Hopen is an island in the southeastern part of the Svalbard archipelago (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

). Hopen was discovered in 1596 by Jan Cornelisz Rijp during the third expedition by Willem Barentsz, trying to find the Northeast Passage. Later, in 1613, its name was given by Thomas Marmaduke of Hull, who named it after his former command, the ''Hopewell''. The

Norwegian Meteorological Institute The Norwegian Meteorological Institute ( no, Meteorologisk institutt), also known internationally as MET Norway, is Norway's national meteorological institute. It provides weather forecasts for civilian and military uses and conducts research in m ...

operates a staffed weather station on the island with a staff of four persons. For the welfare of the crew, there are three cabins available on the island for their use. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

placed a meteorological team there under cover of

Operation Zitronella Operation Zitronella (Operation Lemon Flavour), also known as (Operation Sicily), was an eight-hour German raid on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, on 8 September 1943. The battleships (in its only offensive action) and , plus nine des ...

. On August 28, 1978 an early model

Tupolev Tu-16 The Tupolev Tu-16 (NATO reporting name: Badger) is a twin-engined jet strategic heavy bomber used by the Soviet Union. It has been flown for almost 70 years, and the Chinese license-built Xian H-6 remains in service with the People's Liberation ...

of the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

crashed on the island. All seven crew were killed in the accident. It was discovered two days later by the four-man Norwegian weather forecasting team. The USSR refused to admit the loss of an aircraft until the bodies of the crew were given to them. Norway transcribed the contents of the flight recorder over the objections of the Soviet government.

Environment

A significant number of polar bears are found at Hopen in the winter; moreover, the sub-population of ''Ursus maritimus'' found here is a genetically distinct taxon of polar bears associated with the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

region.C. Michael Hogan, 2008

Important Bird Area

The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International. It supports breeding populations of black-legged kittiwakes (40,000 pairs),

thick-billed guillemot The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

s (150,000 individuals) and black guillemots (1000 pairs).

Climate

Hopen has a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''ET''). The average annual temperature in Hopen is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in March, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Hopen was on 9 July 1973; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 4 March 1986.

Gallery

File:Hopen meteorologiske stasjon.jpg, Hopen meteorological station in 2019 File:Hopen Station.jpg, Hopen meteorological station, seen from north File:Hopen Svalbard May2013.jpg, The southernmost point, Kapp Thor, and the highest point, Iversenfjellet (370m) seen from south

References

Bibliography

* C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus'', Globaltwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
* Oysten Wiig and Kjell Isakse
''Seasonal Distribution of Harbour Seals, Bearded Seals, White Whales and Polar Bears in the Barents Sea''

External links

*

{{Authority control Islands of Svalbard Nature reserves in Svalbard Important Bird Areas of Svalbard Seabird colonies Ramsar sites in Norway