Jutulsessen is a

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. ...

in the

Gjelsvik Mountains The Gjelsvik Mountains are a group of mountains about long, between the Sverdrup Mountains and the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains in Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica. With its summit at , the massive Risemedet Mountain forms the highest point in ...

in Queen Maud Land,

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. It is located in Princess Martha Coast, from the

King Haakon VII Sea King Haakon VII Sea ( no, King Haakon VII Hav) is a proposed name for part of the Southern Ocean on the coast of East Antarctica. Geography The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), often recognized as the authority for worldwide wa ...

. Jutulsessen is the site of the Norwegian research station

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

and the affiliated Troll Satellite Station, which has two radomes on top of the mountain. Troll Airfield is located in the vicinity.

Geography

Jutulsessen is a nunatak mountain with a peak

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It is located north of Terningskarvet, also in the Gjelsvik Mountains of Queen Maud Land. Jutulsessen is located in the eastern part of Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud Land, which Norway claims as a

dependent territory A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controlli ...

.Kyvik (2008): 153 The main ice-free area of the Jutulsessen massif is about 10 km long by 5 km across. The base is located above mean sea level and is completely surrounded by the Antarctic ice sheet. Jutulsessen is from the coast of King Haakon VII Sea. The mountain area is horseshoe-shaped with a

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

and

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

Sætet Sætet, also known as Saetet Cirque, is a large cirque in the north side of Jutulsessen, in the Gjelsvik Mountains, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Photographed from the air by the Third German Antarctic Expedition (1938–39). Mapped by Norwegian ca ...

to the north. The two arms of the area are located northwards. The western arm is the location of Troll. The eastern arm is longer and consists of the narrow section of Jutulhogget and the wider

Armlenet Armlenet is a ridge trending north–south for between Stabben and Jutulhogget, forming the eastern arm of Jutulsessen in the Gjelsvik Mountains, Queen Maud Land. It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and from air photos by t ...

. Further north lies the isolated area of

Stabben Stabben is a prominent mountain immediately north of Mayr Ridge in the north part of the Gjelsvik Mountains, Queen Maud Land, which constitutes the northernmost part of Jutulsessen. Photographed from the air by the German Antarctic Expedition ( ...

. Blåfallet is an ice-depression on the western side of Knokane, a ridge of Armlenet. Jutuldalen is a valley in Armlenet, with the ice-depression of Staupet to the west. Armlenet also features the glacier of Ringfingerbreen. Southeast of Sætet lies the broad valley of Brudgedalen, and to the southeast lies the ridge of Brudga. The three peaks closest to Troll are Trolltindane, the tallest of which is Trolltinden. The area has a cold and dry climate being located in a

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

. The annual mean temperature is , with the summer temperature able to reach about and the lowest during the winter at . Storms, which can occur throughout the year, can occasionally make outdoor activity impossible. Being located south of the

Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth. The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone. S ...

, Troll has

midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, t ...

in the summer and polar night during the winter.

History

The mountain was first photographed by the German Antarctic Expedition in 1938–39. It was subsequently mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photographs taken during the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1949–52 and the subsequent Norwegian expedition in 1958–59. It was given the Norwegian name Jutulsessen, which means "the seat of the giant". Norway established the Antarctic polar station Maudheim in 1950. It was located on ice and used only during the summer. After a few years, it was so covered in snow that it was not possible to dig out. When searching for a new station, the Norwegian Polar Institute decided to find an area which would be snow-free in January and February and which was close to blue ice that would allow the establishment of an

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

. The area was explored by helicopter on January 11, 1990, and the expedition decided to establish a base on the lower parts of Jutulessen. Troll was officially opened on February 17, 1990. Troll Airfield was opened on February 11, 2005 and an all-year research station the following day.

Troll

The station took its name from the surrounding jagged mountains, which resemble

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

s of

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

. The station facilities are owned by the

Government of Norway The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the prime minister of Norway. Legislative power i ...

through the

Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property The Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property ( no, Statsbygg) is a Norway, Norwegian etat, government agency that manages central parts of the real estate portfolio of the Government of Norway. Operation The Norwegian Directorate ...

. Operation of the facility is carried out by the

Norwegian Polar Institute The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI; no, Norsk Polarinstitutt) is Norway's central governmental institution for scientific research, mapping and environmental monitoring in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The NPI is a directorate under Norway's Min ...

. The facilities consist of a module-built new section that is , and the old section that is . Troll Airfield is located from Troll and consists of a

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

on glacial blue ice. Research facilities include air and atmospheric measurement equipment operated by the

Norwegian Institute for Air Research The NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research ( no, NILU – Norsk Institutt for luftforskning) or NILU is one of the leading specialized scientific laboratories in Europe researching issues related to air pollution, climate change and health. ...

Kongsberg Satellite Services Kongsberg Satellite Services AS (KSAT) is a Norwegian-based company. KSAT has the most extensive ground station network globally, and the world's largest ground station for support of polar orbiting satellites located at 78° North - Svalbard, ...

operates Troll Satellite Station, a satellite ground station providing research from

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

satellites. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute operates a staffed

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

Important Bird Area

Antarctic Petrel, Antarctic Peninsula (5940362516)

A 500 ha site some 6 km south-east of Troll Station has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

, because it supports a large breeding colony of about 38,000 pairs of

Antarctic petrel The Antarctic petrel (''Thalassoica antarctica'') is a boldly marked dark brown and white petrel, found in Antarctica, most commonly in the Ross and Weddell Seas. They eat Antarctic krill, fish, and small squid. They feed while swimming but can d ...

s on north-facing slopes in the mountains.

Snow petrel The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that has been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which have the most so ...

s and south polar skuas also breed in the vicinity.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Portal bar, Birds, Geography, Earth sciences, Weather Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Seabird colonies Mountains of Queen Maud Land Nunataks of Antarctica Princess Martha Coast Troll (research station)