Maggie Coblentz (@maggiecoblentz) has been based in Svalbard for the past year to launch an Arctic expedition for the MIT Space Exploration Initiative (@explorespace_ml), and research life and work in the field with scientists and their teams. She has been documenting research instruments to reimagine depictions of science in extreme environments, and to invite curiosity and compassion for remote regions. These images were taken during Maggie’ stay at Ny-Ålesund, a research station in Svalbard facilitating Arctic research and environmental monitoring. Reposted from @mitmedialab Images: 1. Researchers from TROPOS prepare the BELUGA, a helium-filled tethered balloon with modular instrumentation used to study the air layers near the ground in the Arctic, which play a major role in climate change in this region. 2. The Zeppelin Observatory, located on Zeppelin Mountain (474 meters above sea level), monitors global atmospheric change and long-range pollution transport. 3. The Cyclone instrument traps pollen by rotating its wing in the direction of the wind. 4. The NASA antenna used to track the sounding rocket Endurance launched from the Andoya Space’s launch site. 5. A close up of the weather mast at AWIPEV, which collects temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, and wind speed parameters. 6. A collection of instruments on top of the Gruvebadet atmospheric laboratory. Images: Maggie Coblentz (@maggiecoblentz)