Expedition Report
1978 Svalbard Expedition Report
1978 Svalbard Expedition Presentation
A copy of the report of this expedition is also held in the library of the Royal Geographical Society.
The Royal Holloway Metrological Expedition to Svalbard in 1978 brought together students from Royal Holloway, Oxford, Bristol and Imperial.
Major pollution disasters in the period before 1978 had highlighted the need to be able to predict fallout patterns over wide areas. The expedition had the aim of carrying out research for the British Meteorological Office by providing wind turbulance data under ideal known conditions. The area of operation was the OLAV V LAND icecap on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. A secondary aim of the expedition was to attempt to reach the summit of Svalbard's highest mountain, Newtontoppen, an ascent also achieved by a 2011 expedition also supported by the Exploration Board.