Updates 2 (Continued): |
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| 3/18/04 |
In spite of the fact that wind chill
temps are consistently in the -50-60F range, some of the team, including
Jack, decide to move out of the crowded berthing area and into individual
tents (called Arctic Ovens). |
Kelly (on right) in berthing tent |
Jack in his Arctic Oven
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Andreas (a Graduate student from Southern California) prefers to sleep close to the heater! |
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| 3/19/04 |
With the persistent 15-20
mph winds and occasional much higher blows it is clear that snow
drifting is going to be a significant problem during this visit to
Summit. The lab is sitting very low in the snow and the doorways have to constantly be shoveled to keep them free of snow. |
Lab - south end |
Lab - north end |
| Even the outhouse keeps being
almost buried! Looks like it's sitting in its own gravity well! |
Buried outhouse |
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| 3/20/04 |
Still cold and clear, but taking advantage
of a short period of uncharacteristic calm, Marc Lewis (the Camp Manager)
climbs the Met tower on the Big House to repair a wind sensor. Unfortunately,
it falls and shatters in the extreme cold. |
Mark on BH tower (all the way at the top!) |
Poor smashed wind bird! |
| 3/22/04 |
When the team got up this morning
it was clear and sunny but -49 C. This temp combined with the >10
mph resulted in a wind chill of -65C (-86F)!! Miraculously, no-one has suffered from frost-bite - but it takes constant vigilance, including watching out for each other to be sure they aren't showing any exposed skin, especially during the long walk out to the science camp (1 km). |
Three scientists making the trek from the Big House kitchen to work at the Science Camp |
Jack hauling water to the science camp on a "banana sled" |
| 3/22/04 |
Kelly is doing a great job getting the
ion chromatograph (IC) together and working, ready for the samples to start
arriving. Here she prepares IC eluent from ultra-pure water that is made from the water that was just sledded out from the main camp. While she is waiting for the system to equilibriate, and for all the other scientists to get their instruments working she also has time to indulge in her real passion - KNITTING! |
Kelly with the milliQ water system |
Kelly's new hat! It's made of Alpaca on the outside and lined with Qiviat (musk ox) on the inside, knit to her own design - bravo! (Who says science and art don't mix!) |
| 3/22/04 |
The work of assembling all
the instruments and putting everything in place is almost completed -
in spite of the EXTREME cold conditions. |
First deployment of group sampler by Jack, Eddie, and Andreas |
Group sampler being lowered
to the snow surface. Careful not to make any foot or hand prints
in the pristine snow guys!
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| 3/23/04 am |
A week after they arrived at Summit,
and just as the science team were ready to start making real science measurements,
they wake up to a "white-out". Snow being blown around by winds
gusting up to 40 mph makes for extremely poor visibility so the science
team have to stay inside or walk close to the marked pathways - that's
what all the flags are for! Digging out will have to start again in earnest as soon as it stops blowing... At least the temps have warmed considerably - it's only -26C. Thiis usually happens when there is a storm as the strong winds from the south bring warm air with them. |
Webcam image saved for the morning of 3/23/04 |
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| 3/23/04 pm |
Near dusk the winds have finally reduced
enough for some of the team to go outside. They are greeted by a totally
new landscape - or maybe more accurately a dunescape! |
New snow dunes between the Big House and the science camp |
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| 3/23/04 pm |
The science team survey some of the damage
caused by the high winds - but first they have to dig their way into the
lab!. |
North entrance to the lab drifted in except for Eddie's stairway |
Close-up of the steps that Eddie has (constantly) carved out of the drift to allow access to the lab. |
| A little further south where most of the
science equipment was...where??? |
So where did we leave that
sampler??
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Barry is happy to find the very top of his instrument the aptly-named "snowbird" still poking above the drift! |
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| 3/24/04 |
Winds are back to normal - around 10 mph
and the sun is out again - yea! |
Big sweeping drifts have formed in the neighborhood of "tent city". |
Barry (front) and Manuel
find that the Big house East door needs a lot of digging out!
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| The science team is back to work. Some
very careful digging is needed to uncover the group sampling probe so as
not to damage anything, especially Barry's fiber optic cables. |
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