Happy Father's Day and Summer Solstice

Greetings from the Far North,

This is a happy day for me, it is Father's Day and it is the Summer Solstice.  I am happy it is Father's Day because I got a wonderful card from Allison, which made me a wee bit home sick.  I also got to call my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day.  This really made my Sunday a happy occasion.  So for all you Dad's out there, I hope that y'all had as good a day as I have had.

The Summer Solstice is a big todo in the Arctic and Antarctic communities.  For the Arctic, it is the day when the sun is as high in the sky as it will get and summer is full swing.  In fact we had a high temperature today of 14 F.  It is fun to walk around without needing my heavy jacket.  The light winds also help a lot in making it feel so warm outside.  For the Antarctic the solstice means the sun is coming back and your winter is halfway done.  In fact it is called Mid-Winter's Day around the continent.  One of the nice traditions started a while back is for all of the different stations to send each other an E-Card wishing everybody a safe and happy day.  I have changed my blog's picture to the Summit Solstice greeting picture we sent out.  It is a fun day and a lot of fun to participate in.  Over on my Picasa site I have made a new folder just to contain all of the greetings we have received in the last couple of days.  Take a look, there are some good ones from Russia, Italy and Uruguay.

Last night, being a Saturday night and with nobody having to work the next morning, we celebrated the Solstice.  We had asked everybody to change into their best clothes for dinner so we could celebrate.  We pulled out our linen's and candles and rearranged the tables in the Big House so we could all sit together.  Our dinner consisted of steak and crab cakes, with roasted veggies and a lemon cake for dessert.  Somebody even pulled out a bottle of wine, so that we could all have a sip to celebrate.  It was a wonderful dinner.  Afterwards we rearranged the furniture again, this time into a theater type setting and we watched Interstellar.  Not a bad way to end the day.

Well, as the day is coming to a close, I want to wish everybody a happy Father's Day and for those of us in the far north, enjoy the summer while it lasts.

Summit Camp's Day Off

Here we are on a lazy Sunday morning.  Summit Station's one day off a week.  When you sign up to work at Summit, you sign an agreement that says you are willing to work 6 days a week and 10 hours a day.  It makes for a long week, but then there is nothing to do here after hours.

Sundays are the one day when the whole station slows down and takes a deep breath.  The kitchen is DIY, the laundry is usually going continuously and people are few and far between.  Here it is 12 noon and there are only 5 of us here in the Big House.  I managed to get into the shower this morning (first shower since I got here two weeks ago) and wash myself down.  I also threw all of my clothes and bed sheets into the washer/dryer.  What a great thing it is to feel clean.

One of my activities that I have been doing after dinner is to walk around the station.  If you can imagine a triangle, with each point being one of the buildings on station, that is my route.  Starting at the Big House, I walk 0.6 km to TAWO, then over to the MSF ~0.5 km and then back to the Big House.  I have been doing this loop 2-3 times a night, just to get some exercise in.  During the work day, depending on what I am working on, I can do the MSF to TAWO leg 3-4 times.

My work has been going slowly and I still have quite a bit to go.  I have two weeks left on station to get the everything finished.  So, not only is it a Sunday, it is my half way point as well.  Yippie.

May all of you have a wonderful Sunday as well.

End of Flight Period 3

Here we are one week and one day after getting to Summit Camp, we are finally to the Inter Flight Period.  After having the ANG ground all of the planes in Greenland over the weekend due to landing gear box issues, they had one plane fly from Scotia NY, to Kanger, spend the night and then fly to Summit this morning.  What a relief it is to finally have most of the people here leave.  Up until this morning, we had 35 people on station.  There were people every where, the old crew tired of being here, the PFS management watching over everything and the new crew trying to find their own way of doing things.  We had 25 people leave this morning and 4 new people show up.  It is almost quiet now in the Big House.  There is laughing and joking and quite a different feeling for all of us.  I am really going to like this crew.

My work has been mostly documenting all of the problems and trying to figure out how things are put together.  Most of the documents I have found on station are not accurate to what I actually see on the tower.  Today, I found that what I thought was the main instrument reporting the Relative Humidity was in fact the spare and was jury rigged to boot.  I will be tearing all this out in the next day or so and rebuilding it to spec.

The food this year is good ol' comfort food.  Our cook is a gentleman by the name of Frances and he has yet to disappoint any of us with his cooking.  Tonight we had 5 different kinds of pizza, couscous, a salad and blood oranges for dessert.  The rest of the meals have been along the same lines.

Have a good week.

First Friday

Here we are, Friday June 5th.  I have been at Summit for 5 days, away from home for over a week and settling in at 10500 feet.  The past few days have been hectic and exhausting.  The first two nights I was here I didn't sleep all that well.  I felt like I had the minimal amount of sleep necessary to function.  The third night was much better and last night better still, I hope this continues.  The weather has been incredible, highs around 5 F and light winds.  Today in fact I ran around most of the day with my light gloves and ski cap on.  I didn't need my heavy jacket at all.  Everybody is commenting on how warm it is right now.

As of Wednesday, I have been working on my 2nd project, the calibrating, maintenance and repositioning of all the Meteorological equipment for NOAA.  This work is taking me out to the Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory, or as we call it TAWO.  It is 0.6 km outside the camp and a nice quiet walk.  I am averaging about 5 km a day right now, going between the Big House, MSF and TAWO.

My work has been going well, frustrating at times, but well.  I managed to get the equipment that is lowest on the tower calibrated today.  It seems silly to say that it took me 10 hours to get three instruments calibrated, but it did.  Tomorrow I will take all of that equipment off the tower and raise them about a meter.  They are too close to the snow surface now and I want them to stay snow free for at least a year.

Since I mentioned the tower, I had my climbing check out yesterday and it didn't go exactly as planned.  I am not as acclimated as I need to be, before climbing towers that is.  While I was up at the 8 meter level, my arms and hands gave out.  I couldn't close my hands and that is not a good thing while you are up in the air like that.  I managed to slowly climb down, but it is something I don't want to happen again.  I probably won't do any more climbing until middle of next week to give myself a chance to get used to the altitude.

I hope all is well with everybody,

Cheers

Nice Warm Day

Oh what a wonderful day, nice warm and clear skies.  Not to mention having the population go down by one person.  Here we are sitting at a lovely -10F temperature.  The winds are light and out of the NE meaning we must restrict the movements of all motorized vehicles because of the chance of contamination of the clean air sector.  I am looking out one of the windows in the Mobile Science Facility (MSF) at a vast white plain with very little to break up the snow surface.

We finished up the laser work last night, with only small adjustments left for the near future.  My work on the Meteorological program has yet to begin, due to the measurements being used for all of the flight operations.  I won't be able to do much until next Monday when we have the last flight for this period.  Once I can dig into the system the real work begins.

Some news from the station, we are undergoing a crew change this week.  The new crew is working hard to learn the ropes and to make it their home for the next 4 months.  I will be training the new techs on the changes I am doing after they have a chance to settle in.  I am looking forward to the old crew leaving so that the station population will drop into the 30's making it a much more livable station.

Bag Drag and DV's

Here we are, Sunday afternoon, a light breeze and fairly warm for Kangerlussuaq at the end of May.  We had Bag Drag today at 3 pm for tomorrow's flight to Summit.  I tried to combine my bags into one, but it didn't work.  I still have my big waterproof bag and my grey back pack.  Oh well.  Since all of my gear, except for what I will be wearing on the plane, is now in the hands of the ANG, I don't have much to do or to worry about.  I did do a small load of laundry this afternoon, mostly to head into my month at Summit with as many clean clothes as possible.  With ~45 people onsite it will be difficult to get near the one bathroom and the washer/dryer.

We are expecting some DV's to come into town tonight, just in time to come up to Summit with us tomorrow.  Some how. I don't think they will be staying here at the KISS building with us.

As a refresher I have gone back through previous posts and pulled out a few definitions for everybody, just to make sure everybody knows what I am talking about, especially since I do use a lot of slang terms when I am in the field.  

Here is my post from May 31, 2010:

Memorial Day 2010, it has turned out to be a wonderful day for us here at Summit. The last couple of days were overcast and windy. All of the ant tracks were blown away and the sastrugi have gone from nothing to 2 foot in height in some areas. This morning I was removing the snow from the down wind side of my tent, just to let the sun shine in.

Now for some definitions:

ANG
The Air National Guard. The 109th squadron which flies the unique LC-130s that fly into the arctic and antarctic remote stations.

Ant Tracks
The paths made by multiple people in the snow between buildings. Usually following one makes walking easier.

Bag Drag
The act of showing up at the ANG to weigh in for for a flight. All checked luggage is taken, and all PAX are weighed with carry-on bags and ECW gear. The times change with little notice, but are rarely convenient.

Beaker
A scientist.

Big House
The main building at Summit Camp. It houses the dining hall and general use toilet and shower.

Boomerang
To turn back in mid-flight, usually due to bad weather at the landing site, or mechanical problems, especially ski issues with the LC-130s.

Carp
Short for Carpenter. Also the name of the Carpenter berthing building at Summit.

DNF
Do Not Freeze, a label applied to cargo that must not be allowed to sit outside.

DV

Distinguished Visitor, a person of some prominence down for a visit. DV is used in favor of the more common VIP.

ECW

Extreme Cold Weather, the label given to our protective clothing, from parkas and bunny boots, to bear claws, balaclavas, yazoo caps, et cetera.

Freshies
Common term for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Green House
The science and full time crew berthing building at Summit.

MSF
Mobile Science Facility. This is the newest building at Summit. Put into operation summer 2010.

PAX
Passengers.

PI
Principle Investigator, head of a science project.

Sastrugi
Sharp irregular groves in the snow surface carved by the wind. They are usually parallel to the prevailing wind.

Sun DogsThe name for the two rainbows that appear on either side of the sun, approximately 23° away, caused by the refraction of light through suspended ice crystals. Frequently seen with displays of halos and other perihelical effects. They are occasionally visible in temperate latitudes, but more common in polar regions.

TAWO

Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory, the building in which NOAA has all of it's equipment to do long term in-situ measurements.  It is a small, cramped and overworked building sitting ~0.6 km from the Big House.

Tent City
This is a group of 20 tents setup at Summit for the use of summer personnel.

Traverse
The name given to any journey across the ICE more than several miles in length.

Kangerlussuaq 2015

It is a good day here in Kangerlussuaq, bright, shiny and pleasantly chilly.  We arrived here last night about 7:00 pm local time.  The flight from Scotia NY - Goose Bay Nova Scotia - Kangerlussuaq took  ~ 8 hours of total flight time.  The LC-130 we flew on was an old friend of mine Tail# 31096 - nicknamed "City of Christchurch".  It is one of the older LC-130's in the ANG stable and she is showing her age.  The flight was louder than normal and had a high frequency buzz that was highly annoying.  I spent most the last 3.5 hours standing and trying to find a spot that didn't make me feel like I was standing on a blender.

My friend Ryan was at the KISS (Kangerlussuaq International Science Support) building when we pulled in, he greeted us and then went straight to bed.  He had flown in from Copenhagen earlier in the day.  I finally made it to bed around 11 pm and was able to sleep until a little before 6 am.  After a quick shower, I took the first of three breakfast shuttles over to the airport cafeteria and had a quick bit to eat.  It was a decent meal, nothing spectacular, just good ol'comfort food.

Not much else is going on, and i will be talkin to u'all later.

Ciao

2015 Polar Field Season Underway

Hi Everybody,

I know that I have not updated this blog in a while, over a year in fact.  But here we go with another Polar Field Season underway.  This year I am going back to Summit camp on two projects, one a Laser Project (CAPABL) and the second the Meteorological Program for NOAA.  Most of my time should be taken up by the Met program which I will go into in a later post.

This entry should be just a quick update from Clifton Park New York the night before we are to leave on the 109th ANG LC-130's.  The next update should be from Kangerlussauq.

Mike