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Snow Photochemistry Experiment at
Summit, Greenland, March-May 2004
Question
and Answer page
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The photochemistry team at Summit in Summer
2003
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Submitted by: CMS Period
1
Question:
Are there other places to do the research that you are doing?
Why Greenland?
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Answer: Good
question! We are doing our research in Greenland for two main reasons.
First, the air here is very clean, making it easier to see chemicals coming
out of the snow and the effect that these chemicals
have on air pollution. Second, Greenland is a great place for our
research because of all the snow (the snow and ice below Summit is 2 miles
thick!) and the fact that the snow is pretty clean. Because there
is no dirt, trees, grass, other plants, or even insects,
we can study just the reactions in the snow without having to worry about
these other influences. But even though we're doing our research in
Greenland, we plan to take what we learn here and eventually apply it
to snowy regions of the U.S. to see how snow reactions might affect air
pollution at home. - Cort Anastasio, University of California
at Davis - writing from Summit.
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Question: Is
there any animal life?
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Answer: Well
in Kangerlussuaq, (on the Greenland coast where we stayed briefly on the
way up here) there are plenty of animals, especially Musk Ox, Caribou,
and sealife. However, at Summit the only animals around are the 15
researchers and 6 staff working hard. Every once in a while a stray
bird will make it to Summit... and die a bitter death as a birdsicle :-(
- Andreas Beyersdorf,
University
of California, Irvine- writing from Summit.
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Question:
What are the native people like?
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Answer: The
true Greenland natives are hard to find primarily because they enjoy living
in remote locations. About 30,000 of the 55,000 people of Greenland
are inuit living all around the great big coast, in hard to reach places;
whaling and eating things like seal and walrus. In the 'camp' were
we live on the glacier, it's just us science people; so we get very little
of a cultural experience.- Eddie Galbavy,
University
of California at Davis - writing from Summit.
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Submitted by: CMS Period 6
- Chandra and Abby
Question: How far
can the "ice drill" go a day? How long till bottom?
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Answer: The
drilling can recover about 30-40 meters a day. The deeper you go
the less you can drill since it takes time to go up and down the hole.
The drilling was actually completed in 1993. It took us 4 summers
to drill the 3053 meters - Mark Twickler,
Climate Change Research Center, UNH- writing from
NH.
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Question:
What is the most exciting thing you have found while drilling?
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Answer: The
most exciting thing we found while drilling was probably some volcanic
ash layers and the "silty" ice near the bottom. That's what was visible
in the cores. From the analysis probably the most exciting thing was
learning how quickly climate can change. - Mark Twickler,
Climate Change Research Center, UNH - writing from NH
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Question:
How long is "Day" right now?
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Answer: The
answer depends on how you define the start and stop of daylight.
If you define Daylight as from Sunrise to Sunset, then the 29th of March
will be 13 hr and 45 min long. However, as you probably know there
is still light in the sky even after the Sun has set, this is a condition
known as Twilight. Scientists have defined three different types
of Twilight:
Civil Twilight: When the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon.
During Civil twilight it just starts to be difficult to clearly see ground
objects and the horizon is clearly seen.
Nautical Twilight: When the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon.
During Nautical twilight, the general outlines of ground objects may be
distinguishable, and the horizon is not clearly seen.
Astronomical Twilight: When the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon.
During Astronomical twilight the Sun does not contribute to sky illumination
(i.e., the sky is dark) and will soon be possible to start making good
Astronomical observations.
Take a look at the chart (on right) which shows how high (in degrees)
the Sun will be above the horizon for March 29th (today) and May 8th
(our last day in Greenland). This chart shows when Sunrise and Sunset
will occur (when Sun is at 0 deg elevation) and when Civil, Nautical, and
Astronomical Twilight occur as well. One thing that is obvious is
that by the time we leave in May the Sun will be in the sky for 24 hours
a day. Right now (29 March) we are in Nautical twilight for the entire
day as well. So while we can only see the Sun for about 14 hours right
now, there is a little bit of twilight (yellow, orange, or red light) in
the sky all night.
This is quite different that what you will be seeing in New Hampshire.
If you look at the New Hampshire Sun Chart (on right, below the Summit one),
plotted for the same dates, you will see that: 1) in
New Hampshire there is not much difference between the path of the Sun
in March compared to May, and 2) that the Sun goes much higher in
the sky in New Hampshire than in Greenland (this is because you are closer
to the equator, if you were on the equator the Sun would be overhead (i.e.,
Solar Elevation Angle of almost 90 degrees)), and 3) the duration of twilight
is much shorter than in Greenland.
You can make your own calendar of Sunrise and Sunset times for a specific
month at the following website: http://www.sunrisesunset.com/usa/
Just select your state and town, the Month , and the website will make
you a calendar with the Sunrise and Sunset times on it. This calculator
can also give you information about the Moon phases and Moon Rise/Set
times.
Hope this is not too complicated. - Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit
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Question:
How much does the "napmeister"~( Dave Tanner) ~sleep?
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Answer:: From
reports I recently had back from the field Dave sleeps very little right
now because his instrument to measure NO (nitric oxide) doesn't seem
to be working quite right, so he probably needs his naps. Let's hear it
for Dave - Awwwwwww!
Don't feel too bad though - Dave is very good at fixing
things - Nicola Blake,
UC Irvine
- writing from NH.
Answer:: Dave and I have been
working on the NO instrument well past midnight each of the past three nights.
The strain finally caught up with him today when he took a nap after lunch
- his first known nap since arriving at Summit a week ago! This
puts him well behind last year's napping pace. -
Jeff Peischl,
Georgia Tech
- writing from Summit,
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Submitted
by: CMS Class
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Question: Have there been
any emergencies since you have been working there?
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Answer:: Well, we took
a poll and, fortunately, the biggest emergencies so far this season have
been running out of peanut m&ms and poptarts. We did have a
near emergency when the power generator failed for a short time at night (about
15 minutes), but the wonderful staff up here worked quickly to fix the problem.
yay VECO! - Kelly Bridges University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
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Answer:: There have
been no major emergencies since we have been here. I think by now everyone
has experienced a little wind burn or frost bite. In order to prepare
for emergencies Veco camp staff
perform routine drills just to ensure that they are prepared for medical
emergencies. - Donna
Friel, University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
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Answer:: The
only serious emergency since we have been up here is when our Generator
shutdown last week. It was only off for about 10-15 minutes, but this
can be a serious problem. The generator supplies all of our electricity
and heat. I was surprised at how quickly the buildings got cold after
only 5 minutes with the heat turned off. We also need electricity
to thaw out the food as most of our food is frozen in a snow cellar near
the Big House. We do have a large walk in pantry to keep some things
(like fruits and vegetables, eggs and milk, etc) cool but not freezing, but
if the power went out, these things would also freeze.
The good news is that we have three generator modules
up here, each with two generators, for a total of six generators.
There are two generators in the maintenance weatherport and only one is
in use at a time. Right now with the photochemistry experiment going
on we are close to maximum capacity with the one generator, but that is ok.
These generators work better when we have a lot of electrical load on them.
Every two weeks the mechanic switches the load from the working generator
to the resting generator. This keeps both generators in good shape
by getting a little "exercise", they do not like to sit for too long without
any use. This also keeps both generators with similar hours of use,
and while the one generator is working, the mechanic does routine maintenance
on the resting generator. We also have a third emergency back up
generator module. If the two primary generator modules should both
fail, the mechanic could start up the emergency generator and hook it up
to the power grid here. The emergency generator is on a self contained
sled which has its own gas tank. The mechanic keeps the emergency
generator tuned up and in working order so it will be ready to go if needed.-
Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit
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I have been working at Summit quite
a long time (since 1989) and have seen a few emergencies. Several medical
emergencies required special flights to evacuate the patient, including
one time someone had a severe problem with the altitude and developed life
threatening pulmonary edema (a good challenge for you to translate from
the medical jargon to normal English). There have also been more than
a few times when the ski equipped LC-130 could not take off because the
snow was too warm and sticky, and we had unexpected guests in camp overnight,
or even for several days. Most of the Air Force crew members stuck
like this thought it was a very big emergency, but some of them really enjoyed
the chance to meet all of us and see the
camp.
Fortunately, there have been no emergencies so far this year. One
night there was a problem with the generator and all power went off. Carl
was able to get another generator going quickly and power came back on in
about 30 minutes. Our lab had already gotten 10 degrees colder in
just that short time, so if he had not been so fast we
could have had big problems with instruments and pipes freezing.
We have 6 different generators here, so this was not a life threatening emergency,
but it could have ended our experiments for this year.
We are also coming up on a usual minor emergency that is always a part
of work at remote sites. Nearly all of the fresh fruit and vegetables
that came up here on the flight that brought us have been eaten, or have
started to rot. There are literally tons of frozen and canned foods
here, so we will continue to eat very well, but by the time the next plane
comes in 3 weeks everyone will be very happy to see the new shipment of "freshies".
In a similar manner, some of the members of our team view the facts that the
camp is nearly out of peanut M&Ms and Pop Tarts as minor emergencies.
Jack Dibb, University
of New Hampshire (UNH) - writing from Summit.
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Question: What did you
need for an education or qualifications to do your job?
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Answer:: I analyze
Jack's mist chamber samples for major anions and carboxylic acids using
ion chromatography (IC). I have a bachelor's degree in chemistry and about
5 years experience working at the climate change research center at UNH
in the IC lab. In addition to academic qualifications, I have had several
experiences living in challenging physical conditions- one of which
was hiking the Appalachian trail (2000 miles, living out of only a backpack
for 6 months!). I also participated in the summer 2003 trip to Summit, Greenland.
- Kelly Bridges University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
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Answer:: I started
working with the UA in Sept. 2000, at that time I had only completed 44
college credit hours. I worked with Dr. Bales at the University of
Arizona for a year and a half then stopped working for him to work in the
Chemistry department in Feb 2002. I maintained friendships with the
people that I worked with and in March 2003 I was asked if I would like
to go to the field to be a technician. So last summer (still not having
finished my degree) I came to Summit. I graduated in December 2003 with a
BS in chemistry and was looking for something exciting (with pay) to do while
I wait to attend graduate school in the Fall 2004.
When I started working with Dr. Bales I had no lab experience and thought
that I would be washing glassware but actually wound up analyzing samples
that were shipped back to Tucson, AZ. All the techniques that I learned
I learned from hands on experience. So even if you aren't qualified
or don’t know how to do something it doesn't necessarily mean that you
cant do a good job. I know that I was asked to participate in the
field research by Manuel Hutterli Ph.D (a post doc who had worked or Dr.
Bales) only because I demonstrated good work ethic and the excitement needed
to work at -41C- Donna
Friel, University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
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Answer:: Although I
have degrees in economics and law, it was my incomplete physics
degree which got me to Greenland! I started working as an undergraduate
in Greg Huey's laboratory at Georgia Tech. While I was there, I helped
build the NO instrument that Georgia Tech is now running up here at
Summit. Learning how to operate the instrument was fairly straight-forward:
with a little knowledge of computer programming, electronics, and chemistry, I
was qualified!- Jeff Peischl,
Georgia
Tech - writing from Summit.
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Answer:: All of the
scientists up here have gone to (or are currently going to) graduate school.
After High School, everyone here went on to college. After graduating
from college with a bachelors degree in some science related area (chemistry,
physics, engineering, biology, earth or environmental science), you can choose
to specialize in area of science that interests you. Most of us when
to different schools and studied different things. So the neat thing
about this experiment is everyone using different instruments but working
together on to understand different pieces of the same problem.-
Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit.
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Answer:: The specific
job I am doing up here (collecting air samples to measure soluble acidic
gases) requires a great deal of care to make sure that I do not contaminate
the samples, but many people could learn how to do it in a few days.
(The challenge is how well one can succeed at being ultra careful with numb
frozen fingers.) The main part of my job is thinking up scientific
questions that are interesting, ways to try to answer the questions experimentally,
and then writing papers so others can know what we learned. Training
for this has taken a long time, including studying for Master's and Doctoral
degrees, and continued practice for the last 16 years. .Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
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Question: From your
research so far, do you think our air is getting more
polluted?
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Answer:: The ice core
records taken up here clearly show that the air has gotten more polluted
in the past 200 years since the start of the industrial revolution, when we
started burning coal and oil for energy. The ice core records show sulfate
increasing starting about 1900, with the nitrate increase about 1950.
The good news that we can also see from the ice core record when the
US clean air act was passed in the early 1970s, as the snow that has fallen
here since then has had less sulfur, which is a primary component of acid
rain. Unfortunately, we have not reduced the amount of nitrogen oxides
that we are emitting from automobiles, trucks, and power plants. So
we can also see that the amount of nitrogen in the snow has continued to increase
as the population has increased and we are driving more cars more miles and
continue to burn more coal and oil for electricity.-
Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit
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Answer:: Over the entire
earth, there is no question that air pollution is getting worse, and in
many places it is getting worse faster than ever before. In most of
the US air pollution is not as bad as it used to be due to efforts to regulate
lower emissions. There is concern that may not stay true for long,
mainly because some are trying to weaken the regulations, arguing that these
laws are too expensive and are harming the economy. There is also some
evidence that air pollution from sources on the other side of the Pacific
Ocean is becoming noticeable in western North America (also, our pollution
may be making air quality in Europe poorer than it would otherwise be).
Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
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Question: How many times
a week on average do you get precipitation?
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Answer: It seems
like once a week it will lightly snow up here...and that doesn't count when
your breath freezes and falls back onto you while you are sleeping!
- Kelly Bridges University of New Hampshire (UNH)-
writing from Summit.
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Answer: Summit
actually does not get a whole lot of precipitation. On average the
yearly total is about 65 cm of snow, which would only be 24 cm of rain
if it was warm enough for it to have fallen as rain. This low amount
puts it close to being categorized as a desert.
From careful examination of snowpits and ice cores one can see that in
most years about 20 events deposit enough snow to form a distinct layer.
Usually it is windy when it does snow, so these layers are often a mixture
of new snow and older snow already on the surface, that are mixed while
blowing around. The blowing snow can cause huge drifts, especially
around artificial structures like the buildings here at Summit. The
lab I am sitting in almost got buried to the roof in less than one year because
of the drifting and blowing snow. Jack Dibb,
University of New
Hampshire (UNH) - writing from Summit.
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Question: What
reactive chemicals in the ice sheet do you test?
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Answer:: We have 2
experimental systems set up. One is a liquid phase system in which
we collect snow samples and let them melt then analyze them in the liquid
phase looking
specifically at formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, nitrate and electrical
conductivity. We also have a gas phase system which consists of sampling
the air just above the snow (ambient air) and also the air in the snow (firn).
With the gas phase system we are looking at formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide
and organic peroxides.- Donna Friel,
University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
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Answer: My group measures
ionic compounds in the snow, including sodium, ammonium, potassium, magnesium,
calcium, chloride, nitrate and sulfate. We also measure acidic gases
in the atmosphere and in the air between snow grains in the snow pack.
These include sulfur dioxide, nitric acid, nitrous acid, hydrochloric acid,
acetic acid and formic acid.. Jack Dibb,
University of New
Hampshire (UNH) - writing from Summit.
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CMS Questions Part
3:
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Question: What are
the things you do to prevent frostbite?
Answer: The best thing you can do is try
to keep covered up, but sometimes we have to take off our mittens or gloves
to tighten or loosen something. Or to take a photo, and then your hands
can get really cold. The other place that people get frostbite and
on you face. It can happen quite quickly, and usually you do not know
it until someone else looks at your face and sees these white patches and
tells you to get inside. Finally, when you are working outside in the
cold your toes can get cold and you do not really realize it until you go
inside and your toes hurt a lot as they start to warm up again. Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit
Answer: The key is to keep all your skin
covered with high quality gear, especially when it is windy. This is
not so hard, except around your face. The problem with noses and cheeks
is that you also need to wear glasses or goggles to protect your eyes from
the strong UV light. If you use a scarf, or a mask, or a balaclava
to cover your entire face except your eyes, your breath instantly fogs up
the eyeprotection and you can not see anything. A good hood is one
great solution to this problem, especially one with the fur ruff you can
see in many of the photos. The tunnel of the hood keeps the wind off
your skin, so you can get by with out covering your face, and you can see. Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
Answer: In order to prevent frostbite you can do
several things: stay inside (not
happening up here), stay moisturized (lotion many, many times a day), and
one
thing that everyone must do up here: keep your skin covered.
Donna Friel, University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
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Question: What is
the longest time anyone has spent at Summit?
Answer: The longest period anyone has spent at Summit
camp without leaving has been from August until May. Bob Hawley was
a science technician who "wintered" here in 1997-98 and may have the record
since he came to Summit in mid June to help set up the experiment and stayed
till the next spring. In 2000-2001 Annie Coward, Andrea Isgro and
Rick Pietrik all did nearly 9 month winter tours, and in the following year
Kim Wolf, Jeff Derry, Amy Dahl and Tracy Dahl did the same. This past winter,
and in the coming years, the winter duty is broken into 3 phases: Aug-Nov,
Nov-Feb, and Feb-May, with complete or partial crew changes possible.
Several people stayed for 2 phases this past winter, but it does not seem
likely than anyone will stay the full 9 months again soon.
If you start adding up time that people have spent at Summit over multiple
trips, with breaks in between, quite a few of us here now have years of
time on station under our belts. Personally, I have probably spent
more than 3 years here, spread over about 20 visits since 1989.
Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire
(UNH) - writing from Summit.
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Question: If you
were not a scientist, what other career would interest you?
Answer: I wanted to be a farmer just like my Grandfather
when I was growing up, so that got me interested in studying the Environment.
On the other hand, my wife thinks that I should have be a traffic policeman
since I seem to frequently notice when other car drivers are doing things
improperly. Barry Lefer,
National
Center for Atmospheric Research - writing from Summit
Answer: I am not sure what I might have done if
I had not become a scientist.
However, I do know that when I stop being a scientist I plan to stay busy
raising alpacas (with my partner Nicola, Ms. Bertram and her husband) and
taking care of our tree farm in Barrington, NH. Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
Answer: Wow this is a hard question.
Well since I just graduated with my bachelors I
should be able to answer this but I really can't. When I was in high
school I thought that I wanted to be a teacher or an accountant. Then
I started taking college math classes and that changed real fast, I am horrible
at math. I had to take some science classes because I didn't take enough
in high school. That is when realized that I was good at science, and because
I was good at it, I started to like it. So that is why I am a
scientist. I guess if I would have found something else that I was good
at then I would be doing that. Something that I think that I would like to
do is to coordinate course work and activities for a university department.
However I would like to do this in
chemistry, so I would be an Undergraduate Chemistry Coordinator.
Donna Friel, University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
Answer: Well- I am currently a scientist
only part of the time. I also manage a knitting shop- sales, creating patterns
and models, teaching classes. A great creative outlet! I feel very fortunate
to be able to have both science and art in my life right now- My partner
and I are also considering starting a dairy to make different types of goat's
milk cheeses- although that would be down the road a bit. - Kelly Bridges University of New Hampshire (UNH)-
writing from Summit.
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Question: What do
you like about this research (there must be something if you
are willing to be in such cold temperatures)?
Answer: I like that fact that we do not really
know how this is happening, the interesting parts are: 1) trying to
figure out what is going on, and 2) to determine how important these reactions
might be. In other words, seems that this snowpack production of NO
(and other reactive gases) is happening everywhere you have Sun and snow.
In that case, one thing I am interested in is if these reactions are causing
the pollution to be worse in cities where there is snow (e.g., like in Denver
where I live). Barry Lefer,
National
Center for Atmospheric Research - writing from Summit
Answer: The thrill about research
into photochemistry in snow is that it is such a new field. Completely
unexpected findings are quite rare, so when such a discovery is made there
are many fundamental questions to tackle. Lots of, maybe most, excellent
science consists of adding a little bit to a long history of previous work,
so it is sometimes hard to look back and say "the past year (or 2 or 10 years)
of my work made this obvious contribution". In our work at Summit,
and similar work by others at different places, there is still a good cance
to make new discoveries each field season. At this point we
do not always understand all that we find, so that leads to new questions
and experiments. Summit is also a beautiful place, so that certainly helps. Jack Dibb, University of New Hampshire (UNH)
- writing from Summit.
Answer: The research that I am doing
here has nothing to do with what I will do when I
graduate school this fall. Up here I am doing analytical chemistry
which is basically a measurement science. When I start grad. school
I will be doing organic chemistry, which is a combinatorial science. The reason
that I am up here is because it is exciting. Greenland is a place that
most people will never visit. The reseach that is being conducted here
is very unique and being apart of that experience is something that I can
say that I have done. I do enjoy the reseach and in many ways all techniques
from
various disciplines tie together. So this can only benefit my furture
no matter what area of chemistry I persue . Donna Friel,
University of
Arizona - writing from Summit.
Answer: I am really enjoying
being part of such a wonderful group of scientists from all over the
country who are all working to answer the same unique questions. And it is
very rewarding to be working on projects that will ultimately help us understand
how humans are impacting climate - Kelly Bridges
University of New
Hampshire (UNH)- writing from Summit.
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Question: What do
you eat there?
Answer: The kitchen here has just
about anything you could ever think of. We have steak and salad and
fish and potatoes. Good cheese and crackers. Lastnight we had
Alaskan King Crab legs, as a going away party for a bunch of the crew. We
even have a bunch of junk food. The cook here (Sarah) bakes almost
every day, she makes cookies, bread, pies, and even ice cream. We are
supposed to eat a lot of food since you body burns a lot of calories keeping
you warm. So even though we are all eating a lot, I think we have all
lost a few pounds. Barry Lefer, National Center for Atmospheric
Research - writing from Summit
Answer: The food is excellent, thanks
to our cook Sarah, and the various members of the crew who have volunteered
to cook special dinners now and then. Jack
Dibb, University
of New Hampshire (UNH) - writing from Summit.
Answer: Fortunately, at Summit we
have a great cook, Sarah Harvey. This past week she has made steak, pizza,
crab legs, roughie, salmon, and spaghetti. She also makes great desserts and
cookies. Also she makes plenty of great food for the vegetarians in camp.
When it is not meal time, we have plenty of snack foods including pop tarts,
snickers and peanut M&M's (Cort's favorite). Andreas
Beyersdorf, University
of California, Irvine- writing from Summit.
Answer: I'm a vegetarian (although
I do eat fish) and I am finding more variety up here than I usually
do at home! Salads, pastas, wonderful breads, tofu and tempeh prepared
many, many ways, even sushi rolls- Kelly Bridges
University of New
Hampshire (UNH)- writing from Summit.
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