Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is one of the four permanent settlements on Svalbard. It is located on the Brøgger-peninsula at Kongsfjorden. Like the rest of Svalbard, Ny-Ålesund is administered by Norway.
Today, it is inhabited by a permanent population of approximately 30-35 persons. All of them work for one of the research stations — the Global Atmosphere Watch has one here — or the logistics and supply company "Kings Bay AS", which 'owns' and runs the research village. In the summer the activity in Ny-Ålesund is greatly increased with up to 120 researchers, technicians, and field assistants. At present, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, France, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and People's Republic of China all maintain research stations at Ny-Ålesund, although not all are inhabited year-round.
Ny-Ålesund is home to the new Arctic Marine Laboratory (the northernmost in the world), which was officially opened on 1 June2005. With many open rooms and wet and dry lab spaces alike, the marine lab is particularly useful for countries which do not maintain permanent research stations in the area.
It is possible to travel to Ny-Ålesund by scheduled flights from Longyearbyen and there is a hotel. On ship cruises, Ny-Ålesund is a typical shore break. However, this tourism may cause interference with the sensitive scientific devices in the settlement, so tourists are closely observed by the local population. Also in this area, to protect the local VLBI antenna, there is a 20 mile exclusion zone for devices transmitting between 2.4 and 2.4835 MHz. This includes bluetooth, WLAN, and other wireless devices.1 . The settlement is served by the airport Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben
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