During his stay on Spitsbergen he has created breathtaking imagery, ranging from still photography to interactive panoramas as well as time-lapse movies, which he kindly shares with VRMAG's readers.

The Hornsund Polar Station is the northernmost Polish research facility operating continuously all the year-round. The station is situated on the south of Spitsbergen (on Svalbard archipelago), near the entrance to Hornsund fjord, on its northern shore, at Isbjørnhamna (Polar Bear Bay) on a flat marine terrace, 10 m above sea level.

On the roof of the polar station, a beautiful sunset, but the wind is knocking you off your feet:

click here to view panorama

Polar Station- a Norwegian chopper on the heliport:

click here to view panorama

The station was founded in 1957 and, since 1978, year-round expeditions have been organized by the Department for Polar Research, the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The station has hosted hundreds of people: scientists and technicians from the Polish Academy of Sciences expeditions, researchers from Polish and foreign universities, tourists from cruise ships and yachts as well as occasional visitors.

Thousands of birds live from spring to autumn on the stone slopes of Hornsund mountains:

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Inside the glacier, the flooded entering corridor of The Crystal cave:

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Hans Glacier in all its glory, the view from the ascend to Fannytoppen Peak:

click here to view panorama

On the top of Kopernikusfjellet (Copernicus Peak), 1055 m asl:

click here to view panorama

Sunset above an ice front of Hans Glacier:

click here to view panorama

Ice disks in skerries and ice by the shore:

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Icicles on a wall of Hans Glacier, warmed by May sun:

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View from the top of Vesle Tuva:

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On the summit of Tonefjellet, 933 m asl:

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Spitsbergen mountains reflections in the water

In summer, the Polish Polar Station in Hornsund serves as a base for expeditions organized by several research institutions and universities. The old trapper's huts in the area of Hornsund are maintained by Polish groups, and are often used as field stations for specific projects.

The nature is amazing, when the sun shines around the clock in summer, the vicinity of the station teems with life. Coastal plains are covered with very rich tundra vegetation, the flowers bloom colorfully. The mountain slopes and cliffs are breeding places for numerous sea birds. Polar foxes and groups of reindeers wander around.

Every now and then you can hear the distant roar of calving at Hans Glacier. From late autumn to early summer, polar bears come with the ice pack to Hornsund. In summer most polar bears follow the pack ice north, but some others stay behind and are regularly seen on local beaches. The number of polar bears noticed near the station oscillates from about 100 to 200 per year.

Auroras, also called northern lights, are produced by the collision of charged particles from Earth's magnetosphere, with atoms and molecules at altitudes above 80 km in Earth's upper atmosphere.
When the trapped magnetic field of the solar wind is favorably oriented (principally southwards) it reconnects with Earth's magnetic field, and solar particles enter the magnetosphere and are swept to the magnetotail. The collisions in the atmosphere electronically excite atoms and molecules.

Most aurorae are green and red, as emission from atomic oxygen. Molecular nitrogen and nitrogen ions produce some low level red and very high blue/violet aurorae. Due to the different spectral energy present - which change dynamically throughout the exposure - the results of photographing auroras are highly unpredictable.

Holmes Comet with northern lights above the Polar Station

In the middle of the long polar night, on December 18th, 2007, Witek shot this incredible panorama.

Northern Lights above the Polish Polar Station on Spitsbergen:

click here to view Northern Lights panorama

Technical details: Canon 20D, Sigma 8mm/3.5 , Manfrotto 718B tripod with self made pano head for QTVR panoramas. ISO800, f 3.5, 21 sec.

click to view time lapse movie
(9 hours in 87 seconds)

VRMAG had a conversation with Witek about his life on the polar station and panoramic activity.

How and when did you start panoramic photography ?
It was January, 2006, at the time I was at the Polar Station. I saw some QTVR panoramas on the internet and I was amazed. Luckily I had a fisheye lens, so I created a pano head for my Manfrotto 718B tripod and started to learn how to do panoramas with a lot of help from my friend Szymon "Zbooy" Madej from Cracow.

How did you get on the polar station?
I had been working for 7 years in a mountain Meteorological Station on the top of Kasprowy Wierch (1987 m asl) in Polish Tatra Mountains and then I got the job at the polar station as meteorologist for 1 year.

What's your job at the station?
when I was meteorologist, they built satellite internet connection at the station, and then I had to built all the network infrastructure in the station's building and take care of the network and computers. Before that time the station had only a satellite telephone. My daily job is networks and Linux servers administration, PC service. Put it simply: I must solve all problems with computers, which arise at the station.

How is life on a polar station?
You have to consider that in the Arctic for months the sun doesn't set and during winter we are completely in the dark, during the long polar night. What we can do in terms of field research depends highly on weather conditions. Sometimes I spend long time alone with the computers, sometimes I have much field work on and inside the glaciers and mountains. When I'm lucky I have some free time to take pictures.

We have no doctor here, and the cook is only here for 3 months a year, during the summer, when there are many people at the Station. All the rest of the time we are preparing food ourselves every day, and sometimes we get an interesting taste in our food ;)
The most important figure in the team is our mechanic Krzysztof, who is responsible for running our three diesel generators, which give us the electricity required to run all systems. Without him we couldn't survive the winter. During summertime we take fresh water from a nearby lake through a pipeline, while in winter we have to collect ice and snow and melt it.

How do you get your supplies ?
Twice a year, a supply ship comes from Poland. In July, the new wintering crew, summer research and technical groups, fuel, and food are transported. With the same ship, the wintering crew from the previous year goes back home to Poland.
The remaining supplies for winter are transported to the station in autumn, usually in September. The summer groups use the same transport. Ships anchor 1-2 km from the shore. Unloading is organised with the use of two tracked amphibious, assisted with inflatable boats. Pack ice from the Arctic Ocean or ice from calving glaciers may block the entrance to the fjord or access to the shore. Sometimes the ship is forced to wait for better conditions. The closest city Longyearbyen is about 150 km from Hornsund. But during the winter the only way of transport is a helicopter. People from Longyearbyen visit us 2 - 3 times during the winter time.

Are you there all the time during the year?
Yes, 12 months in the year. I was here for the first time in 2005/2006. And now I'm here non-stop since June 2007.

How many people are there with you?
We are a 9 people team for the whole year, but in summertime the station hosts up to 35 people, and 15 people arrive every year for few weeks it the spring to do some special research on the glaciers. For our 9 people team the Station is a home for 12 months, the rest of people here are guests.

We have to help each other, because we are completely alone from the end of September to the half of March. The first investigative teams come here at the beginning of the spring - which is just after the heaviest period, the polar night.

Polish Polar Expedition team, Hornsund 2007/2008:

click here to view the 2007-2008 team
Andrzej ARAŹNY, Jerzy KWACZYŃSKI, Mariusz SKARZYŃSKI, Krzysztof STANKOWICZ, Robert ŻMUDA, Paweł CZUBAK, Michał SAWICKI, Krzysztof GANDOR and myself.

What is your main field of research?
The year-round team makes research in 7 fields: meteorology, seismology, geomagnetism, glaciology, atmospheric electricity, environmental monitoring and ionospheric measurements.
Hans Glacier is our main field of research. We are conducting many types of measurements there, not only on the surface, but also very deep inside the glacier. The recession of Hans Glacier since 1978 is of about 2 km. In summer, the station functions as a base for research on geology, geodesics, geomorphology, glaciology, oceanology and biology.

Which dangers do you face?
Arctic glaciers and mountains are fascinating, but also very dangerous.
The front of the glacier has a lot of glacier crevasses, into which one can easily fall. That is why we never go out alone in the terrain.
The polar bear (the King of the Arctic) is a different danger awaking many emotions. Global warming forces its migration north, so here there are less bears now, than years ago. But they are here anyhow, so we never go outside without guns.

What photographic equipment do you use?
I recently changed my old Olympus E-300 and Peleng fisheye to a Canon 20D and Sigma 8mm/3.5 fisheye. I keep using my Manfrotto 718B tripod with self made pano head for QTVR panoramas.

I unfortunately do not have a better equipment such as Full Frame sensor DSLR with good 800 and 1600 ISO (or higher if possible) and good very-wide-angle lens which would allow me to achieve better photographic results, especially shooting the incredible northern lights.

The incredible beauty of the area makes me willing to pay you a visit. Is it expensive to reach the station?
Unfortunately, to reach our station is expensive. It's quite cheap to fly to Longyearbien, the capital of Svalbard, and its beautiful area. But our station is roughly 150 km from LYR, and there is no regular transport...That's why it soon becomes expensive: there are no taxis :) During the winter the station can be reached only by helicopter or snowmobiles. Helicopter, I heard, costs about 7000 Euros (1 flight, 8 persons max). To fly here you need to have a permission from the Governor of Svalbard (which is not so easy to obtain for tourists because it's an area of the National Park of South Spitsbergen).

Links:
Witek Kaszkin's web site
Interactive panorama gallery
Spitsbergen stills gallery
Hornsund Polar Station
Email: witek at przewodnicy.zakopane.pl

Previous article on Witek:
NORTHERN LIGHTS FROM POLAR BEAR BAY