Adventures in Greenland: Day 21

Today we finally made it to Summit. After an early morning, I made sure I had all my stuff packed from the night before and took advantage of the opportunity for one last shower. We had to wear all of our cold weather gear onto the airplane. The idea is that if there were an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere, we would immediately be ready for the cold. We made it on the plane and once again it was only our group on the plane. Since we were wearing all our puffy gear, it was actually pretty comfortable. I was able to fall asleep again even though it was only around a 1.5 hour flight. Immediately after we stepped off the plane at Summit, it was clear we were in an entirely different environment. We were surrounded by snow and it was pretty cold. We made our way to the Big House. The Big House acts as the center of Summit Station. Here is where the station manager works, meals are cooked and eaten, and people come to work and relax. It is so cozy inside! Once inside we ran into some of the reporters we had seen earlier in Kangerlussuaq. They were heading back on the plane we came on. Sadly, as we discovered later, one of them accidentally took Emil’s boots with them. In the meantime, we made ourselves comfortable and waited for orientation. Ben Walker, the camp medic, came and talked to us about some of the potential health concerns at Summit. Since it is at the top of the Greenland ice sheet at an elevation of over 10,000 feet, many people have trouble with the altitude. The lower pressure at this elevation makes it more difficult for your lungs to get oxygen. Even just walking to the Big House, I could tell it was a little harder to breath. Luckily, I haven’t really had any other problems besides that and a small headache at first. Some people had a lot more trouble and had to visit the medic to get oxygen or go in the pressure bag that simulates being at an elevation off about 5000 feet. It is also easier to get sunburned here because of the high altitude and high latitude, so sunscreen is very important. After these warnings, he checked each of our pulse rates and blood oxygen saturation levels. We ended up checking these levels throughout our time there as an experiment and I noticed that my blood oxygen saturation numbers improved slightly as I became better adjusted to the environment. We then got an orientation from the station manager, John Fonseca. He told us about some of the day-to-day tasks and operations and also told us about the layout of the camp. In addition to the Big House, there is also the Green House where there is medical, science, and living space, the machine shop where the generator, snow melter, and workshop is located, and the Tent City where all the tents we are staying in are located. We were then treated to a fantastic lunch. We had tuna melts, fries, salad, and brownies. It was way better than anything we had in Kangerlussuaq. We jokingly decided that Summit is like “parad-ice”. Luckily the weather has been pretty nice and I’m not frozen yet. The Temp has been around 12 degrees Fahrenheit (-11 degrees Celsius) with a 0 degree Fahrenheit (-18 degree Celsius) wind-chill with some light snow and clouds. My gear has kept me nice and warm. Once we were full from lunch, we went out to see a weather balloon launch with Nate Miller, one of the science techs. They launch weather balloons twice a day here. They collect data on things like temperature, wind speed, and pressure. The data is sent back using a radio transmitter and is combined with other data to help create weather maps. After that we got to see the robot they are working on here. Tom Lane, a student at Dartmouth, showed us the robot, Cool Robot, which is designed to go around and do testing remotely. Ideally, it would be able to go all around the ice sheet on its own but it is still being tested right now. We saw the battery powered version but they are also working on a solar powered version. After that, we got to take a ride in the Tucker, a big snow vehicle they use to groom the skiway where the planes land. At three miles, it is the longest ice skiway in the world. The planes need such a long skiway because of the thinner air at that altitude and the difference in taking off on snow rather than pavement. We all crammed in the back of the Tucker and most of us ended up falling asleep as we were driving around. Once we got back and woke up, we went to hear a talk from Brian Vasel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We learned about the atmospheric data that NOAA collects from all around the world. This includes flask samples where air is collected in flasks and sent to the lab in Boulder, Colorado. This lab is the global standard for atmospheric monitoring. Around 15,000 of these samples are taken every year. Summit is a unique location for NOAA since it is the only Arctic sampling location that is not on the coast, which means it has air that is not affected by sea or land surface. Additionally, the high elevation puts it in the free troposphere. While the concentration of carbon dioxide has received a lot of attention, there are also many other atmospheric and oceanic changes that NOAA monitors. Brian described carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere as being like feathers in a down blanket. The more and more feathers (carbon dioxide) in the blanket (atmosphere), the warmer things will get. In the pre-industrial age, carbon dioxide levels were around 278 parts per million (ppm). Now they are at 386 ppm. Humans have put over 335 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Half of the carbon dioxide that is put into the environment is absorbed by the oceans, however. This absorption process results in the production of carbonic acid. As a result, the pH of the ocean has dropped by 0.1, making it more acidic. Considering pH is a logarithmic scale, that is a fairly substantial change in ocean chemistry. There is also concern over how much longer the ocean can continue absorbing carbon dioxide. This is why the work being done by NOAA is so important. The thawing of permafrost from warmer temperatures is also a concern since the permafrost can release sizeable amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, both greenhouse gases, as it melts as well as cause coastal erosion. NOAA also monitors black carbon and ozone-depleting substances like chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs). Black carbon is produced by forest fires, volcanoes, and pollution. It is a point of concern since it lowers the albedo of the snow and can therefore increase the melting of snow. It’s similar to how a dark colored car will get hotter when you park it in the sun than a white car will. We also saw a cool video that shows the carbon dioxide monitoring from all of NOAA’s different stations over the past few decades. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2mZyCblxS4&feature=channel_video_title)

After we finished learning about NOAA, we headed back to the Big House to relax and wait for dinner. We ended up playing Cranium for awhile. Some of it was a little tricky since not all of it makes sense to non-Americans, but we made it work and it was a lot of fun. Dinner was great, even if it was only leftover night. We even found some Tang which we introduced to the non-Americans. After dinner we all helped out with “house mouse” duties. People take turns being house mouse at Summit. The day they are house mouse, they are responsible for housekeeping duties including cleaning dishes. We all helped clean dishes and put things away. After we finished up, we played a game of Scrabble and watched the movie The Thing. It was a pretty strange movie, but entertaining nonetheless. We finally headed out to our tents for the night. We are all staying in arctic oven tents. It was a bit cold in there at first but I just put on a lot of layers and climbed into my sleeping bag. I stayed pretty warm but it was still a little strange to wake up to find the snow on my boots still there and my water bottle totally frozen.