Academic CentrePolar research in Latvia up to now has been associated with two outstanding researchers – Ivars Sīlis and Leonīds Slaucītājs. Since 2014, the polar research field in Latvia has been developed mainly by researchers of the Department of geology, University of Latvia. So far, scientific expeditions have been carried out to Iceland, Greenland, the Svalbard archipelago, as well as Antarctica.
Studies mainly examine issues related to glacier thickness, bed topography, thermal structure, internal drainage system and surface changes. During the expeditions, various samples have been collected as well, which were later analysed in cooperation with representatives of other scientific fields.
In order to obtain information about the internal structure of glaciers, studies employ geophysical research methods (ground-penetrating radar, seismics). For the creation of glacier surface models and estimates of movement speed, data obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles are used.
Research is carried out in cooperation with representatives of other science fields in Latvia (Scientific Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “Bior”, Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology of the University of Latvia, Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center), and with foreign cooperation partners (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine).
The latest publications
Karušs, J., Lamsters, K., Sobota, I., Ješkins, J., Džeriņš, P. 2022. UAV and GPR Data Integration in Glacier Geometry Reconstruction: A Case Study from Irenebreen, Svalbard. Remote Sensing 14, 456. doi.org/10.3390/rs14030456
Lamsters, K., Ješkins, J., Sobota, I., Karušs, J., Džeriņš, P. 2022. Surface Characteristics, Elevation Change and Velocity of High-Arctic Valley Glacier from Repeated High-Resolution UAV Photogrammetry. Remote Sensing, 14(4), 1029. doi.org/10.3390/rs14041029
Karušs, J., Lamsters, K., Sobota, I., Ješkins, J., Džeriņš, P. 2021. Drainage system and thermal structure of a High Arctic polythermal glacier: Waldemarbreen, western Svalbard. Journal of Glaciology 1-14. doi:10.1017/jog.2021.125
Lamsters, K., Karušs, J., Krievāns, M., Ješkins, J. 2020. High-resolution orthophoto map and digital surface models of the largest Argentine Islands (the Antarctic) from unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetry. Journal of Maps, 16(2), 335–347. DOI:10.1080/17445647.2020.1748130
Karušs, J., Lamsters, K., Chernov, A., Krievāns, M., Ješkins, J. 2019. Subglacial topography and thickness of ice caps on the Argentine Islands”. Antarctic Science, 31(6), 332–334. DOI:10.1017/S0954102019000452
