Information from the SIOS director

Dear all,

SIOS-KC is closely monitoring the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and takes necessary measures according to rules and regulations. SIOS-KC has moved to work remotely from home offices. The Science Center in Longyearbyen is closed for the time being. There are lot of consequences from this situation that we cannot influence, we will concentrate on activities that we can influence. Some updates below, we will provide more updates as we have them.

  • Access programme projects that can not be conducted this year have the possibility to postpone the projects to next year, please inform Inger Jennings, logistics@sios-svalbard.org
  • If there is a delay in InfraNor activities, please provide information to Inger Jennings, logistics@sios-svalbard.org
  • The SESS programme will continue as planned
  • The SESS workshop 'Setting the scene' in June will be arranged, depending on the situation it might be moved online
  • The core data workshop planned for May will be postponed, we will seek the possibility to move it online if necessary
  • The secondment programme will continue, the call is still open but for the time being the execution of secondments are on hold at least until end of June
  • The pilot remote sensing service call for Dornier and UAVs will be launched as planned, the execution of the flights depends on the prevailing situation
  • The preparation of the terrestrial remote sensing training course in September continues as planned

Stay safe everyone,
Heikki Lihavainen