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. 

Our first time in the Big House

The Big House

Insanely delicious lunch

Tom and the Yeti Robot

An intense game of scrabble

Casa de Wilkening

The Tucker aka Nap Room on Treads

Day 20

Since our flight was cancelled and we had no real plans for the day, it was a pretty slow start for the day. Some of us got up in time for breakfast at the cantina while a lot of people just slept in. We spent most of the morning hanging out and waiting for any news that might come in. The rainy weather outside didn’t help motivate us to do anything either. Because the snow was so slushy at NEEM, the plane that was up there currently had gotten stuck. So until conditions improved, we probably wouldn’t be going to NEEM. After lunch, we decided to go on the waterfall hike again since most of the people that are here now weren’t here when we did it the first time. It ended up being pretty cool since there was a lot more water than the first time we went. It was really incredible how fast the water was moving. It seemed crazier than any of the rapids I had seen when I went through the Grand Canyon a few years ago. Luckily we were just standing to the side taking pictures and not in a boat going down the river. Once we got back to the school that afternoon, it seemed like we kept hearing about a new plan every half hour for what our trip would be. Finally, it was decided that we are going to Summit tomorrow. With this knowledge, we all made sure to drink lots of water that evening to help prevent the altitude sickness that can occur at Summit. That night we were lucky enough to listen to a presentation from JP Steffensen from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. He is one of the people in charge of the ice core drilling at NEEM. NEEM is the Danish camp on the ice where a lot of ice core drilling is done. They even reached the bedrock there last year! I learned a lot during his talk. Ice cores are incredibly important since they provide a history of the climate on the earth. By looking at the chemical composition of the ice and air bubbles in different layers, scientists have been able to create a climate record for much of Earth’s history. For determining past temperatures, they specifically look at the amount of oxygen isotopes present. They can even use ice core data as a reference for archaeology and the reconstruction of early history. It was incredibly interesting the wide variety of applications this research has. I’m pretty sure his talk made a bunch of us want to become ice core scientists. Hopefully we will get to go to NEEM soon to see this science in action.

Me at the waterfall

Huge rapid

There was a lot of water

Day 19

This morning, everyone got up early since it was Rebecca’s birthday. It is a Danish people to wake people up on their birthday by singing. So at 7 in the morning, we all snuck into her room and woke her up. It was fun, but I’m not sure if I would like this tradition in America. I think I would get kind of scared. After breakfast, we got a talk from Major Paul Bernasconi from the Air National Guard. He told us about some of the logistics that goes into transporting people and supplies across Greenland. The New York Air National Guard who flew us here operates in Greenland from March to August and in Antarctica from October to February. They have over 1,295 people and 14 aircrafts. Some of their LC-130s are actually ones they got from the bone yard in Tucson and renovated. It was incredible hearing how much work and planning goes into just planning this one part of these projects. It was also kind of interesting to hear about how the deal with landing and taking off in the snow. He described landing in the snow saying that it is like driving blindfolded since the pilot must rely on the copilots for spotting. He also told us about how they sometimes use Jet Assisted Takeoff. This involves attaching JATO bottles to the side of the airplane during takeoff. When fired, these provide 15 seconds of extra boost. It is equivalent to having an extra engine for that time and can increase the speed of the plane by 5 knots, which is just enough to overcome the drag and get the nose ski off the ground. While all this might not have been the most reassuring thing to hear the day before we were supposed to leave for the NEEM station on the ice, it is clear that they are very experienced when it comes to these flights. They have been operating in Greenland for 32 years and have had no major accidents. They spend a lot of time training at the Raven base on the ice and also attend “Kool” School where they learn cold weather survival skills.

            That afternoon we picked up some pizza and headed out towards the glacier to visit another scientist’s field site. Today we met with Asa Rennermalm from Rutgers University. Somewhat similar to the work being done by the researchers we met from Colorado, she is doing work to monitor glacial runoff. To start off, she showed us some of the equipment they use to monitor the rivers. They set up monitoring sites that can be monitored remotely after they leave. These monitoring stations use a pressure sensor at the bottom of the river. The pressure measured can then be correlated with a water height and flow rate. While they are in the field, they survey the different rivers in the area to get a cross section of the river. They then measure the flow rate. They can later use these measurements they take in the field as a standard to compare their remote measurements later on. After this introduction, we went off to one of their test sites to try our hand at doing the measurements. I found it really interesting to see how simple their instruments were. As Asa told us, simple instrumentation can be really advantageous since if something stops working while you are in the field, you have to be able to fix it or you might lose all your research. The first thing we did when we got there was assemble all the instrumentation. This was apparently much more difficult than it sounds since both Vince and Emil cut their fingers in the exact same place while trying to assemble the flow rate meter. After we got everything together and found some band-aids for the boys, we started by measuring the depth of the streambed at different intervals across the channel. Luckily the site we were testing had a bridge across it and wasn’t very good. Asa said they have to go out in a boat for some of their test sites to get measurements. Once again I got stuck being the one to record all the measurements. It’s an important job but it started to get pretty cold after awhile since we were near the glacier and there was a really strong wind. Sadly, I also forgot to grab my fleece that morning so I was only wearing a light wool layer and my rain shell. My hands were pretty much frozen after writing for awhile. Hopefully my experiences on the ice will go better. Once we finished mapping the channel, we measured flow rate. It ended up being a lot of fun despite the chilly weather.

            After we got back, we had thirty minutes to pack our bags for NEEM so they could get put on the pallet. It was a bit of a rush but since we didn’t have much to pack it wasn’t too bad. Our bags basically consisted of our sleep kits and some extra socks and underwear. We have to wear all our cold weather gear onto the plane and can just pack our other small things in a carry-on bag. Over dinner Vince and I tried to explain the American governmental system to the others. I realized how long it has been since I’ve done American government and history but we were able to give a basic explanation of how things work. All the others couldn’t believe how complicated it sounded. They were especially confused about the electoral college. Once we got back to the school, Rikke, one of the teachers here, gave us a presentation on the work she did with sediment cores. It was interesting and acted as a nice introduction for the ice cores we will see at NEEM. We also enjoyed some Danish birthday cake for Rebecca’s birthday. It consisted of some things Vince and I decided were like giant, soft Vanilla wafers, topped with preserves, a kind of vanilla custard, and whipped cream. It was really good. As we were finishing up, Robbie came in with the unfortunate news that our flight to NEEM the next day was cancelled. While this was rather disappointing, we were once again reminded that this is all part of the polar field experience. It was at least nice finding out then rather than when we would have had to get up at 5 in the morning. We ended up staying up for awhile talking more about our different cultures and trying to learn some more Danish and Greenlandic. I’m getting a little better but it is still pretty bad. I’ve been told I sound a bit like a four year-old speaking Greenlandic but that is still an improvement from where I was before. We also learned that no one actually owns property in Greenland, which I found to be pretty interesting. We also learned more about the Danish and Greenlandic school systems. 

Vince and Emil were boo boo buddies

Making birthday cakes

Colin, Asa's field assistant, with part of the flow rate meter

View from Asa's camp

Day 18

The day began with a trip to the cantina for breakfast since it marked the first day of Science Education week. That means we are back on the meal passes and can choose between the different places to eat. This caused much excitement across the group since, perhaps most importantly, it meant no more mystery sandwiches for lunch. After breakfast we went back to the school. Most people were packing up since they were headed home. Only about a third of us are staying for the Science Education week where we are going up to the ice sheet. There are now 2 Americans, 3 Danes, and 4 Greenlanders. We were able to take it easy for most of the morning since there really wasn’t anything specific planned for us. We watched some of the Tour de France and listened to La Marseillaise in honor of Bastille Day. We were also able to find a rerun of the United States women playing in the World Cup. Eventually we found at that our agenda for the day involved taking some reporters out in the field to tour around. They had just gotten here the day before. They were from the Associated Press, American Geophysical Union, Popular Mechanics, and some other publications. We got our stuff together and said goodbye to those that were leaving that afternoon. We then heard the terrible news that we were stuck having sandwiches again for lunch since we wouldn’t have the chance to come back in town. It was rather disappointing after we had already had a lengthy discussion about what kind of pizza we were going to get. Nevertheless we set out with the reporters in tow. The plan was to hike over this ridge to go visit one of the scientists we had seen before, Julia. As we started hiking and people started falling behind, it was pretty clear that we weren’t going to make it there. I soon realized how different it was going around with reporters as opposed to scientists. While the scientists would be dragging us up hills to go do crazy things, the reporters were more up for taking a break and having a chat. It was definitely a lot different than what we had been doing the past couple weeks. After a break for lunch, we decided to change our plan. We decided to go visit the shaman group that was camped out near where the Penn State camp we had visited was. It ended up being a really cool experience. As we were driving, a musk ox ran in front of us on the road. We quickly pulled out our cameras but the musk ox went and hid behind a bunch of bushes. It was apparently a very self-conscious musk ox. There were a bunch of people gathered when we got the shaman. It was a meeting of a bunch of elders from different areas in Greenland. They invited us to join them and gave us a blessing. One of them sang us a song that talked about how there are only two kinds tears and we should follow our hearts and whatnot. It was pretty cool. Then we got to go inside a big tent where the reporters interviewed some of the elders. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on climate change. It was clear that they had seen changes over the course of their lifetimes and they have had to adjust. It was also amusing watching the reporters compete with each other to get questions answered. I definitely prefer the science world to that of reporting news. Once we finished speaking to the elders, they gave us some wall calendars and sent us on our way so we could get back in time for dinner.

            For dinner we went to the Thai place next door. It tasted really good after all the cantina food from the past couple weeks. Once we finished eating we went to visit the puppies again. They've gotten bigger and are now in the kennel area. They were still pretty cute though. After dinner that night, the reporters came back to talk. It was clear that they were not interested in the American and Danish students at all and only wanted to talk to the Greenlandic students. We sulked in the corner and went to get ice cream. At least one of them eventually acknowledged us and said hello on the way out. As you can tell, we are not biter at all. 

The meeting

Ole and Sylvia with our delicious Thai food

Leaving the meeting

Puppy!

Day 17

Today began with everyone frantically trying to finish putting their presentations together. We all had to make powerpoints in our research groups to get ready for the presentations that night. I spent most of the morning working with my group to finish our presentation. Luckily it didn’t take us too long. We had enough extra time to go to the store in the afternoon to exchange all the bottles we had collected. You can get 2 kroner for every plastic bottle you return, which is about 40 cents. Between my room and the boys across the hall, we collected over 100 kroner. We all used the money to buy milkshakes at the store. It was definitely a nice break before a busy evening. When we got back, we all were assigned jobs to get ready for the presentations that evening. A bunch of scientists were supposed to come over from KISS since a flight from New York had just arrived that afternoon. There were also some special Danish and Greenlandic guests coming. We also spent some time working on what we were going to say. We made sure to write out some notes for everyone in the group. I’m still so impressed they are able to give scientific presentations in their second and third languages. After some frantic cleaning, a quick run for dinner, and a pre-presentation dance party, we were finally ready. My group had to go first as always and it went really well. All the other groups did really well too. We ended up having a lot of guests and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. We even had our special guests of the Danish Minister of Science and the head of the Greenlandic education department. It ended up being a really great end to the field school.

Team Atmosphere at the ice

Milkshakes!

Getting ready for presentations
 

Day 16

Once again, the majority of today was set aside for working on our projects. This morning I spent a while making graphs and writing our abstract. This afternoon we took a field trip to Kellyville, the home of the Sondrestrom radar facility. It is a completely self-reliant site. It is truly like its own town with, as the sign informed us, a population of 7. All the people who work there live on site. It is home to over 20 instruments that monitor the upper atmosphere. This gives it the capability to monitor a wide variety of things, which makes it one of the most important ground-based facilities for studying the interaction of the upper atmosphere with space. The main instrument is the incoherent scatter radar. It is a 32 meter wide satellite dish. It was amazing how big it was and they even moved it around for us to show off what it could do. They are all types of remote sensing. Within remote sensing, we learned there are two different types. Active remote sensing, such as radar, involves sending and receiving signals while passive remote sensing, such as a telescope, involves just observing. The incoherent scatter radar was originally built for the NSA to monitor French nuclear testing. It is called incoherent since it sends a specific frequency and receives a spectrum back. After this ended with the signing of an agreement, however, it was given to the NSF and placed in Chatanika, Alaska. In 1983 it was moved to Kangerlussuaq so it could fill the observational hole that was left by other facilities. This is a very special location since it lies just on the edge of the auroral oval. This is where the aurora can be seen when radiation comes through the atmosphere. The facility collects raw data that it then sends to be processed at SRI in California. This is referred to as basic research since they just collect data without any specific application. This data is then published so everyone can use it. Scientists can apply to get time on the instruments but the radar is limited to 150-250 hours per month since it uses an incredible amount of electricity. As we were walking around the facility, we saw many pipes going through that were only used for keeping the system cool. The work they do monitoring solar activity in the atmosphere is important since solar activity can cause many difficulties with communications and even poses a risk to astronauts in space. They have been monitoring solar cycles in coordination with similar facilities around the world for some time. It takes a lot of data since one solar cycle lasts for 11 years. We were told that we should expect there to be more solar activity in the next year since it is reaching a peak in the cycle. This doesn’t mean that the end of the world is coming in 2012, but just that it would be a great time to go look for the Northern Lights. It was really interesting getting to compare this type of facility with the other types of science and field research that we’ve seen already.

            After we got back that afternoon, everyone got to work doing their part to prepare for our group dinner. We had planned to have a barbeque at the school and it ended up being really nice. We were able to enjoy some good food with a nice view of the glacial river. 

I feel like this is self-explanatory

Me with the incoherent scatter radar

Barbeque time!

Day 15

Today was set aside to spend the day working on finishing up our projects. We started out with a meeting on writing abstracts, analyzing data, and creating our presentations. My group went up to town first thing in the morning to get one last sample near the airport. As we were sitting outside with our probes, a group of tourists came out of the airport and one took a picture of us. It was a little creepy. We then stopped by the gift shop and grocery store before heading back to the school. We finished testing all our water samples and logging our data in the computer. Then Emil and I set out to see if we could set up something to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the water. After scavenging around the school and running next door to buy some duct tape, we ended up creating a device where we could boil the water, capture the steam, and then measure the change in carbon dioxide concentration using the carbon dioxide probe. The design worked pretty well until the carbon dioxide probe started freaking out because of the steam. We scratched the experiment after that but are still pretty proud of our design. We spent the rest of the day working on analyzing data and starting to work on our presentation. It was really nice outside today too. Sadly the day we were stuck inside working was way nicer than the majority of the days we were working out in the field. Some of us took a break, however, to go outside and take a break near the river. We even took a nap on the rocks. You can check out my research group’s page on the PolarTrec website where we are posting more about our work. (http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/greenland-education-tour-2011)

            Later that night we had Picture Night where we all shared some of our favorite pictures from the trip. It was fun getting to look back. I can’t believe we’ve done so much!

Our attempt at a dissolved carbon dioxide monitor

Data Day!