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.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, June 5, 2015
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
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
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
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.
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.
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