Report from the field: Sampling water and snow in the Faroe Islands (62 deg North) in March

The island of Vagar in March.

Finally here! It is a sunny day of March and absolutely breathtaking views. We start with a 10 km hike righ away, having our suitcases with us in our rental car. We are still on our way from the airport to Torshavn. It means hiking in the island of Vagar in the area of Midvagur and Vatnid (the biggest lake in Faroes), and the waterfall Bosdalafossur. Snow we can see only very high up but not in the area where we are hiking.

The North Atlantic Ocean.

We follow the paths (you are not allowed to go off the paths) and sample a stream. Great, this is our first sample from the Faroes!

Day1 and sampling water of a stream.

You can learn more about hiking in the Faroe Islands at https://issuu.com/visitfaroeislands/docs/vfi_hiking_uk_hq.compressed. And yes, we saw Faroes sheep, too. They are free to go as they wish and they are everywhere.

Photo of the Faroese sheep we met on Day1.

The important question for us is of course whether we can find snow? Well, not only are we lucky with the perfect weather now but it has also been snowing just one day before our arrival. It means snow samples for us! Next, we will visit FINI and meet Lis and continue sampling more water and snow. We will tell you more about this amazing place and what we experienced while sampling, but it will be in our next post.

 

The field research of the EU-Interact-BLACK-project in Faroes, in FINI and around, takes place in March 2019 by me and my colleague Laura Thölix, FMI. Our aim is to collect samples on snow, natural water and drinking water, for filtering and chemical analysis of black carbon, organic carbon and dust.

Photos: Laura Thölix and Outi Meinander, Finnish Meteorological Institute.