The Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen () is a marine research facility located in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Founded in 1917 by Bjørn Helland-Hansen, the institute studies the field of

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

dealing with the patterns of the weather in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

off the coast of Norway. Within recent years, focus has been increasingly on

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

and environmental research. The research activities at the institute span from small scale measurement of turbulence up to studies of the large scale ocean currents, from local

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

and

noise pollution Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with potential harmful effects on humans and animals. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems.Senate Publi ...

up to studies of global scale

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. Areas of research focus on the Norwegian Current, the West Spitsbergen Current and the

Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea (; ; ) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separate ...

. Shifts and fluctuations in these currents are monitored, as they are thought to be indicators for climate change. Research has included sequestration and related matters dealing with

Carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process by which carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial installations is separated before it is released into the atmosphere, then transported to a long-term storage location.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary at ...

. Since 2020 Tor Eldevik is the director of the institute. Previous directors were amongst others Dr. Peter M. Haugan, Nils Gunnar Kvamstø and Øystein Hov. The Bergen School of Meteorology, which led to modern

weather forecasting Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather info ...

, was developed at the Geophysical Institute by

Vilhelm Bjerknes Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes ( , ; 14 March 1862 – 9 April 1951) was a Norwegian geophysicist and meteorologist who did much to lay the foundation of the modern practice of weather forecasting. He formulated the primitive equations that are s ...

and collaborators (including Carl-Gustaf Rossby) beginning in 1917.

External links

Official website
{{authority control University of Bergen Environment of Norway Oceanographic organizations 1917 establishments in Norway