About the station
Tarfala Research Station TRS was officially inaugurated in 1961 as an infrastructure for research in glaciology and geomorphology by the Department of Physical Geography.
The station is situated in the Tarfala valley at 1135 m a.s.l. east of Kebnekaise, among Sweden’s highest mountains and several glaciers. The station is Sweden’s only research station located in a alpine arctic environment surrounded by glaciers.
Here we conduct high quality, internationally recognised scientific research on Swedish alpine and glacial environment. We do both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, with links to the effects of climate change on the global cryosphere with focus on Swedish glaciers.
Long term observations of watercourses and ecosystems are also carried out alongside long term observations of the changing state of glaciers. The data is made available with open-access through different databases.
The station is also a platform for field-based teaching, which is available for both international and national students and teachers. The station collaborates with non-academic actors who are active in the unique environment around the station, and communicates relevant research results to a wide range of target groups.
Visit Tarfala Research station
We welcome researchers and academic courses from various subject areas and universities, academic workshops and meetings! The station is open during March and April and from late June to late September.
Book your visit
You can apply for a stay ahead of the season via our online booking enquiry form. Applications are individual.
Applications open
15 April – 15 October for the spring/winter season (for visits the following year at the earliest)
30 October – 31 March for the summer season
The following documents are mandatory to complete your booking enquiry:
1. Download and read our safety rules pdf, 496.3 kB.
2. Download and complete our fieldwork project template docx, 187.1 kB.
Group request for more than four people? Contact tarfala@su.se
Signpost at Tarfala Research Station. Photo Nina Kirchner.
Tarfala Research Station Master Student Grant
This student grant is available for master students and its purpose is to cover travel, accommodation, and field work cost at Tarfala Research Station, in relation to master thesis.
Our research
Probing Northern Niche. Photo Annika Granebeck.
At Tarfala Resarch Station we conduct high quality, internationally recognised scientific research on Swedish alpine and glacial environment. An important component of the research conducted at Tarfala Resarch Station is the continually measurement of Storglaciären’s mass balance, the annual height of Kebnekaise’s southern peak and other monitoring studies.
Our history
The station is built around a project that involved following up a glacier's mass balance in detail. During the 1930s and 1940s, the then professor of geography Hans W: son Ahlmann worked with the connection between the warming seen in the early 1900s and how the glaciers in the northern hemisphere became smaller and smaller. In the summer of 1945, Valter Schytt carried out a reconnaissance of suitable premises for a long-term mass balance study and the choice was the Large Glacier in the Tarfala Valley next to Kebnekaise.
Contact
For general queries contact tarfala@su.se
Last updated: 2026-05-29
Source: Tarfala Research Station