Wednesday, 5 November 2008

The physics of snow, northern lights, a visit to the original Ice Hotel and much more........l

Some of you may have met Carol Norberg from Umeå University in Sweden at the IAC last month. Umeå runs a number of extra-curricular courses in space and space-related areas and we just had notification that there are a few places left on their Artic Science course at Kiruna in north Sweden in January.

The key thing from a student point of view is that:
  • The course will be given in English
  • Tuition will be free, although you must cover your own expenses travel + accommodation) for attending (low-price student accomodation has been reserved for successful applicants)
The aim of the course is to give students studying on traditional science and engineering degree programmes insight into the phenomena that one can observe in the arctic environment during the winter months, such as the aurora borealis and mother of pearl clouds.

The course also contains an introduction to snow and ice-related phenomena. The course is a distance course with a gathering 7-10 January in the exotic town of Kiruna, which lies in the north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. The town is home to the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Swedish Space Corporation Esrange, a site for launching rockets and balloons, Spaceport Sweden and the famous Ice Hotel.

Prerequisites are that students should satisfy the general requirements for eligibility for university studies at Umeå University and have a physics major at upper secondary school level or similar qualifications. For more information see www.irf.se/link/winter_course.

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