The numbers are in – we have the final results from the laboratory for the ISOSCAN citizen science snow and water sampling in 2025 (see result table at the bottom of the page). We are looking at 43 samples in total, and 42 of those have relevant information about time and location with them that makes the data useful for our scientific analysis.

The samples have been taken over a wide range of locations, from the region around Tromsø, to the border regions between Norway and Sweden, to Finse in Southern Norway, and Lillehammer. Elevation ranges from close to sea level up to 1537 m above sea level. One sample was even taken on the top of Gråtinden mountain, only accessible by narrow ridges! Dear ISOSCAN’ers, please sample responsibly and don’t take any risk during the sampling that you would not take anyways!

We thank all ISOSCAN’ers for their great effort in collecting snow samples. Congratulations on getting in a first set of ISOSCAN samples with good quality. We’re now getting ready to scale up our efforts to a larger geographical region, and a longer time scale over the coming winter season (March-April 2026).

Text: Harald Sodemann, photos: Costijn Zwart

Snow (and runoff) samples from ISOSCAN sampled in March-August 2025 and analysed at FARLAB in 2025

selfie of Janne at the meeting in Spain (photo: Janne Liburd)

We are delighted that the mid-term review meeting on 13th November in Spain went really well, and we received very positive feedback from the Water4All Follow-up Secretariat.

A big thanks to Janne Liburd, our former WP1 member, who represented ISOSCAN and delivered a fantastic presentation – truly a collaborative effort from the whole team. The reviewers’ comments were encouraging, and they were especially impressed by our website.

One of the reviewers, Amanda Lofgeen, even said: “All projects should do like we do…” and praised the ISOSCAN website “fantastic and very motivating.”

Well done and congratulations to the entire ISOSCAN team!

Text: Mandy Kong

After a successful pilot campaign around Tromsø last season, the team got their heads back together this fall for our annual meeting, got ‘locked up’ in a converted prison hotel in Stockholm to complete the necessary mid-term reporting and plan the coming field season.
We kicked off the meeting with a creative icebreaker: using LEGO bricks to represent each other’s work packages. Each construction sparked discussions about how our different tasks interconnect — and reminded us that some crucial roles, like admin and project management, may not always be visible but are essential for keeping the project running smoothly.

While online meetings keep us connected, meeting in person remains invaluable for deeper discussions, better coordination, and strengthening our sense of team spirit. Most of all, it’s simply enjoyable to spend time together and get to know the people behind the research.
We are now preparing sampling kits and scaling up the campaign for the upcoming season. There will be sampling campaigns involving a Finnish school, science institutes in SE Norway and citizen sampling in and around Tromsø.
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Text: Benjamin Fischer, Costijn Zwart, Harald Sodemann
Photo credit: Benjamin Fischer, Costijn Zwart