Monday, February 23, 2009

Barrow Photo Shoot

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day in Barrow. We woke up (after another night of howling winds) to an almost warm breeze, clear skies, and relatively high temps. In fact, here is some proof of the high temps ... a screen capture of my Google homepage shows that Barrow was only one degree lower than my hometown of Norristown, PA at 7 pm Alaska Time.



Because of the great weather, we were able to get our air samplers deployed onto the roof of the science building (BARC) and they are hopefully secured well enough to withstand the next blizzard. (If not, that will certainly make for an exciting blog entry!)

To take advantage of these great temps, we also snowmachined out to Chelsea's instrument site today, about 10 miles away. (We actually took a truck/trailer loaded with 2 machines as far as we could get via road, and then off loaded those and snowmachined in the rest of the way). Luckily, I am pretty handy at driving with a trailer (and being able to back up with said trailer).

In case you are wondering, Chelsea is working with Purdue University (my alma mater!) on a project measuring halogens. (It so happens Chelsea also works for Paul Shepson, who was my PhD advisor, many moons ago). She has moved in with Alexis and me in the hut and has also claimed a desk in our lab at BASC (we have plenty of room). We are now fondly referred to as "The Girls" by everyone up here. Unfortunately, Chelsea's been having some instrumental issues, but due to a combination of bad weather and lack of heavy lifting capabilities (logistics is stretched a little thin now due to other projects getting started up), today was the first she was able to get out to her site in several days. Two BASC staff also came out to meet us there to help and we figured out that her liquid nitrogen tank is a dud ... the next one comes in on tonight's flight ... so she hopefully will be good to go by tomorrow.

While out there we also helped with some snow sampling and took the opportunity to lose the heavy parkas and get some fresh air and sunshine. Here is the photographic evidence:

Amanda


Alexis

L to R: Amanda, Chelsea, Alexis


Now, let's just see how quickly this weather changes ... cause we know this won't last long!

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