989 and it hosts 39 Sami representatives which decide on different sami-related matters.

Sami were once more nomadic people living on reindeer herding, but all of them now live in permanen houses. This is an example of slightly modern Lavvu family tent.

A portable storage that could be moved on skis.

A storage platfrom.

A turf hut used for colling food in summer.

Reindeer shelter.

Traditional Sami clothing.

Karasjok downlown.

Karasjohka River.

The Karasjok Old Church.

And the bridge.