Six Months Above 66 Degrees North

You’ve seen the Arctic once, that vast, white nothingness, so you’ve seen it all, right?  Not quite.  After spending 6 months in the Arctic, transitioning from Greenland to Alaska half way through, I realized how different various parts of the Arctic could be from one another.

A view of the tundra just outside of Barrow, Alaska from a helicopter.

In Greenland this summer, IGERT Fellow Julia Bradley-Cook and I trekked and camped in the stunning mountainous region of tundra bordering the Greenland ice sheet near Kangerlussuaq (67° 01’ N, 50° 42’ W), collecting samples for her research on soil carbon dynamics in the area.  Kangerlussuaq is more of an outpost than a town; mainly existing to support the international airport located there, the scientific community, and a growing tourist economy.

One of our many stunning lunch spots, at Russell Glacier near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.

Barrow, Alaska (71° 18’ N, 156° 44’ W), on the other hand, is a booming city compared to Kangerlussuaq.  The city is the seat of the North Slope Borough’s government and has a population of around 5,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are Alaskan Native Iñupiaq Eskimo.

Barrow, Alaska

When I arrived in Barrow I was stunned to see a completely flat horizon line in all directions, the Ocean to the North, and the openness of the “slope” to the South.

The community also seemed improbable: hundreds of houses built on stilts, plopped down on a dirt patch.  There are no paved roads in Barrow (due to permafrost), but there are a number of stoplights and no shortage of cars, ATVs and snowmobiles.

My street in Barrow.

During my three-month stay in Barrow I worked as a community outreach intern for the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC) through the Dartmouth Stefansson Fellowship program.  Up until very recently BASC provided logistical support for researchers visiting Barrow and functioned as a bridge between the scientific community and the local community through weekly outreach events.  I came onboard to start up a new outreach effort targeting local k-12 students.

A researcher heading out into the large patch of tundra that makes up the Barrow Environmental Observatory.

What really surprised me in my work with students was the lack of awareness for the wealth of research taking place in Barrow (since Barrow is one of the major hotspots for Arctic research). With the support of the school district, I was able to connect students to visiting scientists and local science organizations via small group field trips and class visits. In the three months we organized and ran 33 field trips and set up a framework to continue the program throughout the school year and into the summer. It is my hope that this internship will continue either with BASC or with another local logistics organization so that teachers and students can take advantage of all the special opportunities and resources in their community.

Middle School Students on a field trip with local Archaeologist Anne Jensen.

While my experiences in Greenland and Alaska felt like polar opposites, together they gave me a bigger and better picture of Arctic life!

A couple Arctic Foxes enjoying the first snow of the season in Barrow.

If you would like to see more of what I was up to in Barrow, you can check out the blog I was keeping during my time there: http://above66degreesnorth.wordpress.com/

What glaciologists do in their spare time … (backlit snowpits and boreholes and such)

With the engineers and some drillers busying themselves with the replicate corer (“big drill”) and us corehandlers having finished with my array of shallow cores (“baby drill”), the science folks here at WAIS Divide have had the rare opportunity to dive into our list of side science projects that one usually runs out of time for at field sites.

One such project involved giving a couple drillers some experience with their Eclipse Ice Drill (“little drill”). If you believe the hype given the little drill at morning meetings, the little drill is dominating the big drill in terms of production. We now have a 120m borehole through the firn near camp. It’s cased and GPS’ed for future science endeavors.

Mike Jayred, Elizabeth Morton, and Logan Mitchell working the little drill

[Pic 2: The driver’s seat of the little drill … you keep an eagle eye on your amperage (lowest dial) and your left hand on the “wheel”]

The fleet of trusty of Alpine snowmachines that ferried us between camp and the little drill

Another project could be thought as I-477’s “thank you” to WAIS Divide camp. This year’s camp group is pretty phenomenal, and we pondered how we could express our appreciation for such an awesome collection of people. How about a 3-sided, backlit snowpit? What a wonderful idea … and an idea where we could also do some science! So John Fegyveresi, Logan Mitchell, and I dug 4 two-meter deep snowpits to create this mini-monster. A backlit pit, or “light-pit method” (R.M. Koerner, 1971) allows an observer to map the stratigraphy in great detail. Or, if you’re like me, the hidden blue beauty of snow simply awes you.

A shot from a wall in the backlit snowpit … notice the interesting bedding

A close-up of a few crusts and layers of differently-sized grains (my left pinky finger is for scale

Like Koerner suggested, we used the opportunity to map the stratigraphies along the back wall (parallel to dominant wind direction) and side walls. We also took density measurements.

Don Voigt taking density measurements in the backlit snowpit

And we also took some pictures … lots of pictures, to show the breadth by which one can appreciate and enjoy a backlit snowpit.

Logan and Gifford pointing to a humongous depth hoar layer

Gifford pacing the width of the snowpit

Logan and Gifford feeling “Matrixy"

Gifford stretching out

Finally, this being a Sunday … I just had to write about the Saturday night dance party that spontaneously occurred at WAIS Divide. What started out as a poorly-heated Polarhaven with a wool blanket covering the door’s window, a decade-old boombox, a PC with music and DJ software, and our cook-cum-DJ, magically transformed into a multi-hour dance-fest. As you might imagine, the “poorly-heated” became over-heated quite quickly, but the music boomed until there was no one left to boogie. Obviously, pictures from this festivity “do not exist” … but just imagine, in the best possible way, the synergy among a dance club, winter camping, and a midnight sun. For those out there who have danced in icy or polar climes … I can see your smiles!

-Gifford via Marcus

Taking some time to drill some baby cores

After a week of fantastic weather, the dreary skies and blowing snows have returned. What a great time to revisit the blog!

For starters, the final cores of WDC06A finally made their voyage from our camp in West Antarctica to McMurdo Station, the largest of the US Antarctic Program bases. If you’ve visited the WAIS Divide web page, you know that part of this core’s analysis involves a thorough investigation of atmospheric gases, such as methane, trapped in the bubbles of the ice. These gases are preserved best when the ice is kept cold, and for this we ask the Air National Guard to fly what is colloquially known as a “cold-deck” mission. Essentially, the aircraft flies at altitude and vents cold, outside air into the cabin. You can’t get it too terribly cold, but its cold enough for the insulated boxes to have an easier time keep the ice cores icy. I’ve been told that if you’re a passenger on one of these cold-decks, you’ll want to get into your sleeping bag … with EVERYTHING on!

Jonathan Hayden and I inspect an Air Force pallet of ice cores

John Fegyveresi, Logan Mitchell, and I were also able to get out a ways from camp to collect shallow firn cores. We collected nine 5m cores (as well as sampled a 1.5m snowpit). For those that have read about my Greenland Ice Sheet traverse with Thomas Overly, the three of us used the very same Kovacs Corer (Mark III). I even tried to imitate the picture Thomas, Galen, and I took of ourselves before embarking on the snowmachine portion of the traverse.

John Fegyveresi and Logan Mitchell log a run of core from the Kovacs Corer

John, Logan, and I “smile” for the camera

While we were engaged in preparing the ice cores for transport and conducting our own mini-field science program, the drillers were busy readying the replicate corer. Its very exciting to be so close to action, as it were. More to come …

Gifford Wong reporting from WAIS via Marcus Welker

3405m into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

DISC drill instrument section of core barrel next to a sign declaring our driller's depth (champagne bottle self-explanatory, =D)

This blog entry will be a few days old by the time it breaks on the blogosphere, but I want to give kudos to the monumental accomplishment that occurred in West Antarctica on the last day of 2011.

An idea that was born at least 20 years ago – either a report suggesting a West Antarctic ice core in 1986 or a proposal written in 1992 – finally came to fruition: drilling (and completing) a deep ice core on the divide of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Officially known as borehole WDC06A, this WAIS ice core measures 3405m in length (depth) and represents what will be the highest resolution climate data for the last 60,000 years! It will play a huge role in determining the timing of abrupt climate change between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

It also represents the deepest US endeavor in ice coring history. Yep. I just went there. As I’ve been here at WAIS Divide Camp for 3 of the past 4 drill seasons, I’ve been a happy participant in all of the science and logistics that goes into engaging in such a large endeavor.

All I can say is it has been an incredibly wild ride so far! Now that we’re done with the main drilling, we are currently logging the borehole with a suite of instruments. We’re also waiting for materials so we can properly box and ship the ice cores to their eventual resting spot at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Colorado. We will also be testing a replicate coring system (I’m really excited about this). I hope to be sharing more about camp life (and some science) soon. What better way to kick off 2012?

Core barrel holding the final bit of ice from borehole WDC06A

 

Gifford Wong reporting from WAIS via Marcus Welker

2011 in review

Hi team IGERT. I’m not sure who all got this, I suspect it was just Julia and I, but I thought it would be nice to share with everybody .

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Attending the American Geophysical Union fall meeting

An overview of a small fraction of posters presented at the fall AGU meeting

In December, several Dartmouth IGERT fellows attended the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Franscisco, CA. Attendees hailed from 97 countries and numerous languages could be heard during the coffee breaks. This year the population of the fall meeting exceeded past numbers with 22,167 attendees (to be precise!), >12,000 poster presentations and >6,000 oral presentations.  Attendees were from academia, state/national agencies, the private sector and 29% of the attendees were students. Every year there is a wealth of information presented from volcanology, science communication, to global circulation models. In the past few years there have been more interdisciplinary sessions included. This year there was a large geobiology contingent presenting on topics such as the carbon cycle in soils and phenology (“The scientific study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding, and migration, in relation to climatic conditions” (www.thefreedictionary.com)).

IGERT fellow Julia Bradley-Cook discusses her poster with another AGU attendee

This year 10 Dartmouth IGERT fellows attended the meeting and presented their work. We hope that number continues to grow in future years!

Scientist at Work in Antarctic

Aliah Khan, a PhD student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, is blogging for The New York Times under their “Scientist at Work” section. Check out her blog “Exploring the Dry Valleys, Then and Now,” which she writes from the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.

Aliah is with the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) Program, an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in an ice-free region of Antarctica. McMurdo Dry Valleys joined the National Science Foundation’s LTER Network in 1993 and is funded through the NSF Office of Polar Programs.

Dartmouth IGERT PI Ross Virginia is a co-PI on the MCM LTER Program. Since 1989, he has studied how climate and soil factors influence the establishment, distribution and function of soil biota.

Ross Virginia in Garwood Valley, Antarctica, December 2011

A brief homage to Entomology

I just returned from a four-day trip to Reno, Nevada, where thousands of entomologists from around the world were gathered to share the latest and greatest in entomology research at the 59th annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America. I shared the latest and greatest on my research on mosquitoes in Greenland (and yes, I’m happy to report that the weighing is done) at a poster session on Wednesday morning.

[Lauren explaining emergence traps to an onlooker.]

I’m always reminded at these meetings how Entomology (i.e., the study of insects), though seemingly disciplinary on the basis of its name, is actually an incredibly interdisciplinary field. Entomologists use tools from fields such as chemistry, ecology, molecular biology, physics, sociology, and economics to address significant and emerging global issues, e.g., management of food and crop pests, the spread of invasive species, disease transmission by mosquitoes, and what the heck to do about bed bugs! Entomologists are also extremely effective communicators, some of the best I’ve known, because public well-being is so often at stake.

As IGERT students, how to do interdisciplinary science and how to communicate that science to the public is at the core of our thinking. My thought is that Entomologists could provide a strong and useful perspective. I’ll link to one of my favorite websites, Bug of the Week, run by entomologist Dr. Mike Raupp at the University of Maryland. The archived titles, e.g. Gnarly roses, Millipedes on steroids, Bugs in love, lovebugs, and kissing bugs, invoke widespread interest from the public, and can hopefully inspire us, as interdisciplinary climate scientists, to think more creatively about our approaches to communication.

The Polar world is Everywhere!

Roald Amundsen, leader of the first successful South Pole expedition, 1910-1912

In transit to San Jose, CA for the annual SACNAS conference (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences), I was surprised to find a familiar face lining the walls of the Minnesapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Concourse C is home to a large display of photographs of Amundsen’s original lantern slides. The exhibit is celebrating the 100th anniversary of his successful voyage to the South Pole. It’s a little strange that seeing images of a place I’ve never been makes me feel at home, but I’m glad that the polar world is vivid in the minds of the public. Check back later for conference highlights.

Sunscreen – The Secret to Surviving on an Ice Sheet

[as seen in Dartmouth's The Graduate Forum (newsletter)]

As graduate students, we all share this singular pursuit, this unabashed chase of scholastic glory. We all enjoy the burden of late nights glazed with copious amounts of caffeine and buoyed by an endless sea of scientific papers. We all enjoy the bucolic wonders of Hanover and the Upper Valley, the unrelenting, yet rewarding, joys of being a graduate student at Dartmouth College. If you’re reading this, I imagine you are, like me, toiling away at some novel and intractable question while balancing the rest of your life. Not easy, but we’re all getting by. So what happens when, in the midst of this sometimes-stultifying stupor, you find yourself on the front-end of a 40-day traverse of the Greenland Ice Sheet?

Buy sunscreen!

[Getting ready for a day of snowmobiling! From left: Thomas Overly (IGERT), CH2MHill-supplied mountaineer and all-around awesome guy Galen Dossin, and Gifford Wong (IGERT)]

That is what I did when I found myself days away from joining the 2011 Greenland Inland Traverse (GrIT). GrIT, conceived primarily as an overland supply-run for the year-round science station at Summit Camp located on top of the ice sheet, recently became open to the idea of supporting science. The first leg of the journey is a flight from Baltimore, Maryland, to Thule Air Base on the northwest coast of Greenland. Thule Air Base is the US Armed Forces’ northernmost installation, located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and serves as the home base and garage for GrIT, a joint operation involving the National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and CH2M Hill Polar Services.

Professor Robert Hawley, in the Department of Earth Sciences, originally proposed the idea of pairing science with this traverse. He passed this tremendous field opportunity to two of his current graduate students – Thomas Overly and Gifford Wong (yours truly). Some of the fantastic reasons, science-wise, why this traverse was so tremendous were it provided a comfortable (relatively) platform from which to perform ground truthing studies, it was an opportunity to revisit science sites along a route that was first studied in the 1950s by Carl Benson, a CRREL-based researcher, and it lead to a wealth of data for his lab group to sift through for the next couple years.

[Sun setting behind one of our Case Quad-tracks.]

But that’s not all. Nearly everyone enjoys fantastic, and sometimes far-flung, field adventures. For me, the thing that made this past field season so special was the traverse itself. It is the journey that is interesting. I’ve been fortunate to participate in polar science before (McMurdo Station [see pg.3], West Antarctica, Summit Station, and Byrd Surface Camp [see "Views of a Deep Field Virgin", pg.11]), but I’ve never had to drive there. I’ve never had to submit myself to 1400 miles worth of ice sheet whimsy. I’ve never had so much of my livelihood rely on what continually seemed like never-long-enough days. And, I’ve never had the fortune to be surrounded by so much serenity. Perhaps my favorite moments, outside of the general tomfoolery that emerges when 6 young-at-heart individuals combine for 40 days of toil and effort, were those spent with my own thoughts as we bounded across the endless ice sheet like a small convoy of ships crossing an endless sea, buoyed by thousands of years worth of snow and ice all waiting to tell their stories.

[The traverse train trundling along in front of some mountains at GPS waypoing "B11A".]

This story starts out, however, as a pseudo-survival guide for any would-be ice sheet traveler. If you’re contemplating such a trip, I imagine most of the obvious concerns have already been addressed, such as packing a lot of high-calorie food or outfitting yourself with plenty of puffy and warm clothing. Like this summer’s list of things to do in Hanover, I present, in no particular order, my top 5 things to think about when traversing an ice sheet:

1) Be prepared to be cold. Not surprising, but it bears repeating.

2) Be patient. This goes along with the cold component, but hardly anything happens quickly when you’re waddling around in 8 layers of clothing. Seriously.

3) Try not to sweat. This pairs well with that patience thing, for if you do sweat you’ll definitely feel the cold.

4) Eat. You’re essentially stoking your internal, caloric heater with food, so eat often. Besides, when else can you indulge in over 4000 calories a day and lose weight?!

5) If there’s a plane, get on it. As much as I love the ice sheet, there truly is no place like home. I spent an extra 7 days in Greenland because I did not get on a plane. Silly.

And sunscreen? That ranks right up there with oxygen and a -40 sleeping bag!