The Longest Day of the Year?

Happy Summer Solstice! Back home in NH this meant the longest day of the year with sunset not until ~9pm. Here at Summit, however, there's nothing remarkable about the solstice. Afterall, you can't make a 24-hour day any longer. What it probably does mean though is that the sun is a bit higher in the sky at night than usual. This would be difficult to measure though without burning out my retinas. Still, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere that are not above the Arctic Circle, enjoy the extra sunlight!

Speaking of 24 hour daylight, here's a picture I took at 11pm during Saturday's overnight sampling:


The Arctic sure is pretty!

I do have some sad news today: two of my geese-y friends were found dead at camp today. This bums me out; I really thought they'd make it! RIP geese, RIP. Maybe the one that wasn't found did find it's way to the coast. Here's hopin'.

On a lighter, more positive note, I went for my first Summit run today. Conditions were perfect by Summit standards (~18C (~0F), sunny, no wind) and I had some time before dinner so I figured why not? This was the first run I've done since my time in Kanger when I picked up the sled dog puppy so I planned to go slow. And slow I went, though it sure didn't feel like it; thanks to the altitude (just above 10,000ft here) and the snow, it felt like I was running a race! I did expect running to be harder up here but I thought the ~5 miles I've been walking a day would've helped. Maybe the next run will be easier. One bonus of today's hard run though is that I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight, even if the sun's a little higher in the Arctic sky!

Snow Geese

One of the nice things about Summit is the lack of wildlife. Not that I don't enjoy all the sights and sounds a forest or field has to offer, but not having to worry about bugs, killer animals, or poisonous plants sure is nice. Especially since I'm sleeping outside every night.

While there are no native species to Summit, we will, on occasion, get animal visitors. Most of these visitors are of the avian variety, though there has been rumor of an Arctic fox or two that wandered on to camp in the past. These animals' Summit vacations are never intentional since Summit is so far from any food source; to get here, they had to either got lost or, in the case of the birds, were blown in from the more animal-friendly coast. Sadly, since Summit is so far from the coast (~500mi), without food and with such low temperatures, Summit will probably be the resting place for these animals. Some exceptions exist, however. For instance, because of their size, larger birds, have a good chance to make it back to the coast. Us human Summit dwellers have also tried to help out. Earlier this week some Summit folks caught a small bird, boxed it, and brought it with them to Kanger on the C-130 that was here to take a bunch of passages out of camp.

There have been a few little birds at camp since I arrived which is both lovely and heartbreaking. It is nice to hear their little chirps and see them flitter about after a week listening and looking at a silent and lifeless landscape. But knowing they have days to live is depressing; I feel guilty enjoying their music but not doing anything to help them. The past couple days, however, I've enjoyed the company of some big bird visitors guilt-free; snow geese (native to Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia; they do migrate south in the winter though) have stopped at our field site for the past two days. It's likely these birds will make it out of Summit (though I suppose it's always possible they won't) so I've decided to enjoy their companionship while it lasts. Here's a few pictures.

From yesterday:

Hunkering down, trying to stay warm in yesterday's 20+ knot (~25mph) winds.

From today:


Hanging out by one of the instruments. Apparently, snow geese love science just like me!

We're in the middle of a 24 hr sampling period where we're sampling for the albedo project every 2hrs until tomorrow at 11am. The picture above is actually at the site we're doing the sampling. Fortunately, I only have to take one snow sample (different kind than the OC/EC) every 2hrs so it'll be a pretty easy day. It will be a late one though; hope I can keep my eyes open!

The Routine: Snow OC/EC

So when I said I would be busy, I had no idea just how busy. Turns out I'm really busy; mostly in the morning but also on and off during the day.

Fortunately I have fallen into a routine which makes getting through the day a little easier. Writing out the entire routine would probably make for one lengthy post (not that my posts are brief), so I figured I break up my daily tasks into different posts.

With each project requiring daily (sometimes more frequent) snow samples, nearly 80% of my daily tasks involve digging in the snow. What keeps it interesting (and also potentially confusing!) is that the snow samples differ quite a bit. Each of the four snow sample sets have a different purpose and thus come with different sampling procedures and materials.

Perhaps the least technical of the snow samples are a set for the albedo project which is examining the influence of black (or elemental) carbon on snow albedo. Albedo describes how much incoming solar radiation is reflected back to space. A value of 1 then means that all the radiation that reached Earth's surface is reflected back which a value of 0 indicates all that incoming radiation is absorbed. Pure, white snow has a very high albedo in the visible wavelength range (the light we see) which means it reflects much of the light that hits it. Oppositely, dark surfaces, like pavement or the ocean, have a very low albedo. As you may guess, this reflection/absorption of light is closely linked temperature; those absorbing surfaces with low albedo tend to cause warming of the surface while bright, reflective surfaces with high albedos tend to cool. A good way to think about this is t-shirt color. On a hot summer day, you will be hotter wearing a black shirt than a white one. Of course, there are other factors that determine just how warm a surface gets that are independent of albedo (e.g., specific heat) but there is certainly a very strong correlation between albedo and temperature.

Recent observations have shown that the Arctic is warming at a faster rate than any other place on the globe (a cool animation showing this can be found here: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003817/2010updatewithdates_30fps.m4v ... Warmer colors indicate the listed year was warmer than the 1951-1980 average for a given region, cooler colors were cooler years). Why this is happening, however, remains unclear. One thought is that the influx and deposition of dark particles such as black carbon (a.k.a., soot) to the Arctic from the populated regions to the Arctic's south is decreasing the albedo. Since the Arctic is naturally so bright, even the slightest decrease would increase the amount of heat trapped at the surface which in turn would increase warming. The albedo project aims to understand this phenomenon.

Considering the importance of the snow (and the soot potentially deposited on it), it is no surprise that the albedo project requires a number of snow samples. It is also not surprising that one of the snow sample sets is for OC/EC (organic and elemental (black) carbon) given the interest in the influence of black carbon on snow. What is surprising is how simple these measurements are.

As many of you know, my primary area of research is atmospheric chemistry. For some of you this conjures up an image of me running around like a maniac with a jar in hand, trying to "catch" air so I can study it. While this isn't quite the case for my atmospheric work (though it's not far off!), it is 100% true for these OC/EC samples. Every day, I shove 10 glass jars into the snow to collect possibly the most important component of the albedo project. Here are some action shots of me doing just that (photos courtesy of Nina).



What are those things are your arms, Chelsea? Why those are insemination gloves! I wear them for the OC/EC samples (as well as for most of the other albedo snow samples) to avoid contaminating the samples. Humans, after all, are high in OC!

After collection, the ten jars chock full of snow are reduced to this (thanks Nina for these photos too!):


A quartz fiber filter. As the OC/EC instrument uses this type of filter to quantify OC and EC, filtering the samples through it is the only way to measure these species. Samples are filtered using this contraption:


Sample is poured in the top and sucked through the filter (sitting on top of the black rubber stopper) using a pump (not in picture; it's on the floor). One filter is used for all ten samples to ensure there is a detectable amount of both OC and EC. This makes me (and perhaps you) feel a bit better about the color of the above filter; in order to be that brown, several liters of water had to be filters. Still though, the filter color does suggest Greenland snow may not be as clean as you'd think! It also means we may get some interesting results with respect to black carbon and snow albedo after all; always the goal in science!

Greenland: Year Two

And she's back! I arrived in Greenland on Tuesday and Summit on Thursday via a C-130 for another 3-week Arctic science stint. It's been a bit hectic (hence why this is my first post!) between sightseeing in Kanger, some pretty rough altitude sickness, and learning all the things I will have to do to keep this year's two projects going but hopefully I'll find a routine soon. Considering I only have 18 more days up here, I better get a hang of things ASAP!

Unlike last year, this time around I had a full day in Kangerlussuaq (the town we fly into) which meant more time for exploring. My first adventure followed a surprisingly delicious dinner from a local Thai food place (surprising considering we were rather far from Thailand... or people in general for that matter). It was just a short stroll to a look out point with Nina, a Rhode Island physics teacher who's helping out on one of our project this year, but the result was amazing. I forgot how stunning Kanger was. How many places are there where a five minute walk get you this view?:

The town itself isn't that easy on the eyes (see picture below) but the surrounding landscape is incredible.
The beauty of coastal Greenland was taken to a whole new level with a trip to the ice edge (literally the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, the river you see above is actually outflow from the ice sheet)on Wednesday afternoon. Myself and eight other scientists from all over crammed in to a rented pick up truck and trekked the 20 miles out to quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was a long and bumpy ride along a dirt road but totally worth it. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show. While I did take some, I don't have the camera's cord to put them on my computer (the other pictures were taken on a memory card). How cruel of me to talk about this gorgeoous place and offer no visual! I'll promise to post some when I get back because wow... just wow.

I DO however, have pictures of another fun happening from Thursday. Prior to the ice edge trip, I decided to take a little run down to the sled dog kennels. There was talk of puppies and, as many of you know, I drop everything for puppies. I also did want to run so, why not kill two birds with one stone? So I get down there and there are dogs everywhere. I mean everywhere. I nearly died I was so excited! Unfortunately, most of them were fenced and/or tied up so I couldn't get to most of them. The picture below is just one of several kennels.

Not all dogs were kenneled though. When I first arrived at the kennel, I was greeted by an extremely friendly white dog. She was the cutest! Just as I was about to turn around to head back to town, I saw another furry ball of adorable come bolting at me. This one though, was a puppy. She. Was. So. Cute. I just wanted to take her home! Well, she must have thought the same. As I turned to leave (despite really not wanting to; I probably could have stayed there for my entire Greenland trip), she followed me! The muffin ran with me the entire 1+ back to town. As much as I loved it (and how could I not!?), it was a bit awkward; I had no idea how to get her back. No one else seemed to know either. I must've asked atleast 3 locals as well as several people at the building we were staying and no one had any suggestions. One actually suggested I take her back to the states! If only that weren't frowned upon and illegal. Eventually a local girl came by and recognized the pup (her name: Fiona) as her neighbor's and took her back to her proper owner. While I was happy to have the whole dilemma settled, I was sad to see my new Kanger friend go. Here's a couple pictures of Fiona. Maybe I'll stop down and see here again on my way south!


I left Fiona and the sites of Kanger for Summit on Thursday. Summit hasn't changed much; still flat and white as far as the eye can see, which means it's still bizarre but in that really cool way. I had a bit of a rough time with the altitude yesterday but felt much better today. Hopefully it only get's better from here! After today's lengthy overview of my daily Summit tasks this year, sounds like I'll be busy busy busy. As I mentioned before, I'm helping out with two projects this year which has atleast doubled my workload. Fortunately, I do like being busy so I'm not dreading the next 3ish weeks too much. Another added bonus: I'll have my hands in even more rockin' science! The one downfall is that I may not be able to blog as often as I (and perhaps you) would like but I'll do my best!

Well it's about time for me to retire to my Arctic Oven tent. Hopefully I'll sleep a bit better having already spent one night in the light, cold, and at altitude!