The North Pole Environmental
Observatory 2003 and Arctic
Freshwater Switchyard 2003 fieldwork is over. Everyone is
safely home! We are grateful to the National
Science Foundation for their support of the NPEO and the Arctic
Freshwater Switchyard projects (Grants OPP-9910305 and OPP-0230427).
It’s been fun receiving reports from the field and passing them on to you.
This message concludes the reports for this year, but take a look at our
NPEO web page now and again to see what’s new, including pictures:
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole
Please check out the Seattle Times and the
New York Times papers of 5/13/03.
Both include NPEO stories.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003________________________________________________________________________
New York Times
Doing science at the top of the world: A winch problem was just one of myriad
challenges, large and small, that confronted scientists who recently ventured
to the North Pole to decipher disturbing changes in the polar ice, ocean
and atmosphere. Unlike almost anywhere else on the planet, this environment
required a research team that combined the intellectual power of scientists
with the brute strength of furniture movers, the wile of backcountry mechanics,
the courage (or recklessness) of extreme athletes and the willingness to
carry a shotgun to ward off polar bears. Named are:
-- Jamie Morison, oceanographer with the Applied Physics Laboratory
-- Neil Swanberg, program director with National Science Foundation
-- Eric Boget, ocean engineer with the Applied Physics Laboratory
-- Jim Osse, ocean engineer with the Applied Physics Laboratory
-- Jim Johnson, ocean engineer
with the Applied Physics Laboratory
-- Tim Stanton, oceanographer with Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/science/earth/13EXTR.html?ex=1053841396&ei=1&en=ef538a7c91a08429
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Seattle Times
Scientists go to extremes to study warming, currents: University of Washington-led
researchers have journeyed to the center of the Arctic ice pack, taking water
samples and planting scientific buoys. If all goes well, the buoys will drift
with the ice pack for the next year, serving as remote scientific sentinels.
This is a reprint of the May 5 article by Dallas Morning News reporter Alex
Witze who visited the scientists at the North
Pole, a trip arranged by UW and NSF. Named are:
-- Jim Overland, PMEL
-- Tim Stanton, Naval Postgraduate School
-- Jamie Morison, University of Washington
-- Sigrid Salo, PMEL
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134726024_arctic13.html
Email from Jamie Morison, Seattle, May 13, 2003
Sue this is an update of the last couple of days of the 2003 deployment.
5/2 - Kelly Roger, Mike Dan arrive Alert unpack equipment - Twin Otter and
Helo arrive
5/3 - Twin Otter deploys Petterman group, weather too bad for Helo ops
5/4 - Weather day
5/5 - Twin Otter deploys Petterman group, weather too bad for Helo ops
5/6 - Good weather, Helo ops begin - Check fit CTD - Hdro gear in Twin Otter,
fly out and do Station 4 through 4+ meters of ice.
5/7 - Helo Ops - Twin Otter Hydro at station 5, problems with winch gearbox/motor,
but successfully complete station. Repair winch at night.
5/8 - Helo Ops - Twin Otter Hydro Station 6 - Twin Otter makes afternoon
evening flight to deploy fuel cache
5/9 - Helo departs - Twin Otter CTD -Hydro at Station 1 (North Pole) and
Station 2 (60 miles south). Stops at fuel cache coming and going, arrive
home at midnight, pack all night.
5/10- Finish pallet load and fly to Edmonton via Eureka, Resolute, Cambridge
Bay, Yellowknife
All stations were completed as planned, buoys all working in good ice, and
mooring successfully recovered and redeployed.
Email from Mike Steele, Seattle, May 13, 2003
The first year of Arctic Freshwater Switchyard operations is now complete.
We completed 10 stations across the continental slope north of Alert, Ellesmere
Island, Canada, including measurements of temperature, salinity, currents,
and dissolved nutrients. We took these measurements over 3 beautiful
days (May 6, 7, and 8) with warmish temperatures (average of perhaps -10
degrees Celsius) and little wind, although with some ice fog. Our helicopter
pilot, John Innis of Universal Labrador Helicopters, was an outstanding member
of our team, assisting with the measurements and landing the helo in whatever
crazy places we needed him to. Of course there were some glitches with
the instrumentation (cold batteries, freezing spigots, etc) but very preliminary
analysis indicates that we got all of what we came for. The arctic
is a beautiful place! The humble word "ice" doesn't begin to describe
all of the amazing forms that can be seen (and climbed, and tasted) as one
walks around on the Arctic Ocean. -Mike Steele
(The 2003 Arctic Freshwater Switchyard team was Principal Investigator Mike
Steele, field and computer scientist Roger Andersen, and helo pilot John
Innis. Field/computer scientist Wendy Ermold also provided Seattle-based
assistance.)
Email from Roger Andersen, Friday-Saturday 9-10 May,
Jim Innis left for Alert in the Jet Long Ranger Friday morning.______________________________________
With 16 hours in the Twin Otter, Jamie and Kelly got the last two Hydro/Chemistry
stations, including the one at the Pole. Returning in deteriorating
weather, the Twin found the fuel cache by the positions reported from the
borrowed http://www.mb.ec.gc.ca/nature/ecosystems/da00s04.en.html>Environment Canada Argos buoy put out to mark the position.
The weather office in Alert permitted us to access those Argos positions
in near real time. They landed back in Alert 10 minutes after midnight
through a thin ground fog.
Then we pulled an all-nighter packing everything not urgently needed onto
a Herc pallet for backhaul by the 109th in mid-June, and everybody took off
in the Twin for Resolute at 8AM Saturday. Refueling in Eureka, we reached
Resolute with one hour to spare to connect with the flights south.
Kelly immediately took a flight to the village of Grise Fjord to brief that
community about the USCGC Healy cruise this coming summer. Andy, Jamie,
Mike, Dan, Roger and Twin Otter copilot Dave took the Borek King Air to Cambridge
Bay, connecting with a scheduled 737 flight to Edmonton, and everyone got
where they were going over the weekend.
Andy Heiberg has a one-page spreadsheet laying out the entire plan for this
year's operation. Demonstrating a logistical wizardry that we all have
grown accustomed to, it all worked.
Email from Roger Andersen, Thursday 8 May, Alert_________________________________________________
The Twin
CTD winch required a late-night motor and gearbox swap, justifying the spare
we have sent back and forth for several years. This was a mechanical
retrofit requiring a good deal of ingenuity by Jamie and Ken Borek and mechanic
Paul Richter. Both aircraft were off Alert at 0900 Local this morning.
The Twin Otter's first
flight was to re-visit old Station 6 at 85 North and 67 West with the complete
CTD/Chemistry
treatment. Mike flew along to learn about the Twin operation.
Then the Twin made a second flight this afternoon to put in a fuel cache,
temporarily marked with Argos buoy 5313, for the flight to the Pole tomorrow.
Mike CTDing
Roger and Dan took the helo on a final day of Switchyard CTDing
starting two degrees of latitude NNE of Alert and following the 600 meter
isobath west. They had a fairly adventurous day, first finding no cracks
close to the initial position, then getting three stations spread out along
a gigantic open lead that followed their survey line, and finally dipping
into some ice fog to land in a region of many small floes, all freely moving.
Twice the instrument was in the water and soaking at 10 meters, when ice motion
posing a threat to either the helo or CTD persuaded them
to bail out and take off.
A big part
of this trip was providing Dan with a chance to collect video for his project,
and for that this day was made
to order. Together with his Twin flight yesterday, he has more video
than he can use, and his adventures are not over. He and Mike expect
to fly to Resolute
with the helicopter tomorrow.
-Roger 2115 EST Alert
Phone call
from Andy Heiberg, Thursday, 5/8/03, Alert,
11:30 a.m. Eastern Time
The weather
is beautiful.
Jamie and Kelly are out doing the southern most CTD station
at about 85N. When they return, the Twin Otter will
take the fuel cache out for Friday’s CTD stations.
Mike and Roger are done with their main Switchyard stations
and are very happy. Today Dan and Roger went out in the helo to get
additional Switchyard stations.
If all goes well and the weather continues to cooperate, Mike and Dan
will ride the helo to Resolute
on Friday, and arrive in Seattle on Sunday.
Phone
call from Andy Heiberg, Wednesday 5/7/03, Alert
___________________________________________
On Tuesday the weather turned good and Mike Steele and Roger Andersen
were able to go out on the helo and accomplished three CTD stations
and surface water samples.
Kelly Falkner and Jamie Morison went out in the Twin Otter and did one
hydrochemical survey (expendable CTD, a deep CTD cast, and water sampling).
They had to drill through 13 feet of ice. They arrived back at Alert
at midnight.
Today, 5/7/03, Roger and Mike are out again on the helo and hope to complete
four or five CTD stations.
Kelly, Jamie, and Dan Dyer are out on the Twin Otter and will do three
more stations closest to Alert. Dan is busy filming and interviewing
everyone.
On Thursday a fuel cache will be established halfway between Alert and
the Pole; and on Friday, weather permitting, Jamie and Kelly will do their
last two stations.
Andy keeps busy tracking the helo and Twin Otter, and communicating with
them via radio.
Their estimated date to leave Alert is Saturday, May 10.
Email from Roger Andersen,
Tuesday-Wednesday 6-7 May Alert
All of a sudden Tuesday we awoke to flyable weather, and everyone leaped
into action. The NPEO
CTD-Chemistry Survey (Jamie and Kelly) ran into some unexpected surprises
in the difference between this year's Ken Borek Twin Otter and the Firstair
Twins we have used up to this year. After a burst of Morison carpentry,
they were off just after noon and went for Station 4 way up at 87 North
and 90 West. They found very thick ice. Jamie took one Jiffy
cutter bit and 4 three-foot extensions and needed them all to get through
where the Twin landed. But they got both CTD and chemistry at Station
4, at a cost of getting back to Alert at 1130PM. Wednesday they got
Station 5 near 86 North and 70 West, and Dan went along and took a lot of
video footage.
Mike and Roger had two wonderful days extending the Switchyard transect
in the Jet Ranger,
collecting seven CTD stations and four XCPs.
The variety of ice dynamics was striking, especially in thinly frozen leads.
One region of nearly open water was over a mile across. Finding
small leads to lower instruments through proved fairly easy, especially
with pilot John able to plant the helo wherever we wanted.
-Roger Wednesday evening
Monday,
May 5, 2003_________________________________________________________________________
Dallas Morning News:
Arctic
ice camp provides window on climate change
Scientists go to
extremes to study warming, currents: University of
Washington-led researchers have journeyed to the center of the Arctic
ice
pack, taking water samples and planting scientific buoys. If all
goes well,
the buoys will drift with the ice pack for the next year, serving
as remote
scientific sentinels. Named are:
-- Jim Overland, PMEL
-- Tim Stanton, Naval Postgraduate
School
-- Jamie Morison, University
of Washington / PSC
-- Sigrid Salo, PMEL
-- Takashi Kikuchi and Hirokatsu Uno, JAMSTEC
Email from
Roger Andersen, Monday 5/5/03 Alert, 1600 LOCAL (Eastern)
The days are starting to blur together, since falling snow and poor visibility
has kept the helicopter on the ground again today. Still, the weather
was a little better this morning, enough for the Twin Otter to get off
for the Petermann
Glacier. Even though the wind picked up this afternoon,
the Twin got back in here and crabbed out again in a cross wind for
their (presumably last) flight to the Glacier guys. So now, once
it gets back, we can begin loading and preparing the Twin for Jamie
and Kelly's CTD operations. This involves anchoring the winch
in the back door, setting up the bottle rack forward and loading the
generator and Herman Nelson heater, not to mention familiarizing our
new Ken Borek crew with the CTD setup.
This weather has the distinct feel of the very beginning of summer: warmer,
foggier, more snow, distinctly May rather than March-April. For the
Switchyard helo survey, Mike and Roger are as ready to go as they can be.
Mike may be showing slight symptoms of excessive eagerness (barking, wagging
tail). Kelly's Dissolved Oxygen Laboratory has been fully functional
for some time. We have a helicopter pilot, John Innis from Goose
Bay, with 22,000 hours in rotary winged aircraft, but he needs a visible
horizon, both here at Alert and to the north. Further evidence of the
smallness of the world among high latitude aircrews presented itself when
we discovered that the father of our Twin's co-pilot is a long-standing
friend of John's and holds a similar number of helicopter hours.
Dan, our video guy, is more than ready for something to happen too,
and he has profitably spent the time thinking up questions to ask. So,
we're standing by. -Roger
Email from
Roger Andersen, Sunday 5/4/03,1600 Eastern Time, Alert________________________________
Steadily falling
snow with low visibility and contrast for a second day. No flying today,
although holding out for a possible evening Twin flight to Petermann Glacier.
Preparations are underway in the Spinnaker Bldg. for Jamie and Kelly.
Twin Otter CTD survey flights to follow remaining Petermann flights.
Successfully got positions from Sigrid and Cache buoy from ARGOS.
-Roger
Email from Roger Andersen, Saturday 5/3/03, Alert________________________________________________
Morning low
clouds and light snow, bad enough to prevent the helicopter from flying.
The Twin got off by 9AM and apparently did succeed in landing the Petermann
Glacier group at their campsite over in Greenland. They are scheduled
for several more flights over the next couple of days.
PM, we are headed down to the ramp to prepare for the first Switchyard
flight, and especially to see what we can load in the helicopter.
Hey, everything fits in the helo! Falling snow. Set
up the Iridium with remote
antenna in Spinnaker Bldg. and am using it to send this message.
-Roger
May
2, 2003, Email from Jim Johnson upon his return home to Seattle_______________________________
April 30th brought about the completion of the 2003 field season
of the North Pole Long Term Environmental Observatory. A preliminary
look at the recovered records indicates a 100% data return.
The recovery of the 2002 mooring was a little more difficult
this year than last. We encountered more broken-up ice and less
of the large pans of flat ice. The divers (Eric Boget and Jim Osse) had
about a 40ft. swim to the top floatation buoy. The diving portion
went smoothly due to the detailed preparation by Mike Ohmart.
About 70% of the way through the recovery, three of the bolts
that connect the gear box to the capstan head shaft on our A-frame
system sheared. If it hadn't been for the combined expertise of
Mike Ohmart, Eric Boget and Jim Osse we would have had a very difficult
time finishing the recovery of the 2002 mooring, and we would not have
been able to deploy the new 2003 mooring.
The mooring team performed admirably, and I could not have had
a better group of professional colleagues to pull off a troubled recovery
and a flawless deployment.
Thank you to Mike, Eric and Jim for a great trip.
Best regards,
Jim
Email from Roger Andersen Friday, 5/2/03, Alert
1 hr, 40 min flight in the 109th C-130, Thule to Alert brought
us here at 8:30AM local, which is on Eastern Standard Time (Seattle+3,
GMT-4). Beautiful weather. Andy and Jamie were already here.
The afternoon was spent breaking down the pallets of our cargo at the
Spinnaker Building by the ramp. The Twin Otter arrived from Resolute
in mid-afternoon; the Bell 206 Long Ranger (C-GNOS) did not get in until
11PM, due to marginal weather at the Resolute end.
Email from Dan Dyer, Friday 5/2/03, Alert
Things are going well. The weather in Alert is great for flying.
Helo work should start tomorrow and once the group (not part of NPEO or Switchyard) headed
to Petermann Glacier on Greenland is in place our Twin Otter work will
start. Hopefully the weather will stay. It's been nice, sunny and around
-10 to -5 C. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to the
next few days. It is beautiful to see the wide expanse of ice from the base.
Here is a link to my video about the fun I've been having.
greenlandshort.mov
Dan
Thursday,
May 1, 2003, Canadian
Forces Station, Alert, phone call from Andy Heiberg__________________
The remaining North Pole team, Andy, Jamie, Sigrid, Dean, Takashi
and Hirokatsu, left the Borneo runway at 3 a.m. Moscow time, on May
Day, 5/1/03. Jamie and Andy jumped off in Alert. Sigrid, Dean,
Takashi and Hirokatsu went on to Resolute.
The folks in Resolute will leave this afternoon for Yellowknife, and then on home
via various routings, although Dean will stay on in Yellowknife for a couple
of days to take care of equipment shipments.
Andy reports he has had a shower and eaten. He and Jamie
are headed off to their rooms for a nap.
All installations are working and all are in good locations.
All done. All pleased. Everything went exceedingly well
scientifically.
Email from Roger Andersen, Thursday 5/1/03, Thule Air Base
2.5 hour flight from Kangerlussuaq to Thule in good weather.
We were shocked to discover temperatures at the freezing point here.
They say 31F, but there is standing muddy water on all the roadways.
Reasonable flying weather though, so there is every reason to hope the
hop to Alert will happen on schedule tomorrow morning. I spoke with
a Canadian Boxtop pilot who was up there today, and he says it was -23
(probably C) and that Boxtop will finish up tomorrow. We are hoping
it stays cold, and that the polar fogs of May hold off for another week.
Besides our acute need for good flying weather, Mike hates summer-like data
subject to all the melting processes. That's about it, except that
Kelly reports the Base Gym here has a magnificent sauna, and she had it
all to herself. I don't really expect to get this out tonight, but there
is a rumor that the base library is open and might have Internet access.
So I'll go check it out. Cheers, Roger
Yes, the Thule AB Library is the ticket at a dollar per minute!!
Wednesday,
April 30, 2003, 7:30 p.m. Moscow Time, (8:30 a.m. PDT),
Phone call from Andy Heiberg__________________________________________________________________
Andy is sitting in a cold hut out at the runway site.
Sigrid went to the JAMSTEC
site to calibrate the thermistors and finished at 5 a.m. Can hear
the helo now bringing Sigrid back. Jamie, Dean, Takashi, and Hirokatsu
are coming in now from the JAMSTEC
deployment site over at the Lomonosov
Ridge.
Have completed all work. Last 2 days have been warm
and springy, not too windy, overcast with no shadows.
All will leave Borneo in 6 hours, at 1:30 in the morning (Moscow
time).
Weather at Alert
is not so good so they might go directly to Resolute.
Jamie and Andy will then go to Alert on the Twin Otter.
Wedesday
, April 30, 2003, Email from Roger Andersen, 8 a.m. local time (3:10
a.m. PDT) Kangerlussuaq (Sondrestrom), Greenland
Today was
even warmer, feeling like 60s F when the breeze wasn't blowing, which
it didn't very often. Mike and I slept in, while Kelly and Dan
took off after breakfast to see if they could reach the ice cap, 15 miles
away, on their mountain bikes. Mike and I pedaled out of town the
same direction right after lunch. A few miles along the road, we
stashed the bikes and walked up a prominent peak called "Sugarloaf" which
provides a wonderful viewpoint of the ice cap up-valley and the sea ice-covered
fjord down-valley beyond the runway. Riding back to Kangerlussuaq
on the rocky, bumpy road, Mike provided the official quote of the day,
suitable to go alongside Jamie's depression at the mooring camp:
"My butt hurts!" Kelly and Dan had made it all the way to the great
glacier. Dan reports that Kelly left him in the dust. (Actually, he
insists she wasn't THAT far ahead of him.)
Mike on Sugarloaf Mountain
|
Roger on Sugarloaf Mountain
|
If the weather holds, we will be off to Thule in the morning.
Our pallet is staged on the ramp for a takeoff tomorrow at 9AM.
It seems worthwhile to repeat how well set up the VECO Polar Resources support
operation is for Greenland science. This internet connection
is a good example. (VECO provides Arctic logistics and other services
for field work supported by the National
Science Foundation.)
Please thank Wendy Ermold (APL Physicist) for the color
bathymetry chart, which we were able to upload and print. Apparently
the 109th guys tried to set up a direct flight to Alert tomorrow, but
ran into immovable obstacles like Boxtop (refueling operations at Alert)
and the runway schedule at Thule, so the basic schedule stands. No guarantees
we can provide this much daily info from Thule or Alert.
Cheers, Roger
Email from Roger Andersen Tuesday 4/29 Kangerlussuaq (Sondestrom)____________________________
A positively warm day, call it in the 50s F, only partly
cloudy with little wind. First order of business after
trying to catch up on some sleep was to look for our shipment,
which was promptly found in Veco's warehouse.
They had not heard it was coming, but took care of it just fine.
Everything is here, assuming Dean made a box for the Herman Nelson
heater which I didn't know about, but there is one in the shipment
exactly the right size. The Herc had a great day for flying.
|
Dan flying in the Hercules C-130
|
Mike next to mudflats
|
Dan, Mike and I, with 2 guys from the
National
Geographic took off on a bike, and reached a frozen lake SW
of town. They danced around on the lake while I tried to
snooze in the sun. On the way back, Mike and Dan peeled off to
try to bike down the mud flat between the bridge by town down toward
the fjord. It turns
out there is a quicksand hazard out there, and the Danish authorities
came out with flashing lights and bullhorns ordering them back. Not very
abashed, Mike reports the presence of Pingos out in the mud flats. (1.
A hill of soil-covered ice pushed up by hydrostatic pressure in an area of
permafrost, or 2. A hill of similar origin remaining after the melting of
permafrost (Inuit pinguq).)
|
Kelly rode a bike out the opposite direction from town
and made it up Sugarloaf Mountain with a nice view of the edge
of the glacier. More tomorrow, etc. Cheers, Roger
Tuesday, April 29, 2003, call from Jim Johnson to Knut
Aagaard
Jim just
called from Resolute. The ULS
memory banks looked full, but Jim was unable to plot past the first
one. The ADCP
appeared OK also, and the compass was covering all the quadrants.
The fall pull down appears to have been some 40-50 m and had notable
speeds throughout the water column, though higher in the upper layers.
All in all, a very professional and satisfying job that
they did for the project!
Tuesday, April 29, 2003, 7:45 a.m. Moscow Time, Phone
call from Andy Heiberg
The wind isn’t
too bad, temperature good. Andy, Sigrid Salo and Jim Osse are at the
runway camp. They have two more buoys to deploy and Sigrid’s thermistors.
Andy talked to Jamie and the JAMSTEC
buoy is in. Andy is optimistic that they will be able to pick up Jamie,
Takashi, Hirokatsu, and Dean in 24 hours. They’ll be cozy at the runway
camp for a night or two. Hopefully, the weather will continue to cooperate
and they will all leave the North Pole area on Thursday evening (Moscow time).
Monday,
April 28, 7 p.m. Moscow time, Phone call from Jamie Morison______________________________
The mooring
team recovery and deployment work is complete. They took
off Sunday night with Tim Stanton and the reporters, and are now
in Resolute. Tim put his buoy in at the Borneo runway site.
All working good.
This morning Andy Heiberg, Jim Osse and Sigrid Salo
went over to the Borneo runway site.
Jamie, Dean Stewart, Takashi Kikuchi and Hirokatsu
Uno took the helo with the JAMSTEC equipment and one
of Sigrid's buoys to 88 deg 34.7 min north and 167 deg 54.2 min east.
They have one helo hut up with heat. Jamie just made coffee and
Dean has successfully found tie wraps. The JAMSTEC folks have set up a warm
storage/work tent and are cutting holes. Things are going well
and within 48 hours the buoy deployments for both JAMSTEC and Sigrid should be complete,
although the JAMSTEC
folks are working at a feverish pace and may finish sooner than that,
and will then return to the runway camp Moscow time tomorrow night.
Weather has been perfect, warm, clear, but it is now starting to blow,
visibility is going down a little.
The Borneo camp huts were great this year, central
heating blew warm air into 2 adjacent huts. The helos have
been amazingly capable carrying heavy loads, including up to 14 people
(can carry 40 skiers and their equipment). Fuel problems have
been squared away. Four new drums of fuel will serve as a fuel
cache for the CTD activity.
Additional fuel is being brought in.
The reporters were real happy, both thought it was
great. The human-interest elements might have risen up above
science issues when Mrs. Russia (like Miss America) came out to Borneo.
The prize for the Russian contest winner was a trip to the North Pole.
She wore an ermine cloak and tiara.
The same Russians who built the runway last year are
there again this year. They are good fellows to work with.
On Easter Jamie and Dean were invited to a 6 a.m. Russian Orthodox
Easter service including a 3-gun salute. They shared a special
cake with decorated hard-boiled eggs, then exchanged patches.
Dean also got instructions on driving the Russian tractor.
There are news articles about
the North Pole Environmental Observatory in today's New York Times,
and yesterday's Dallas Morning News. Photographed people include
Jim Osse (with Santa Claus and runner-up Mrs. Russia 2003), and Jim
Johnson, just doing his job. Quotes include Jamie, Jim J., Jim
O., Knut, and Tim Stanton.
www.nytimes.com
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/healthscience/stories\/042703dnnatnp.700f9.html
Email
from Roger Andersen Monday 4/28 Kangerlussuaq (Sondestrom)
Last night we assembled at the Ramada Inn in Schenectady: Mike
Steele, Dan Dyer, and Roger Andersen from the Polar Science Center at the UW and Kelly Falkner from Oregon State. Today we took a 5:45 C-130 flight
from Stratton Air Base in Schenectady with the 109th nonstop
to this place. Pretty painless. Either C-130s have
gotten quieter or my hearing has deteriorated. The aircraft
had some 23 passengers headed for various sites in Greenland,
many apparently for Summit
Camp up on the icecap.
Remarkably enough, they knew we were coming, and the plan is
as advertised, which means we will be here 2 days and 3 nights
before going on to Thule Thursday
and Alert
the next day. The Herc has 2 days of flying from here to
catch up on weather-delayed flights within Greenland. At
least, that's the plan. It is not cold here, probably not
even freezing, but looks like it was up until about yesterday, and
with the enormous Greenland glacier just over the hill, it could
get cold again in a hurry. Lots of daylight. Quarters are typically
Arctic, college dorm-like. We had Musk Ox for dinner.
The rooms wired for both 110 and 220.
Veco
runs a well-oiled machine here, complete to some mountain bikes
available for loan. They also have a dial-up internet connection,
so I can compose this on my laptop and take it to the internet
machine on a floppy. Dan can hardly believe he's in Greenland.
Saturday,
April 26, 2003_____________________________________________________________________
Kelly Falkner, Mike Steele, Roger Andersen and Dan Dyer
all left Seattle bound for Schenectady, New York, and the Stratton
Air Guard Base for a 109th Airlift Wing flight to Greenland, then on
to Canadian
Forces Station (CFS) Alert. Alert is on Canada's Ellesmere
Island and is the closest human outpost to the North Pole
Jamie, Kelly and Mike will carry out the NPEO Hydrochemical
Survey by Twin Otter aircraft between Alert and the North Pole. Mike
and Roger will carry out a 120-km north-south oriented CTD section
centered on 84N, 65W using a helicopter. For more details about
their work, please see psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/Plans2003.html
Dan Dyer intends to video tape polar scientists at work
and produce the film as a DVD for distribution to high school students.
The film will be Dan’s final project for a Master of Communications
in Digital Media degree at the UW.
Friday
Evening, April 25, 2003 Phone call from Jim Johnson to Knut Aagaard
_______________________
Mooring
NP03 was deployed at 2359 25 April UTC in 4301 meters of water.
That puts the ULS 55 m below the surface. The mooring went
in quickly, in eight hours, and without wire angle.
Friday, April 25, 2003 Phone call from Jamie Morison,
at Borneo, 7:10 a.m. Moscow time
Jamie and
the media are heading out to the mooring camp for the new mooring
deployment. The mooring work should be done in about 12 hours.
They had some winch trouble during the mooring recovery but our
resourceful fellows got it fixed.
After the two-hour trip to the mooring camp Jamie
will stop at the runway camp to help with buoy deployments.
Borneo is split into two camps. A small runway camp is approximately
7 kilometers from the main Borneo camp. Jamie and Andy are putting
together the materials for another building and stove out at the runway
camp. Once the mooring camp breaks up they will use some of their
materials. Dean will also be at the runway site on Friday to help
Sigrid Salo and Tim Stanton deploy their buoys.
The JAMSTEC
buoys will be deployed on Saturday, hopefully at 88ºN, 170ºE
on the other side of the Lomonosov Ridge.
The shortage of fuel has limited their helo operations
but Andy is arranging for a fuel delivery from Alert.
The reporters are having a good time talking to
everyone in camp.
Jamie did
one CTD
cast at Borneo, at approximately 89ºN 86º E.
Jamie found it is still warm down in the Atlantic water. He plans
another CTD
cast at the mooring site later today. It is clear that changes
are continuing in the Arctic.
The weather is beautiful, clear as a bell, not too
cold, -25C, no wind. Andy is doing his calisthenics and Jamie
is looking for coffee cups. It’s time to refuel on caffeine.
Jamie will try to get some low resolution pictures of Borneo to send
us.
New York Times Web Forum, April
24, 2003 1500EST____________________________________________
Email conversation with reporter Andrew
Revkin at Borneo. Free New
York Times registration required.
Phone call from Jim Johnson
to Knut Aagaard, 12:30 p.m. PDT (Seattle):
Jim Johnson
just called from the mooring camp, where it is now Thursday evening.
The 2002 mooring was fully recovered about 12 hours ago (around
midnight Seattle time). It came in cleanly and was in good
shape, to everyone's amazement given the rubble fields around the
site.
There has been one major problem, viz., that two
of the three bolts on the capstan drive sheared off. They
were able to effect full repair within about four hours, however,
and load tests with the full anchor weight suggest the capstan is
as good as new.
It's warm (in the minus teens), and under the insulating
cover the hole is staying open nicely. A back haul of gear
to Borneo (and on to Resolute) is planned for tomorrow morning camp
time, and shortly afterwards they'll start deployment of the 2003
mooring. Eric will likely go out on that backhaul flight.
The ice is drifting rapidly toward the southwest,
but Jim reports that all is well in camp as they prepare for a
quiet night.
Emailed Wednesday, April 23, 2003 __________________________________________________________
From Jamie Morison:
The mooring has been released, recovery
in progress. Jamie Morison, Tim Stanton, and Press
Corp to Borneo tomorrow.
Phone call from Andy Heiberg, at Borneo,
9:30 p.m. Moscow time:
The mooring recovery is underway.
It is slow going. The ice is thick and took some
work getting the ice plug out of the hole. The mooring
team will sleep tomorrow, then start the new mooring deployment.
In approximately 30 minutes, Jamie,
Tim, and the media will arrive at Borneo. Andy and
Dean are heading out to the runway in the helicopter
to pick them up. The runway is approximately 5 miles from Borneo.
Weather has been good, -24C. The ice is terrible around
Borneo and they are not sure yet where Sigrid Salo and
Tim Stanton will deploy their buoys.
Phone call from Jim Johnson to
Knut Aagaard:
Jim just called from the mooring camp.
They had bad ice the first day and did not release
the mooring. It is now released, however, albeit in
ridged and pretty thick ice. The mooring camp, which is
moving rapidly, is established; the hole has been melted through
9' of ice; and they are getting ready to dive. Eric and Jim
O. will go in the water shortly. The top of the mooring is
about 13 m from the hole, and it had to be located acoustically,
since the PIEPS did not work. There have been a variety of
issues to deal with, but all seems well at the moment, and
they are feeling good about their progress. Jim will call
when the mooring is fully recovered.
Emailed Monday, April 21, 2003 _____________________________________________________________
From Jim Johnson:
Things are going along fine. We have
loaded the Hawker with about 6400 pounds
for the first flight to Borneo. We will be
flying with Andy, Dean, Eric, Mike, Jim O. and myself. Andy
has talked to Borneo and there is a good chance
we could fly the Mil-8 helicopter out soon after
we arrive and do the hunt. This would give us a good jump
on starting the whole process. We plan to fly out with the
camp and search gear and all 4 of the mooring team. Hopefully
when I call you Tuesday morning, it will be to tell you
we have it!
From
Jamie Morison
Hawker 748 departed Resolute
for Borneo with Andy Heiberg, Dean
Stewart, Jim Johnson, Mike Ohmart, Eric Boget, Jim
Osse, and aircrew of three. Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA)
at Borneo is 1330 CDT (1830 UTC). Sigrid
Salo, Takashi Kikuchi, Hirokatsu Uno, and Jamie Morison
are in Resolute checking equipment. Andrew
Revkin, Peter West, Alexandra Witse, and Tim Stanton due
Resolute at 2000 CDT.