Average duration of a thermal winter in Hornsund has been determined for 216 days. Average soil temperature at depth of 5 cm in winter is equal —9.8°C. During a spring that lasts 35 days only, soil temperatures at depth of 5 cm indicate distribution nearest to a normal one. Soil temperature distribution in winter substantially differs from the one in spring.

On the ground of continuous records of air and soil temperature at standard levels, changes of soil temperature against changes of air temperature have been analyzed at thick and without snow cover. The first example concerns a six-day winter thaw, and the second one a four-day autumn cooling. A particular influence of energy advection has been noted. A delay of changes of soil temperature was found to increase with depth in relation to air temperature. A hypothesis on correlation between air temperature at a height of 5 cm and soil temperature at a depth of 5 cm has been verified.

Monthly and dekadal mean soil temperatures were evaluated with a use of measurements at depths of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cm, collected during the expeditions 1978—1986 and additionally at depths of 80 and 100 cm during the expeditions 1980—1986. Fourier analysis revealed a phase shift of 1 to 2 dekads between neighboring measurement depths.

One of the rational ways of energy saving is to use the heat of wastewater from energy companies for open ground heating and cultivation crops. The most significant sources of heat are thermal and nuclear power plants that produce low-thermal waters of 28–35°C.
Heating of the ground with the use of circulating warm water allows to increase temperature at all points of the soil profile. The maximum thermal effect from heating ground is observed at the depth of pipe heaters (7.3– 11.1°C).
Ground heating allows to extend the growing season for crops by 3–4 weeks, which can expedite harvesting and thus maximise the harvest. In natural moisture conditions, ground heating does not lead to significant reduction of moisture reserves in the active layer throughout the growing period. There is a redistribution of moisture in a soil profile. It decreases in the zone of pipe heaters and redistributes toward the top. The formation of the nutrient regime changes, the content of mobile phosphorus and potassium, and nitrate nitrogen increases, whereas the content of ammonia nitrogen is reduced. Ground heating is a new special heat reclamation technique. It allows not only to control temperature of the agricultural crop environment, but also to dissipate heat in the ground, and promote the utilisation of waste heat and the stabilisation of the environment.