| Summary: | This archive presents the results of sea ice extent observations in Kongsfjorden - the Arctic fjord located in the west coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard archipelago at approximately 79° N, 12° E . The permanent presence of Norwegian Polar Institute’s staff at Ny-Ålesund Research Station, and daily visits to the observatory on the mountain Zeppelinfjellet (474ma.s.l., south of Ny-Ålesund) enable regular visual sea ice observations in the fjord, which have been done systematically since 2003 . The observations are weather- and visibility permitting and typically conducted several times a week from February to June: from the onset of daylight conditions sufficient for visual observations and lasting until the end of ice season in the fjord. The archive covers years 2003 – 2021 and contains 668 ice charts evenly distributed over the period, on average 36 per ice season. Since some of the charts represented a few days of observations in a row, reporting “similar ice conditions”, the digitized archive comprises 887 ice observation days in total. This dataset is a detailed extension of previously published monthly values for sea ice extent in the inner part of Kongsfjorden, Svalbard 2003-2019, compiling in one archive the original observations of sea ice conditions in the fjord back to 2003.
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