Taiwan’s Established First Arctic Research Facility

On June 25th, Taiwan opened its first Arctic research station on the Norwegian island group of Svalbard, between Europe and the Arctic, according to a reports. With the support of the Ministry of Education, the Oceanic Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the first polar research station in Taiwan was established jointly by National Central University (NCU), National Institute of Oceanography and the Copernicus University in Poland. Establishment of the Arctic Research Station symbolizes that Taiwan can actively participate in Arctic affairs with environmental monitoring and scientific research as a starting point.

The inauguration and signing ceremony of this transnational collaboration was held at Zhongli Campus of Central University in Taoyuan City, and a three-way collaboration agreement was signed via video. Scope of the collaboration includes: microseismical observations caused by high-resolution glacier migration in polar regions, temporal and spatial variations of Arctic currents and waves, surface geology and topographic evolution of ice margins, and surface deformation, surface groundwater geology and permafrost recession.

The new station will be home to Taiwanese researchers near the Arctic, where scientists from Taiwan are already using drifting buoys to collect data on the ocean and weather before the waters began to freeze over last winter. According to NCU, goal of this project is to learn more about global warming and its impact on the Arctic.