Wow, April 30

Here it is April 30th and I haven't posted in a couple of days. CAPABL is up and running at just about full capacity and we have several days worth of data that we have collected. So far everybody seems to be happy with the data and we are now starting on a data collection schedule that has Ryan working nights and my working days. My schedule is to wake up around 9:30 am and watch the system until around 5 - 6 pm. Then Ryan and I spend the next few hours talking about what needs to be done to the system. I then help him pull the system out of the building (depending on the weather) between 11 pm and midnight. At that point my day is done and I head back to my room to read and talk to my wife and daughter via skype. Most nights I am asleep by 1 am or so. It is not a bad schedule, but it is different.

Yesterday was the first day that we got away from the site and headed into Kangerlussuaq. We decided that we wanted to eat out, so we went to the Asian restaurant and got some takeout. I had a noodle dish and I hate to say it, well, I am paying for it today. I think I will be staying away from that place the rest of the time that I am here. While I am on the topic of food, one item of note: There is no ground beef here. It is ground Muskox. It has a different flavor and texture than beef, but it is not that bad. It is definitely an acquired taste. I will be heading to the store tomorrow and seeing what other foods they have on hand. They tell me that this is a bad time of year to be here, the regular supply flights have not started and the shelves will be a wee bit bare. We shall see.

First Light Through CAPABL

Last night was a banner night for us. After working for two days, CAPABL was wheeled outside and turned on for the first time here in Greenland. What is CAPABL you ask? Well, CAPABL stands for Cloud, Aerosol Polarization And Backscatter Lidar. This is the project that I am working on during this trip.

Saturday I worked mostly by myself putting CAPABL back together while Ryan was working on another system here at SRI (Sondrestrom Research Institute). Who is Ryan? I'm glad you asked. Ryan Neely is a PhD candidate that I am working with. He is gathering his thesis data with CAPABL. I have one thing to say about him, he doesn't sleep all that often, but when he sleeps, it's for 10-12 hours.

We got most of the work done on rebuilding CAPABL on Saturday, but we had the last bit of rough calibration to do on Sunday. We rolled it out of the building the first time around 9:30 pm, but it was still to light outside to do much work. We tried again at 11:30 and it was finally starting to darken enough so that we could see the laser beam. It was exciting to see that the rough calibration was good enough to start seeing some data coming in. The big question now is: how long will it take us to dial it in to get the high altitude data we want? Only time will tell.

Greenland is not very green

Greetings All,

After delays caused by Ash and leaking props, we finally made it into Kangerlussuaq. What a day it has been. We had bag drag at 5 am this morning in Schenectady and then onto the ANG base. The flight didn't make it off the ground until 8:45 am eastern. We had some problems with the plane that caused us to get off the plane so they could work on it. After a brief service call, we were allowed back on the plane and we took off for Goose Bay Newfoundland. We arrived right before 12 pm eastern, had the famous Ice Cream from the passenger lounge and headed back out to the plane. Unfortunately one of the other C-130's in our group had some problems. They were having prop problems. It was looking like for a while that we were going to unload the cargo from our plane and setup enough web seats for the passengers from the other C-130. As it turned out, they decided to continue on to Kangerlussuaq on three engines. All told, we were delayed over an hour there. When we finally made it into Kangerlussuaq it was almost 8 pm Greenland Local Time (for those of you keeping track that is Mountain Time +4 hours). Ryan and I made our contacts with the folks out at the station we will be working at for the next couple of weeks and grabbed our gear and headed out to the station. This should be fun.

We're a Go

It's a little after 4 pm Eastern, I just got the call, we are a go for tomorrow morning. The ANG has approved the flight and we have bag drag at 5 am tomorrow morning. For those of you who don't know, bag drag is the show up time so that they can weigh both you and your baggage prior to palletizing all of the gear. Even though bag drag is at 5 am, I don't expect the plane to get off the ground before 8 am. I will let you know what happens. The next entry will, God willing, be from Greenland.

Another Delay

Here is the latest news. I got the phone call just before 5 pm eastern, the ANG has canceled the flight for tomorrow morning and have rescheduled for Friday morning. I spent the day walking around the downtown area of Schenectady and doing a bit of shopping. I also took the time to exercise a bit. Not much else to do around here. Especially since we don't have a car anymore.

Everything we are doing is based off of walking around the downtown area. It has a beginnings of a walking mall like Boulder, but there are a lot of empty store fronts. I found a little Irish store and spent wee bit o'time browsing through everything. I'll see what else I can find tomorrow.

Well, here is the latest news. Most of the folks who are heading north here in NY are feeling a bit sheepish right now. After more than a week of telling people that there was no way that we would be delayed, well we are being delayed. At 3 pm the ANG (Air National Guard) called off the Wednesday flight from Schenectady to Kangerslussuaq because of reports that a low pressure cell has caused the Icelandic Volcanic ash to move towards Greenland. Wow, we are having a hard time admitting that this was even possible. So, for now we are going to stay here for another 24 hours and see what the weather does. I'll let everybody know when we get the go ahead to fly out of here.

Well, here it is. I have been talking about this trip for a several months now and it is finally here. Tomorrow morning I will be boarding a plane for the first leg of my trip to the frozen North. As most of you know this is my first long trip in many years.

I am heading first to Albany NY and a near by Air National Guard base and then on to Kangerslussuaq on Wednesday. This will be the first stop on my adventure in Greenland. I am expecting to be in Kangerslassauq for several weeks. I will be posting as I get the chance.