30 Days of Light

Arctic First-Timer

2011-10-14T20:16:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! My name is Rachel Bobby and I’m an undergraduate chemistry major at Villanova University. This fall I am in my junior year at Villanova, but I met Dr. Grannas as a college freshman. After having her for a professor in my first analytical course, I learned that she was involved in environmental research. I thought this was pretty cool, so the summer after my sophomore year I began doing research in her lab.

When Dr. Grannas first asked if I wanted to venture into Alaska to continue my summer research, I thought, "Awesome! The arctic! I’ve never been there!" I was so excited to have a new experience and possibly even get to see some new culture. I had the stereotypical presumptions about what Alaska would be like: snow, glaciers, polar bears, and Eskimos. Boy, was I wrong.

Soon after I agreed to go on this trip, I learned that I wouldn’t be traveling to a common tourist city (Anchorage, Fairbanks...) but that I’d be spending a week in Barrow, Alaska. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Barrow, it’s about as far North as you can get, without actually being in the Arctic Ocean. Needless to say, I became a little less enthused at this thought, but still agreed to go.

When we arrived at the Barrow, Alaska airport I was immediately in shock. One – it was about 30° colder than Philadelphia at this time of year, and two- the airport was a single room consisting of a baggage claim belt, a metal detector/security station, and a few rows of chairs. Where had I landed that didn’t even have a proper airport!? At first glance, the town of Barrow seemed just as small and sparse, with wooden houses, metal "huts", a single grocery store, and a handful of restaurants. Little did I know that by the end of the week Barrow would grow on me.

Many people who visit Barrow might have the same thoughts and judgments that I first had on my arrival. A small, dreary town that was covered in snow and ice would not seem appealing to some. However, Barrow has its own kind of charm. The people living in this community rely on each other and help one another out in a way that most “down south” have forgotten how to do. This small town of about 4,000 people collectively contributes to each family’s food supply and general well being, ensuring that all will make it through the tough Alaskan winters with enough to eat and neighbors who truly care. When a crew catches a whale in Barrow, the meat is divided up evenly and distributed to each family. Never before had I experienced such a sense of community.

With respect to the town itself, Barrow has many hidden treasures that I was not anticipating to find. Restaurants like Pepe’s North of the Border serves awesome Mexican food… as well as Italian, American, and probably whatever else you are craving! The restaurant itself is a little Mexican oasis – yellow, red, and green decorations cover the walls and sombreros hang from the ceiling, and after eating there for the first time you receive your official "Arctic Circle Club: North of the Border" certificate. Osaka, a Japanese restaurant, serves some of the best sushi I have ever tasted, and a trip to the AC grocery store put in perspective for me how outrageous a simple gallon of milk is in Alaska - $10. Wow.

My trip to Barrow is an experience that I will never forget. The welcoming community and the Eskimo culture definitely broadened my horizons and made me step outside the small world of Villanova’s campus. I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised by this small Alaskan town and hope in the future that my research will bring me back again! :)

Back to Barrow

2011-10-12T19:27:00.008-04:00

Hi again everyone! It has been a while, but we are back in Barrow!

We (myself and an undergraduate student, Rachel) arrived on Saturday evening. As I turned my phone on after we got off the plane (yes, we get cell phone reception up here) I received a text from a friend saying that two whales were caught that day ... one by our good friend (and logistics support manager from 2008 and 2009) Lewis Brower's whaling crew. Needless to say, I was quite happy to hear this. We quickly headed for the beach...Not to sunbathe, but to watch them bring in the whale. It took quite the effort to bring the 41 ft behemoth up onto land. It took a bulldozer and a loader to get the job done. But it finally made it, and the crew and community got to work cutting and dividing the shares.

Whaling is an integral part of life in Barrow, as most community members rely on subsistence living practices to survive. Steaks from the grocery store are not part of day to day living around here ... but whale steaks are quite tasty! There are two whaling seasons each year, and the International Whaling Commission sets quotas for each community that cannot be exceeded. This fall season, Barrow is allowed 13 "strikes". So they can bring in a maximum of 13 whales. However, a whale that is harpooned but lost also counts as a "strike". Because of the careful hunting practices and consideration of population dynamics, the arctic whale population is thriving and this subsistence hunting practice is in no way curtailing the whale population.

The whale caught by Lewis Brower's crew was harpooned around 1 pm and was then towed back to the beach from 24 miles out. This took several hours. By 9 pm it was up on solid ground and completely divided up by 4 am. Shares go to each member of the crew, as well as to those who help cut it up. The rest goes back to the whaling captain's home, where many hours are spent the following day cutting up the various pieces into what will be distributed to the community. Rachel and I went to Lewis' house on Sunday to help with this. We worked on cutting muktuk (the blubber with skin attached) and also some of the internal organs (heart, kidneys, etc). Below is Rachel working on this ...

We are here in Barrow for several reasons this time around. 1.) I will be giving a talk to the local community updating them on our research and "reporting back" our results to the local community. 2.) Philadelphia area high school teacher, Dr. Bill Smith, is also here (he arrived on Monday) to do "remote" classes to his students back at Bristol Borough High School. He started the first of these today and will continue these on Thursday and Friday. 3.) We are sampling snow to isolate natural organic matter which we will take back to our Villanova lab to characterize, which means filtering lots of snow. As I type this blog, Rachel and I are babysitting our filters. Ah, the joys of science!

Rachel plans to post something tomorrow on her first "Arctic experience", so stay tuned for that!

Long Overdue Update

2011-08-13T01:03:00.002-04:00

In case anyone is still keeping track ... it has been a while since we have had an update on the blog ... mainly because our major fieldwork efforts concluded in 2009. But, a few of our goals have been realized from a science standpoint ... a few papers have been published based on our fieldwork, and three more are currently in review. We also gathered a wealth of information that is now serving as the basis for continuing lab experiments and student thesis projects.

For those science geeks out there like us ... here are the citations for our published work based on Barrow fieldwork results:

Photochemical processing of aldrin and dieldrin in frozen aqueous solutions under Arctic field conditions. GA Rowland, AR Bausch, and AM Grannas. Environmental Pollution, 159, 1076-1084, 2011.

A solid-phase chemical actinometer film for measurement of solar UV penetration into snowpack. GA Rowland and AM Grannas. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 66, 75-83, 2011.

We'll have a few more updates coming this fall ... I (Dr. G) will be returning to Barrow in October to do some outreach/service work, accompanied by a Philadelphia area high school teacher as well as an undergraduate research student. We will be there about a week, and plan to post updates and info here on the blog.

Thanks for keeping tabs on us!

New Group Website

2010-05-14T01:52:00.003-04:00

Hi all ...

Just a quick update - for anyone who might be interested, we have migrated our Villanova Research Group website to Google. Although I certainly love Villanova, they don't make managing your website an easy matter ... so I took things into my own hands and simply moved to a place that does!

Check us out at:

http://sites.google.com/site/amandagrannas

We'll be updating the site quite a bit over the next few weeks, including new pics (our group pic is a bit old) and videos. We will be making videos using a great tool I was introduced to called Animoto! Check out the inaugural video on the Welcome page!

Happy blogging!

In the Spotlight

2010-01-17T17:18:00.004-05:00

Well, since we're not in the field at the moment, updates are few and far between. But, please take the time to check out another site: www.arcticstories.net. The site is being developed by Peter Lourie (an author and storyteller extraordinaire) and contains all sorts of information, videos, pics, stories and science related to the Arctic.

If you click on the "videos" link, there are a number of videos from people who live and do research in the Arctic ... from Inupiaq hunters, to wildlife biologists, to atmospheric scientists. Not to self-promote ... but I'm in there too, under the science link. :)

We continue chugging away at sample analysis and are (almost) done with that, at which point I'll get another update posted asap. So in the meantime, peruse the Arctic stories at www.arcticstories.net.

Barrow Fieldwork Photos

2009-07-05T20:21:00.003-04:00

Everyone is back from Barrow now ... back in the lab, busily processing samples and analyzing data taken in the field. I've managed to compile a lot of pictures taken by the team into a slideshow. Check it out at the youtube link below!!!

Most of the photos were taken by Chun-mei Chiu and Simon Filhol. A few others were contributed by Glenn Rowland and me ... Thanks everyone for sharing your pics and letting me post them here for the world to see!!!!

Enjoy!

Snowmelt on the Tundra

2009-06-17T18:06:00.003-04:00

See our newest YouTube video! This is a series of photos taken from the same vantage point at our research site on the tundra outside of Barrow, Alaska. You can watch in about 2 minutes what took a few weeks to happen ...

Joe "The Waterman" Shults' Museum

2009-06-13T15:00:00.009-04:00

Joe Shults is a well-known face around Barrow. For years he delivered water to residents, one house at a time, with his tanker truck/water service business. Perhaps even more interestingly, he was known to do this in the dead of winter in a short-sleeve t-shirt. His knicknames include Joe "The Waterman" and "T-shirt Joe". Now 54, he has retired from the water delivery business, and focuses on helping out at Pepe's "North of the Border" Mexican restaurant, which his mom (Fran Tate) owns. He also has his own museum, located in his home, which he opens up to visitors at 10 pm (after he gets off work). All you need to do is make an appointment and he's happy to have you come by any day of the week to see his rare, vast collection.

Joe has spent the past 30 years or so collecting all sorts of old, rare, wonderful and strange items. Some of the things he has purchased himself (like many of the taxidermy pieces), many more have been donated to him, and some items he finds when storms wash in artifacts to the beach that have been on the ocean floor. He's also been known to go out in his boat after the ice breaks up and look for items ... recovering things like whaling guns, tools, etc.

His collection has garnered the attention of the Smithsonian ... they have wanted to borrow pieces for study, but he has a strict policy that nothing from his museum is sold (and offers for some pieces have been high), and nothing leaves the premises. He cherishes the items too much to risk having them lost or damaged. He has however let the experts set up camp at his house and several times they have spent a few days studying pieces on his back porch.

Joe makes sure everyone has a chance to see his collection. There is no entry fee, although donations are appreciated. But, if you're broke, he won't deny entry ... he has even had people bring empty beer/liquor bottles as their donation ... proof of why they are broke!

Tundra Wildlife

2009-06-09T23:43:00.006-04:00

Here are a few pictures snapped over the course of the past couple weeks. Most of these pics were taken by Chun-mei Chiu, a Purdue University grad student working on the team (studying hydrology). Although she herself is quite camera shy, she takes great pictures and manages to capture some wonderful moments on film (well, okay, a digital card to be exact). I'm sure the blog will be featuring more of her photography before all is said and done!

Our illustrious photographer, Chun-Mei!

Barrow: Round Two

2009-06-05T01:24:00.008-04:00

So, we're back in Barrow!!! After a brief hiatus in the warmer climes of the lower 48, we are in the midst of our second trip to Barrow for 2009. This time, team members include Dr. Glenn Rowland (a Villanova postdoctoral researcher, who blog fans will recognize from last year) and me (Dr. Amanda Grannas). We are up here this time working with Matthew Sturm and Tom Douglas' groups ... they are graciously providing us space at their field site to do our work. We are in the middle of the tundra southeast of Barrow, about 2-3 miles from the nearest road. Glenn has been here since mid-May and at the beginning one was able to reach the site by snowmachine. Alas, enough melting has occurred to make that impossible. So the trip has been made on foot since Sunday. Several miles over wet, soggy tundra is a little like Arctic boot camp (or maybe that should be called Arctic hip-wader camp).

The long walk ... (sampling buckets in hand)...

Unfortunately, Glenn is leaving us tomorrow. I am his replacement - I arrived May 31 and will continue work until departing on June 19. I didn't get here in time for the snowmachining, and am a bit bummed about that! Here's a pic from Glenn taking one of his last snow samples.

The overall goal of the entire group is to better understand just what happens up here in the Arctic at snowmelt. This is from both the perspective of the snow as well as the chemicals within the snow. Hydrologists and chemists are teaming up to track the snowmelt, following where the water goes, how fast it gets there and what happens to the chemicals in the snow during that melt period. We're measuring all sorts of things like ions, organic matter, mercury and organic contaminants (which is specifically the Villanova contribution).

It takes a lot of work to figure out just what is going on, including a lot of measurements (both with fancy instrumentation and also human observations and measurements) and a lot of sampling. We sample every day for ions and mercury (those samples get shipped away for analysis) and every other day for organic contaminants (those samples have to get processed on site - which takes a day itself).

So that's the general picture of what we are up to this time around ... now here are some pics that might better illustrate the things I've mentioned above!

A view of our "Conestoga", or covered sled that we use for shelter and to make the field work just a bit more civilized ...

Here's the civilized part ... a first rate sample pumping station in the middle of the tundra!!!!

Not everyone needs fancy equipment ... see here the use of a run of the mill caulking gun for sample filtering. We draw water up into a syringe, then screw a filter onto the end. We push the water out of the syringe, through the filter, then into the collection bottle. Problem is, the particulate matter in the water clogs our filters rather easily, making it VERY difficult to get the water through with just your hands ... so a caulking gun adds the extra "oomph" we need to get the job done.

Maybe we should get some sponsorship from Home Depot?

Heading Home

2009-04-17T03:05:00.004-04:00

Well, after a lot of work (and some fun mixed in there too), it is time to leave Barrow and head home to the lower 48. As I write this blog entry, I'm sitting in the Anchorage airport, enjoying the free wireless internet, waiting for my taxi south. (A BIG taxi with wings and a jet engine).

Barrow will certainly be missed, and I look forward to a return trip in late May/June ... we will continue our sampling campaign during the Barrow snowmelt period. Although I'm always happy to return to Barrow ... its people and culture have seemed to really touch my heart ... there are a few things I will be happy to see and experience again down south. I'll make a list of those later though ... right now I think I need a pre-flight nap. ***Yawn***

It's Snowing!

2009-04-09T18:57:00.003-04:00

You may wonder why the fact that it is snowing makes for a special blog post. Isn't it snowing all the time in Barrow?

Actually, the answer to that is a resounding NO. Barrow can actually be considered a desert climate, in terms of precipitation amounts. On average, Barrow receives less than 30" of snow (an equivalent of less than 5" of water). The USGS defines arid lands as those that receive less than 250 millimeters of annual rainfall (or 10" equivalent water). By comparison Buffalo, N.Y., receives an average of 80” to 100” of snow alone per year.

However, across Alaska, the amount of snowfall can be extremely varied. Southern Alaska receives far greater amounts of snow than the north. For example, Thompson Pass, a popular extreme ski and snowboard area north of Valdez, once received a record 974.5” of snow during the winter of 1952-1953 and in one 24 hour period in December 1955 the same area recorded a 62" snowfall.

The deepest recorded snow pack in all of North America occurred at Wolverine Glacier on the Kenai Peninsula during the winter of 1976-1977. The depth was 356”. Almost 30 feet deep!

By comparison, Barrow, in the dry north, received a record minimum amount of snow during the winter of 1935-1936 of only 3”.

Schoolyard Saturday

2009-04-04T22:24:00.003-04:00

The past few days have certainly been busy ones. A lot of snow sampling has been going on ... a group of us are doing a 36 hour experiment to monitor the changes in snow composition as a function of sunlight. Several of my colleagues have been sampling the snow every two hours since Friday morning. Unfortunately, because of the large volume of snow that I need for a sample (and the time it takes to process those amounts of snow), I was only able to sample three times. Once at the start, middle and end of the experiment. For our work, one sample requires gathering two 5-gallon buckets of snow. This snow then melts overnight and the pollutants are extracted from the snow and sent home for analysis at Villanova. (See our previous "movie" of sampling, posted on March 24). We are interested in how the pollutants migrate within the snowpack, so I sampled from three different layers (or depths) in the snow. Where I am sampling, the total snowpack depth is about 30-40 cm (a bit more than 12 - 16 inches). So, I have to dig up a relatively large area of the snow to fill my buckets. My colleagues just shake their heads when I'm finished, because it looks like an angry herd of buffalo had their way with the snow where I sampled.

In other news, I also gave a talk today to the local community about our work, at an event called "Schoolyard Saturday". Every Saturday someone comes in to talk about their work in the Arctic, or some other interesting topic they find appropriate, and the talk is open to the public. I had pretty good attendance given that I was competing with the local "Spring Festival" being held this weekend in town. The talk lasted about 40 minutes, but was followed by many interesting questions that lasted another 30 minutes or so. Apparently I didn't put anyone to sleep!

So our work here is wrapping up - at least for this trip. Another full week of work and then it will be time to pack up and head back home again. I must admit, it will be good to be able to sleep in my own bed again ... and with springtime in full force in Pennsylvania, I'll get to mow grass too ... oh, if only that were something I actually looked forward to! There is something to be said for living in a place where you don't have grass to mow!

Out Like a Lamb???

2009-04-01T02:43:00.002-04:00

March came in like a lion, and has gone out like a lamb.

Well, perhaps lamb is not quite the right term. Today it was VERY windy (20 mph sustained) and cold (-20F). Wind chills were below -40F.

So maybe March went out not quite like a lion, but more like a very angry lamb.

Arctic Scenery

2009-03-29T01:29:00.005-04:00

Things are going well here on the tundra. My photochemistry experiments are cooking away in the bright, bright sunlight we've been having (see the pic below of me "tending" my experiment). The weather has been nothing but sun (and a little wind here and there) for almost two weeks now. I'm just waiting for the next blizzard to blow in, because it certainly can't stay this nice for much longer! The only bad thing that I have to report is that a fox peed on my radiometer the other day! The nerve!!! :)

I've made it out a couple times this week to do snow sampling. Usually this is a task that belongs to Alexis ... but she took a short hiatus from the field to travel to Boston for the NCAA basketball tournament. She must have been a good luck charm, because not only did Nova win the Sweet 16 game, but they also won the Elite 8 game against #1 Pitt. Now we're on to the Final Four!!! Alas, Alexis will be back in Barrow when that game is played, so she'll have to suffer through watching it on TV instead. Oh the trials and tribulations of a grad student. ;)

Meanwhile, I've put together photos taken during our 2008 and 2009 fieldwork ... check out the video below. You will notice at the end a dedication to Arnold Brower, Sr. Arnold was a highly regarded elder in the Barrow community here and was the oldest active whaling captain (86 years old) here as far as I understand. We got to meet him last year and talk with him about his hunting activities, his involvement in the community, his thoughts on climate change, etc. He was a fascinating man. Very sadly, he died last fall while out on a hunting trip. His snowmachine went through thin river ice and, although he was able to get out, he wasn't able to make it to shelter in time, and passed away. It was a great loss to the Barrow community. He was a great man and I feel very privileged to have had a chance (if just for a short time) to get to hear some of his stories. His son, Lewis Brower, is actually the station manager here at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (the organization that handles the logistics of those doing fieldwork here in Barrow).

Blogging for the Discovery Channel

2009-03-27T15:38:00.004-04:00

Well, it seems we've made it big now ... I've been asked to blog for the Discovery Channel about the life and times of a researcher in the Arctic! Check out the link below to the blog site for our field campaign.

http://blogs.discovery.com/earth_live_oasis/

A lot of the entries are pretty similar to the ones you'll see here. But with information on multiple blogs (also check out the OASIS blog link, at right), perhaps we can better reach the masses with our harrowing tales of braving the elements and fighting off polar bears in the name of science.

Okay, yes, I realize that last bit was a HUGE exaggeration ... but didn't it sound exciting!?!

Out on the Sea Ice

2009-03-26T18:59:00.006-04:00

Last night I had the opportunity to go out on the sea ice with a group of researchers from Environment Canada. They have some instrumentation set up at the edge of a refrozen lead, measuring things like mercury and halogens, which relate to ground level ozone depletion events being studied during this OASIS field campaign (all very fascinating to the atmopsheric chemistry type like me). In case you are wondering, a lead is an area of the sea ice that opens up to expose the water ... these are certainly not permanent and can close up, refreeze, or get bigger depending on the winds and ocean currents. This trip to the ice was mainly to check on the status of the instruments and to do some snow sampling.

The trip out is done on a snowmachine (snowmobile to those of you down south, or ski-doo to you Canadians) over a pretty bumpy trail that was "hand carved" through the ice with ice axes. You may envision the frozen ocean as a nice flat sheet of ice, but in fact it is quite the opposite. As the sheets of ice move and bump into each other, big piles of ice form, several stories tall in some places. It really is quite a sight. Here are a few pics:

A gorgeous sunset on the Arctic Ocean ...

A view of the "rubble ice", caused by ice sheets driving in to each other, raising up the ice in big chunks, some the size of a tractor trailer ...

Me (on left) helping Sandy Steffen (Environment Canada) sample frost flowers. This was how I justified my presence on the trip. :) This flat area of ice where we are at is a refrozen lead. The ice here is about 40 cm thick, or about 16 inches thick. It doesn't sound like a lot, but 16 inches of ice can hold a LOT of weight (you could pretty safely drive a tractor trailer over ice just a few inches thick).

Me about halfway up the climb on the rubble ice ...

As I write this blog entry, the Environment Canada team is racing out to their site to bring in their equipment. The winds are shifting and the area we were at last night will probably be a new pile of rubble ice soon, or may break off entirely from the ice closer to land and drift away ... the ice sheets are moving and it would not be in the best interest of the equipment to leave it out there to either be crushed, or fall in the ocean.

Our Box Office Hit

2009-03-24T21:30:00.005-04:00

Watch below for a glimpse of what is sure to be a box office sensation! This movie provides excitement, danger, thrills and chills at -40F.

"Stunning" says People Magazine

"Two thumbs up" raves Entertainment Weekly

"Action, intrigue and pure entertainment. This movie just keeps you wanting more" mumbles Rolling Stone

Bear with me ...

2009-03-23T21:02:00.003-04:00

Sometimes when you go out on the ice, you get to see the wildlife. Like polar bears! These shots were taken last week by Tom Douglas, during a sampling trip on the Arctic Ocean a few miles offshore from Barrow.

See him there in the distance, at the foot of the rubble ice?

A zoom in of the bear ...

Flowers in Barrow ... Frost flowers that is ...

2009-03-21T19:24:00.011-04:00

It's another weekend here in Barrow, which for us doesn't mean much ... we still work on the weekend like we would any other day. Alexis is busy processing her most recent snow sample. Actually, in this case, the sample isn't snow, but something called frost flowers.

Frost flowers grow on the surface of newly formed sea ice and are very highly saline (i.e. salty). Previous measurements have shown that as these frost flowers form they can scavenge things from the atmosphere, like mercury. So we'd like to know if they can scavenge organic pollutants, like the pesticides and industrial chemicals we are measuring here. If frost flowers are good at scavenging these pollutants we expect to see very high concentrations of the chemicals, compared to other "normal" snow samples we have taken here. So Alexis went out on the sea ice (over the Arctic Ocean) yesterday and sampled four buckets of frost flowers ...

Here is Alexis (blue parka in foreground) getting ready to sample

A closer view of the frost flowers:

An up-close view, showing the structural detail of the crystals:

Today I'm dealing with more mundane tasks, like keeping our GC (gas chromatograph, shown below) happy. I did some routine maintenance today and am re-calibrating the instrument (something I do pretty routinely ... once per week or so). To make sure everything is accurate, this meant remaking the calibration standards, too. Way too tedious for my taste, but something that has to be done ... oh, the life of an analytical chemist.

Since Tuesday I've been monitoring our PCB photochemistry experiment. PCBs are industrial chemicals that are not currently produced in the US (most countries banned production in the 1970s and 1980s), but are found almost everywhere in the environment. They are found in wildlife here in the Arctic, sometimes in very high concentrations, which is a concern. We'd like to understand if there is any chemistry occuring in snow and ice that might affect PCBs and how they cycle around here in the Arctic.

Every day I go out around 1 pm and sample 36 different vials containing different PCB molecules (6 different experiments, 3 "cooked" vials and 3 "dark" vials for each). The "cooked" vials are the ones that have been sitting out on the snow exposed to sunlight and the "dark" vials are control samples that were kept dark, wrapped in foil, in a box buried in the snow. Analyzing these will help us know how much chemistry is caused by sunlight and how much (if any) happens when the sample is not in the sun. Working up 36 samples for GC analysis takes about 2-3 hours ... then another 12-14 hours of analysis time on the instrument. Luckily, our instrument has an autosampler, which means no one has to be around for the 12-14 hours of instrument analysis time ... it does it all by itself! However, once the samples are analyzed, it's another couple hours of work to make sense of the numbers the instrument produces ... (I guess if the instrument did EVERYTHING I'd be out of job, huh?)

Right now, it looks like the two PCB compounds I'm studying are VERY slowly degrading. The degradation is so slow that I've now decided to only go out every OTHER day to sample.

Soon I'll be starting another experiment, with a different compound ... but I'll save the sordid details of that for a later posting ... :)

Oh, and one more thing: Today Villanova's basketball team made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Go NOVA!

A Field Notebook .... Don't Leave Home Without It ...

2009-03-17T17:50:00.003-04:00

Photographic evidence of why it is ALWAYS a good idea to have your field notebook with you ...

Otherwise, you have to sharpie your data on your arm ...

Brrrrr ....

2009-03-14T16:47:00.008-04:00

It's another cold day here in Barrow. Today the temp was -24F as I walked to the lab building at 9 am. Luckily the winds are fairly calm today ... but even so, with an 8 mph wind, the wind chill dropped to -42F.

So for those of you who might be interested, here is a chart that allows you to determine the wind chill based on air temperature and wind speed. So you can see, at very cold temperatures, just a small breeze can make a big difference in how cold it feels (and how quickly frostbite will set in).

So here's the "WHY" behind wind chill: Because of a phenomenon knows as "evaporative cooling", your skin can feel colder than the actual outside temperature. It takes heat to evaporate a liquid ... so let's say the liquid in question is the moisture on your skin. As it evaporates, it is taking heat from the surroundings, which will cool those surroundings. So as the moisture from your skin evaporates it takes with it some heat and hence cools your skin surface. Also at play is a phenomenon known as "convection", a major mode of heat transfer. There is "natural" and "forced" convection ... natural convection is just due to the diffusion of heat away from a body. Forced convection means something else is helping along that heat transfer. In the case of wind chills, the wind is helping to force the convection process. In both cases, the rate of heat loss depends on the real air temperature and the wind speed above the surface (in this case, your skin).

So, since we're talking science ... today we started a photochemistry experiment. (Photochemistry = light induced chemistry). We have samples that contain a pollutant that has recently been identified in the Arctic: tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), a brominated flame retardant. Brominated flame retardants are added to many consumer products like electronics, fabrics, upholstery, etc ... in order to slow down or minimize the extent of fire. These flame retardants do great things in terms of keeping people safe from potential fire hazards, but we're now finding out that some of them aren't so good for your health ... and that they are getting transported all over the planet. We want to know if this particular pollutant is reactive in snow and ice and if it is, what might it turn into. So today I put out on the snowpack a set of sealed vials (pictured below) that contain a known amount of TBBPA in clean water and in refrozen Barrow snowmelt water ... we'll see if the TBBPA goes away and if it is more or less reactive in the snow samples. This might give us an idea of how it will react in the snow and ice in the Arctic.

In other news ... today the OASIS team presented a talk to the Barrow community about the work we are doing here. Remember, OASIS means Ocean Air Sea Ice Snow interactions. Sandy Steffen (of Environment Canada) and Paul Shepson (of Purdue University) did a great job - mainly determined by the fact that as I looked around during the seminar no one was sleeping! Below are some shots before and during the talk ...

Stay tuned for more exciting happenings from Barrow!

Live from Barrow ... It's Saturday Night!

2009-03-08T06:18:00.005-04:00

... and excitement abounds ... (that must be obvious, since I'm sitting here at 1:30 am writing up a blog entry!)

Today was a somewhat productive day, although it doesn't feel much like it, as the fruits of our labor aren't readily apparent just now. We did a bit of lab cleanup, changed out a gas tank on our instrument (which required carting large gas cylinders between buildings), cleaned our snow sampling containers, and various other random tasks. I spent a better portion of the afternoon getting snow sampling containers ready for shipment to Umiat, Alaska. One of the guys working for BASC is taking a couple weeks to trek (via snowmachine) from Barrow to Umiat, almost 200 miles SE, for hunting. After a random conversation in the hallway he offered to do some snow sampling for us, which is great, as there would be no way for us to get a sample from that type of area. It is much farther inland and any samples from there will be great for comparison to what we are measuring in Barrow.

Umiat is actually not a town or village, as it has no permanent residents per se. It is a "camp" of sorts and fuel stop for aircraft operating in the area. But after a couple phone calls and emails, we managed to coordinate with a weekly charter flight from Barrow to Umiat ... today I dropped off our sampling materials and they'll be shipped down to Umiat on Monday. Then, our hunter friend (aka snow sampler) will pick up the materials when he arrives, do the snow sampling, then send them on the next charter flight back to Barrow. THEN we'll finally see the fruits of the mission, when we get to process all the snow that we hope makes it back safely.

Another interesting photo opportunity arose this afternoon. A balloon is being used at the OASIS measurement site that allows for sampling of different chemicals in the atmosphere. Very long inlet lines that connect to various instruments get tethered to the balloon, along with sampling containers that can sample at various heights. Using the balloon (and the instruments doing the measurements), scientists working here will be able to determine how the behavior and concentrations of different chemicals change with height in the atmosphere. Here is a cool picture I took, showing the balloon in the sky, around 4 pm on Saturday, with the moon.

This evening we spent a nice evening eating out at Brower's Cafe. An international contingent went to dinner including Americans, Canadians, Austrians, Germans and someone from Jersey. :)

The day concluded quite nicely with a (somewhat subdued) showing of the Northern Lights. After some fiddling with my camera (exposure times and such), I was able to capture a few images ... but these certainly don't do the aurora justice. I'm hoping for a more "spectacular" show, as I think I can get a lot better pictures. But these will have to do for now.

And that ... is a Saturday night in Barrow ...

Snow Sampling ... aka Snow Trashing

2009-03-05T04:36:00.005-05:00

Today was our second day of snow sampling this week. Our French snow physics expert (Florent Domine) is now in the field and has his operation set up. He dug a snow trench today and did a series of measurements of density, permeability, surface area, etc. These types of parameters are important if you are trying to figure out how chemicals in the snowpack move around due to changes in temperature, or snow crystal size and shape, etc. Once Florent's samples were taken, we got in there and dug up our own samples. Unfortunately, when you analyze for the types of pollutants we look for, you need to get a BIG snow sample. About 20 gallons of snow is one sample for us. Remember - snow is not as dense as pure water ... so if you fill a 5 gallon bucket up to the brim with snow and then let it melt ... you get back not even 2 gallons of water. Because we took such large samples, our work essentially destroyed his beautifully dug snowpit ... so I think we are now referred to as "The Snow Trashers". But, it's okay ... we made sure to wait until everyone else had their work done, then went to town digging up the pit.

Here are a few pics of the snow sampling activities:

Alexis (the body lying on the ground) relaxes while we wait for the others to finish their sampling .... AAAAHHH, Arctic Life is Good! Notice our buckets in the background ... after about an hour of sampling, these will be filled with snow.

Didier Voisin (another Frenchman!!!!) samples from the deep end of the snow trench.

After a couple hours outside at -15F or so ... you get a little frosty. Notice my eyelashes and the little bit of my hair that was sticking out from under my hat ...

And this is what we get when we're all done ... buckets and buckets of snow ... they get sealed up, and sit in our lab here at Barrow to melt. Then, we extract the polluants out of the melted water and ship those extracts home to Villanova to analyze. That will be how Alexis spends her summer!

Canadians Search for Alien Life ...

2009-03-03T21:24:00.005-05:00

...okay maybe not ... here is the real story:

A group of scientists from Environment Canada is working here in Barrow as part of the "OASIS" campaign that we are also a part of. They have designed and built a portable sled system chock full of atmospheric measurement equipment...things like ozone monitors and mercury analyzers and meteorological parameters, etc. The sled is lovingly called OOTI (Out On The Ice). It is meant to be snowmachined into place almost anywhere you'd like to go, and then it can be left to measure away while the scientists go back to the warmth of their labs.

The OOTI sled is currently being tested on a lagoon about 6 km away from BASC. Communication with the sled is done by radio signals, picked up by the strange looking antenna in the picture above (being used by Andrew Sheppard). Problem is, there needs to be a direct line of sight between the antenna and the sled ... which was not available down the hall in the Environment Canada lab ... so they came to our lab to try things out our window.

Alas, no luck.

So now the Canadians are off to find a better place to mount their antenna and look for alien life...oops...I mean, communicate with their instruments.

In Like a Lion

2009-03-01T17:26:00.004-05:00

March came in like a lion here in Barrow, Alaska. We woke up today to -15F temps, with a wind chill of -46F. We had a blizzard warning and gale force winds since Friday ... there have been no flights in since Friday morning either ... so those scientists hoping to go home over the weekend are changing their plans accordingly. The BASC parking lot is one big snow drift and it was only by luck that we were able to find a parking spot near a plug-in for the truck.

Here you can see the drift behind the van, up to its bumper.

Here you can see that the snow is up to almost the top of the bed of the truck parked at the end of the building.

Here is a short video of the blowing snow and wind conditions, filmed on 2-28...

But, if March came in like a lion ... maybe it will go out like a lamb???

Barrow Photo Shoot

2009-02-23T23:09:00.005-05:00

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!

Shopping in Barrow ... Priceless

2009-02-21T16:47:00.004-05:00

Here is a short video illustrating the sticker shock you'll get when shopping in Barrow.

We appreciate both cash and food donations.

Barrow, Alaska ... The Tour ...

2009-02-18T15:59:00.006-05:00

The past few days we've been dealing with the wrath of Mother Nature. A blizzard came in on Monday and just let up this morning. Winds were over 40 mph, which dropped the wind chills to at least -50F. It made getting around difficult, as you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you. It also stopped the water deliveries to our hut! This was a problem, as a cleaning crew had wiped out our water supply the very day the blizzard came in. So, without the water truck to refill us, we were completely out of water. No shower, no toilet, no sink. Luckily we were able to shower and such at the Ilisagvik College dorms (in the same building as BASC). We just pretended we were camping.

Today the water truck finally made it back to our hut. Just in time ... as it appears another round of bad weather is coming our way this afternoon/evening.

In our few hours of good weather we managed to get to our equipment that was left here from last year and got that all unpacked. It was being stored in another building and required a truck to move some things around. This afternoon we'll try to get our air samplers up and running.

In the meantime, I put together a video that we filmed over the weekend ... an official tour of Barrow. Here you can see what Barrow actually looks like, not the "30 Days of Night" movie version.

Enjoy!

Bear Lockdown!

2009-02-16T15:40:00.011-05:00

The last few days have been both interesting and productive. We have our instrument set up and running and it is happily calibrating away right now (after finally isolating a pesky leak). We have had less luck with getting our air samplers set up. It has just been far too cold and windy to even try to get them moved from their storage shed to the science building. Today looks no better, we are actually under a blizzard warning. In the meantime, we've made the solutions that we'll need and have those safely stored away and have finished all the unpacking that we can.

As for the bear lockdown ... yesterday a call came over the radio that a polar bear had been spotted roaming around the BASC buildings. Alexis was still in our hut getting ready to walk over, while I was here in the science building (I had come over in time to make it to "Sunday brunch"). Not sure if she had heard the call, I rushed to the phone to call the hut ... luckily, she did hear the announcement and was staying put in the hut. Numerous police, wildlife and BASC vehicles cruised around the area looking for the bear ... but no signs of it. Later it was determined the bear had gone back out on the sea ice and we were given the all clear ... it was safe to go outside again. Lesson learned: always keep your radio with you.

Our evenings thus far have been pretty low key ... we've rented a couple movies (yes, there is a rental store in Barrow - it's the same place where you can get coffee drinks and flowers) and worked on some blog videos (coming soon!).

We'll let you know how we make out with this blizzard ....

For now, I'll leave you with a short video we made illustrating the daylight progression we have currently ...

High-Temperature Exposure Testing

2009-02-13T14:39:00.007-05:00

Now that Alexis and Dr G. have arrived in Barrow, it is safe to reveal the true intentions of those lab members who stayed behind at Villanova.

We are conducting a series of experiments into the effects of extreme temperatures on the structural integrity of photochemistry ampules. This previously unpublished image shows the deformation resulting from 3 hours of exposure to a temperature of 850 degrees C. There are no current plans to repeat this procedure, as it has been clearly demonstrated to be a REALLY BAD IDEA.

(For the record, let it be known that this misadventure... er...experiment was completely unpremeditated and that there appears to be no lasting damage done to the muffle furnace. The ampules were not so fortunate.)

Welcome to Barrow!

2009-02-13T13:32:00.012-05:00

We have made it to Barrow after a delayed flight in Fairbanks. We arrived late on Wednesday night (2/11/09) and made the trip to BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) - our new home for the next couple months. On the way to BASC, however, we had a great surprise ... FIREWORKS!

Yes, they really rolled out the red carpet for us!

Actually, right now there is a festival happening in Barrow called Kivgiq, a festival of song and dance. Dancers from all over the North Slope of Alaska (and beyond) are in Barrow to perform. Last night we went to the festival and enjoyed watching a group from Wainwright, and another from Savoonga (on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea). If you are interested in more of the story behind the history of Kivgiq, read this: http://is.gd/jbBN.

Here is a video from the festival last night.

Although we are feeling very welcomed here - we can't really say it has been a WARM welcome. The temp was -40F when we arrived with a wind chill of about -65F or so. Yesterday we came to the lab around 8:30 am and it was -47F (with who knows how low a wind chill!?!). Today it is a balmy -16F, but the windchill is still about -40F with blowing snow. What really struck us was thinking about the fact that back home when we left, temps were in the 60s ... so we went through a 100 degree temperature drop coming here to Barrow.

BRRRRR......

Alexis Sees Her First Polar Bear!!!!

2009-02-11T02:03:00.005-05:00

...okay...well...a stuffed one that is.

This encounter occurred at the Anchorage airport. We arrived here this afternoon and will overnight at the Ramada and catch tomorrow's flight to Barrow. We didn't get here in time today to get the last flight out this afternoon, so we wait until tomorrow.

In the meantime we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse. Alexis had the Alaskan King Crab and I had a Filet Mignon with Peppercorn Sauce. Yummy! Since Alexis actually knew a few of the people there (she worked at the Sullivan's in King of Prussia), we got all star treatment! Small world to travel across 3 time zones and find people you haven't seen in several years!

It Made It!

2009-02-09T10:19:00.003-05:00

Our equipment arrived in Barrow on Friday! We'll find out later this week when we unpack it whether we have any casualties. I must give a big thank you to Sharon at Alta Air Logistics for overseeing the shipment. When the boxes arrived in Anchorage she personally checked on their condition and oversaw the "palletizing" of everything for the flight to Barrow. She made the entire shipping process a breeze ... Sharon you are awesome!!!

Now, it's just a matter of getting US up there. We'll be leaving tomorrow from Dulles Airport ... then to Minneapolis ... then to Anchorage. We overnight in Anchorage ... then on Wednesday go from Anchorage to Fairbanks to Barrow.

Let's hope the volcano holds off until Feb 12. :)

Barrow 2009 Packing and Shipping

2009-01-22T09:13:00.005-05:00

...also known as Herding Boxes ...

We're on our way back to Barrow. Alexis and I will depart for Barrow on Feb 10, but our supplies and equipment need a bit more time to make the journey north to Alaska. After many days of packing and bubble wrapping, our cargo was loaded into a Roadway truck and departed from the Villanova University campus yesterday afternoon. It will make its way to Seattle to be put on a ship bound for Anchorage. From there, it will fly to Barrow, hopefully for a Feb 12 arrival.

Shipping went a little easier this time ... many of the heavier, bulky pieces (like our air samplers) stayed in Barrow, awaiting our return. So this time around, we merely had to send up our "consumables" - the stuff that we couldn't reuse from last year. Oh, and our main piece of instrumentation (a gas chromatograph) that was too precious to just leave alone in Barrow for a year ... that had to get shipped back up again, too. (That is what is in the large wooden crate you'll see in the video).

So with that, I leave you our YouTube video of this year's packing and shipping exploits ...

An Update for Movie Buffs

2008-11-14T23:04:00.003-05:00

For those of you who may not realize our subtle (okay, maybe not so subtle) play on words ... the name of our blog "30 days of light" is a twist to the title of the movie "30 days of night". This movie (if you haven't seen it) is set in Barrow, Alaska - which becomes the target of a vampire invasion when the sun sets for the final time in winter. For those of us who have been to Barrow, it is fun to watch the movie and pick apart all the inaccuracies (e.g. there are NO mountains unlike the scenery shown in the movie ... and you CAN actually get a flight out when it is dark). For those who haven't been to Barrow ... well ... it's just a bad vampire movie.

But alas, 30 Days of Night will now have a sequel!!!! According to the Internet Movie Database ... a (likely direct to dvd) sequel is in the works ... http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0599549/

I wonder if they'll consider getting rid of the mountains this time around?

Back to Barrow!!!

2008-10-29T21:38:00.004-04:00

To those fans who continue to check occasionally for updates to the blog, our long hiatus is over! Here are some updates:

1.) The big news is that we'll be going BACK TO BARROW! We'll be participating in an upcoming atmospheric chemistry measurement campaign called OASIS. (see: http://www.oasishome.net/barrow2009.php). This time it will just be me and graduate student Alexis Torres. We'll be in the field from February 15 to April 15, 2009. Look out Barrow, here we come!

2.) I think we've all finally acclimated to being back in the lower 48. Ian is working through the analysis of all our air/snow/ice samples and things are working well. Ali is in her senior year and classes and research are keeping her busy. Glenn is back to lab photochemistry experiments and trying to identify the products we found during experiments in Barrow. Bill is working on high school curriculum development centered around environmental chemistry. And me, well, I've got my nose in all of it. But honestly, I think they just keep me around to sign the purchase orders. :)

As planning advances and more exciting things happen as we prepare for the OASIS campaign, we'll be adding new blog entries, pics, etc. Please keep coming back to visit, and feel free to leave comments and send the link to our blog to friends/family/colleagues.

The Eagle Has Landed...

2008-06-30T18:20:00.001-04:00

After a long journey Thursday night to Friday afternoon, the eagle (me) finally landed (in D.C.). I spent the weekend with my sister (who had so kindly agreed to babysit my car for me), and then made the final drive to Philly yesterday. Today I made my way back to Villanova's campus ... all the way being reminded how much I hate traffic and the need to commute to work. Walking to work was so much more my style!

The time zone and climate adjustments are going to take some time. I'm finding the warm temps that others feel are "comfortable" to be swealtering. I almost stuck my head in the freezer last night to cool off, but decided against that since I'd waste so much energy keeping the door open. If only I owned a chest freezer I could just crawl into from time to time ... :o)

I am, however, enjoying the dark nights and other unique aspects of being home ... like fire flies and thunderstorms. The photo below shows the dark outline of the trees lining my street and a few blurry street and driveway lights ... what many take for granted on a daily basis (i.e. sunsets) I now hold in very high regard!

Our equipment is on its way back to us now ... as are the samples that we'll be busily processing for the rest of the summer and into the fall. We'll post updates as exciting (and not so exciting) things happen. The first order of business is to get everyone safely back to PA after their well deserved post-fieldwork vacations.

The Eagle has Left the Nest ...

2008-06-27T23:18:00.005-04:00

The group in Barrow is now down to two members ... Glenn and Ali. I left Barrow on Thursday evening. For a while I was wondering if the flight would leave - the morning departure was cancelled due to fog and it barely lifted before the evening plane needed to land. But, land it did, and I was on Alaska Air Flight 52, which departed Barrow a little after 9 pm.

Wednesday night we celebrated my final night in Barrow with dinner (and dessert) at Brower's Cafe. There is a painting of a polar bear in the restaurant, so we decided that we'd have to face the fact that the painting would be the closest we'd get to a photo op of a polar bear. So we took a few shots with our "stand in" polar bear on Wednesday night.

But as luck would have it, Barrow had one last surprise in store for us ... the day of my departure ... I FINALLY saw a POLAR BEAR! A call came in from the Wildlife Department that a polar bear was spotted just off the beach by the Napa Auto Parts store (about 1 mile from BASC). Our good friend Nok called us at the lab and said to grab our cameras, he'd be over in a minute to pick us up in the truck and drive us out to see it. He knew we were all disappointed that we hadn't seen a polar bear. Thanks Nok for thinking about us and getting us that one last chance to see a bear!!!

And Then There Were Three...

2008-06-25T20:43:00.005-04:00

The group is officially now beginning to dwindle. Yesterday, Ian headed south to warmer climates ... with a stop in Seattle to see the sights (and friends), he'll return to Philadelphia at the end of the month. Tomorrow evening I will depart, followed soon thereafter by Glenn (leaving Saturday) and Ali (leaving Sunday).

Today we took our 1100 pounds of equipment to Northern Air Cargo for shipment back to our lab at Villanova. We also returned the gas cylinders we've been using while in Barrow. We had these shipped to Barrow from Anchorage and of course, they had to be returned. We ended up completely overestimating how much gas we'd need, so many of the cylinders were returned still full of helium or nitrogen. Oh well, it is better to have more than you need than to run out in the middle of your work! Our poor F250 had to take on the 2200 lb load for the trip to the airport. Thank heavens it has a good suspension ... even so, the drive into town was taken slow and easy. It was quite the "low rider" excursion (as you can see from the pic below).

So now, it is time to pack up my personal belongings. The mundane tasks of doing laundry and returning keys still have to be checked off my "to do" list. Leaving Barrow will be bittersweet ... I'll be happy to be home again, but realize that comes at the price of leaving a lot of great friends that I have made while here in the field. Luckily, email, phones, and web chats are still readily available for keeping in touch! I'm planning for a return trip next year (assuming the funding fairy is kind to me). But between now and then, who knows, I might just make another trip up here for fun as an official "tourist"! :o)

Greetings from Beaker!!!

2008-06-24T03:17:00.014-04:00

Meep meep meep! In Beaker-ese that means Greetings from Barrow. The group’s time here is quickly winding down – I can’t believe we’ve been here since March! My time here with the Grannas group has been quite the experience. As official lab mascot it was my job to keep morale high, and I do believe I’ve excelled in that area. They also put me to work from day one … not that I’m complaining, but I do think there may have been some violations of Muppet labor laws. For some reason everyone assumes a Muppet needs no sleep! I had to babysit the GC during all the overnight analyses. I also had to oversee all lab activities and keep everyone in check and on schedule. Quite the job when you consider the yahoos I have to work with! Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? I meant to say that I had nothing but good experiences working with these science geniuses who always act like the ultimate professionals (as evidenced by the candid photos below I managed to take while they weren't paying attention) . :o)

Along with the more mundane lab work, the group has had numerous opportunities to get out in the field for sampling. Snowmachining and ATV-ing around Barrow was always fun, especially when Ali would come back with stories of upsetting her snowmachine multiple times in one trip.

They also had some great times participating in the spring whaling season and eating the fruits thereof … although no one offered me any muktuk and I am still feeling a bit offended by that slight. They did offer to bring me to their weekend bonfire, but I declined as I was afraid Ian might end up using me as kindling or firestarter. Polyester stuffing burns so easily you know!

Dining out was also a highlight of the stay. Who knew you could get such yummy Mexican food this far north of the border? The Thai restaurant was also a hit, more for the hilarious wait-staff than the food (although the food certainly was good). Osaka had great sushi and other tasty menu items as well. It was always fun to hear Glenn’s point of view on the food offerings – he’s experienced first hand a number of foreign cuisines and was always full of insight regarding food preparation and presentation.

The Barrow night life was quite an experience. (Although can you really call it night life when the sun doesn’t go down? Shouldn’t it be light life? ... just a thought). Anyway – the Friday night dances were a hoot … man, who ever said science geeks can’t dance? Once they got over the initial fear of being the only people on the dance floor, it really was quite fun to see them out there gyrating around. I never imagined Dr. G could bend that way (and to be honest, maybe she shouldn’t)! When the Barrow entertainment offerings weren’t sufficient, the group often organized their own entertainment. Countless movie nights filled the past few months. Several Rock Band get-togethers were also on the schedule. And let’s not even talk about charades and Pictionary games … yikes! Talk about the competitive spirit … they would make Bobby Knight proud!

I have to give final props to BASC (the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium). The logistics staff was just amazing – always meeting the group’s needs and going above and beyond to help them get their work done. Last minute requests were never a problem (whereas I would have probably looked at the Grannas group with that “you’ve got to be kidding!” look). The spirit of “nothing is impossible” was pervasive … and honestly, it ended up true. (Who knew a stand-in vacuum system could be found in a matter of an hour when the building’s vacuum pumps died).

So now, I find myself looking around the lab at the empty boxes and crates that are soon going to be filled with equipment and materials to be shipped back to Villanova. I’ll get crammed into one of these for the ride home … I’m trying to scope out a nice comfy spot that isn’t too cramped. I had one heck of a neck cramp from my trip up here in March – so I’m not looking for a repeat of that! I'm sure the group will continue blogging, but for now I must bid everyone farewell and get ready to be stuffed into my packing crate. So, until I get back to Villanova, I wish you all Meep Meep Meep Meeeeep! (Translation: health, happiness and a safe summer).

Happy Nalukataq

2008-06-22T22:03:00.009-04:00

On Saturday, June 21 we ushered in the beginning of summer by attending the Nalukataq festival. Two whaling crews (one of which was the ABC crew) celebrated their successful whaling season with the community. They shared their catches with the town, serving goose soup (remember the geese we cleaned a while back???), caribou soup, frozen raw whale meat (quaq), muktuk, etc. Everyone was welcome to share in the fun and some of us even got a portion of quaq and muktuk to take home.

After the food was distributed, the blanket toss began. A "blanket" made of seal (or walrus) skins is used as a trampoline. People stand around the edges of the blanket and move it up and down in unison - this is what gives the blanket its "spring". Everyone is invited to take a turn if they'd like getting tossed (sometimes VERY high) in the air. Some jumpers throw out candy to the eager kids (and adults) waiting for some sweet goodies below. Ali and Glenn both took a turn on the blanket, as well as a number of other BASC researchers. Luckily, all survived the toss without any broken bones or other long-term injuries!

After the blanket toss, we headed to the Arctic Ocean coast for a "Polar Plunge". Ali, Ian and a few other brave BASC researchers (Tony, Barry and Romain) took the plunge into the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. Luckily, no one had heart failure upon entering and no one ended up with hypothermia from the swim. I passed on this experience, as I've already done my fair share of Polar Rolls (rolling around nearly naked in the snow at -40F) and Polar Plunges ... and Glenn decided he also wanted to keep to the warmer, drier climes of solid ground. We were, however, the official photographers and "warmer uppers" for the swimmers when they exited the water. What we didn't realize was that we wouldn't be the ONLY photographers. As the plungers got ready for their swim a passing vehicle decided to stop to watch the fun. This caught the attention of a few other passersby (including the 15 passenger van used by "Northern Tundra Tours" to take tourists around to local sights). Apparently, we ended up on their tour ... as the entire van emptied and the tourists took pictures of the group doing their plunge. Ironic - the tourists come to Barrow to see the local sights and end up taking pictures of tourists doing the polar plunge. But, we were happy to be the entertainment, if only for a few minutes. Blankets, towels and dry changes of clothes were quickly made ready when the plungers decided to exit the frigid water (to the cheers and hoots of the adoring audience). Everyone was glad they did the plunge ... or at least no one voiced their regrets out loud!

So now that the first Nalukataq of the summer is past, we must unfortunately start thinking about packing up our lab and instruments for the journey back to Villanova. The goal is to have our boxes and crates to the Northern Air Cargo facility at the airport by Wednesday. So, we still have a few days to get ourselves packed and ready to head back to the lower 48. We managed to get everything up here in one piece - so let's hope we can maintain the same record for the trip home!

San Francisco Exploratorium

2008-06-13T20:48:00.005-04:00

A team from the San Francisco Exploratorium (a really cool hands-on science museum!) has been in Barrow for the past few weeks speaking with, photographing, videoing and interviewing the researchers here in Barrow in an effort to get a feel for the types of work going on in the Arctic and how Arctic research can impact people from all walks of life. Their efforts are then turned into "Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists". Check it out at: http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/index.php

Both Glenn and I were interviewed, with a webcast sent back live to the Exploratorium. You can view our webcasts by visiting:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/index.php

Go to the area marked "Recent Programs" on the right. You'll find Glenn's interview under the title of "Snow Chemistry" (date: 6/6/2008) and my interview under the title of "Impact of Pollutants on Snow and Ice" (date: 6/13/2008).

Although my presentation was on Friday the 13th, no misfortunes came about during the webcast. (Whew!)

From the Great (not so white) North...

2008-06-09T03:58:00.011-04:00

The past few days have been quite eventful, on both the science and social fronts. Snow is rapidly melting here and we are in high gear for sampling. We've done a number of trips to various sampling sites - some more easily accessible than others. We have 14 sampling buckets and are nearly constantly alternating between sampling or extracting the collected samples. It takes several hours to process a bucket of snow/water, so we can't let ourselves get too far behind, or we run out of buckets! All the while, Glenn and Ali continue our photochemistry experiments. We'll soon have weather too warm to complete experiments in ice, but we plan to continue experiments in liquid samples for as long as time permits.

On Thursday (6-5-08), Ian and Ali once again travelled to Point Barrow via ATV to collect snow, ice and meltwater samples. While they were collecting the samples, I managed to process several of our previous samples and then proceeded with the tedious task of cleaning the buckets to ready them for their next use. It took them most of the afternoon to finish sampling, but their hard work was rewarded with a trip to Brower's Cafe for dinner that evening. Located right along the Arctic Ocean coast, Brower's offers good food and a great view for one's dining pleasure. Ali and I shared an ice cream sundae for dessert - a fitting end to a long day of work.

On Friday (6-6-08), Ian and I completed a depth profile of the snow behind the BARC lab building. Previously, these profiles consisted of collecting snow at various depths from the surface down to the tundra. Now, there is a several-inch-thick layer of meltwater under the snowpack (which we now are also collecting for analysis). We're interested in finding out how the pollutants move through the snowpack when it begins to warm and melt. In all, we collected eight 5-gallon buckets of snow and/or water. Ian was kind enough to carry the two heavier water-filled buckets through the snow, up over the snowbank and to our lab. I made the trek with the six slightly lighter snow-filled buckets across the deep slushy snow (which you occassionally sink through up to your hips) to the snow bank ... then Ian carried those over the snowbank to the back door of the building and we hauled them inside from there. It seems like slightly less work when you can "break up" the trip so to speak ... but it still is quite the workout to haul around the buckets, all the time sinking into and stumbling through the slushy, uncooperative snow.

Friday evening I had the opportunity to help the ABC Crew prepare for their upcoming Nalukataq, or spring whaling, festival. The ABC Crew successfully brought in a whale this season and on June 21 will celebrate and share their catch with the community. This means sharing their bounty with the entire community of Barrow. They will prepare a variety of foods ... from whale to geese to caribou ... but it all must be prepared ahead of time, considering the large quantity of food that needs to be ready. We prepared 27 geese within a few hours on Friday evening. It is not a job for the faint of heart (or those with a queasy stomach), as you might be able to tell from the photos below.

Saturday (6-7-08) was a lighter day in terms of our work load. We gave a talk about our research at the Schoolyard Saturday presentation. This is an educational outreach activity organized by BASC that is aimed at sharing research activities and findings with the community. We had quite a large turn out and those in attendance seemed genuinely interested in the topic and asked a number of insightful questions. It is always refreshing when you can talk about your work and not put an entire audience to sleep!

Saturday evening we joined some fellow BASC researchers for a bar-b-que and enjoyed grilled chicken, burgers and hot dogs. A hilarious game of charades followed (honestly, how does one act out "Gerald Ford"???). Around 9 pm, the crowd dispersed to either a.) return to BARC to do work (poor Ian, Glenn and Ali!) or b.) attend a bonfire in town (those rowdy archaeologists!).

On Sunday afternoon (6-8-08) we trekked out to the BEO to do air sampler maintenance and also to collect snow and meltwater samples. This was quite the workout for us, as we can no longer snowmachine on the tundra. We walked several miles (both in and out again) to do the sample collection, getting five 5-gallon buckets of snow/water. (This corresponds to over 200 pounds in case you were curious). We made good use of a plastic sled to help us in the hauling process and we each took turns playing "mule" to get the samples back from the BEO to the truck. Luckily, we enlisted the help of another researcher (one of those aforementioned archaeologists), so we were able to spread out the workload a little more. In addition to the extra help, we had an extra smiling face to make the trip more enjoyable. Sheila is always good for a few laughs (especially when she chases and CATCHES lemmings) ... and many thanks to her for volunteering to help!!! The photo below shows Sheila with one of her catches of the day ... the brown furry hamster-looking thing in her hands would be a lemming (which she named "Scribbles").

Because we spent all afternoon on the BEO, we didn't make it back in time to catch dinner at the college cafeteria. Also, because Sunday was Glenn's birthday, we decided to celebrate with dinner in town. Glenn chose the Arctic Thai restaurant and we enjoyed a variety of dishes. He was also surprised with a huge ice cream dessert (and enough spoons for all of us to share!) in honor of his birthday. The owners were quite gracious in helping us celebrate Glenn's birthday in style.

We have a lot more sampling planned for the upcoming week, so stay tuned for further updates from the great (now not so white) north.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENN!!!

2008-06-08T02:59:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday Dear Glenn,
Happy Birthday to You!

Sunday, June 8 is Glenn's birthday ... Best wishes to Glenn for a happy birthday!

Arctic Blast

2008-06-05T01:33:00.013-04:00

Greetings from Barrow, Alaska! I apologize (wholeheartedly) for the exceptionally overdue blog update. We’ve all been so busy!

My first two weeks of arctic adventures have been remarkable! The journey began on Tuesday, May 20, 2008: Dr. Grannas and I travelled from Washington D.C. to Anchorage. On May 21, we completed our cross-country expedition to Barrow. After joining our fellow Villanovans in the NARL Hotel (Naval Arctic Research Laboratory Hotel), we familiarized ourselves with the small town of Barrow. Our accommodations in the “hotel” are wonderfully spacious and clean. However, it took several days to become accustomed to the midnight sun through the bedroom curtains.

Our experiments have kept us all tremendously busy! I have had several opportunities to venture onto the BEO (Barrow Environmental Observatory) with Ian, Dr. Grannas, and Glenn (Dr. Rowland) via snowmobile to collect snowmelt water and snow samples and also to replace the air filters within our high volume air sampler in the field. We managed to spot some beautiful Snowy Owls on the tundra. We also performed depth profiles within the snowpack to analyze POPs (persistent organic pollutants) in the snow, also via XAD extraction. All the snow and water samples were collected in (heavy) buckets, lined with Teflon.

I also travelled via snowmobile with researcher Tom Douglas and his student Romain to their SnowNET site on the BEO to help obtain snow depth and temperature measurements, and also to collect snowmelt samples. Although the expeditions were generally enjoyable, I somehow managed to tip my snowmobile – twice – on the tundra. In a ridiculous turn of events, I also became stranded for a short period of time upon a snow machine I could not start. Not to worry, though. I returned to our laboratory in BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) with a hilarious story.

On another day, Ian and I traversed to Point Barrow (the northernmost point in the United States) via ATV to collect snow and snowmelt water samples. We were accompanied by a “bear guard” to protect us from potential polar bear attacks. The drive was incredibly bouncy on the four-wheelers and it was difficult to navigate the terrain. However, the trip proved to be amusing and successful.

Today, Ian and I walked across approximately 2 miles of the BEO tundra on foot, since the snow conditions were somewhat treacherous for the snow machines. We watched attentively for polar bears and rabid foxes, and thankfully spotted neither. We did catch sight of some cute little lemmings and a variety of bird species.

While in Barrow, I have also completed several photochemistry experiments with Glenn. For each experiment, we sealed ampules containing organic pollutants in snowmelt water using a propane torch. Following freezing or refrigeration, the ampules were irradiated from exposure to the 24-hour arctic sunlight on a snow bank outside BARC (Barrow Arctic Research Center) as liquid or frozen samples. Following extraction with hexane, degradation and product formation were monitored using our trusty GC (gas chromatograph).

To occupy our free time, we have enjoyed fine dining out on the town at Osaka (for sushi), Arctic Thai, and Pepe’s North of the Border (for Mexican food). We have also organized game nights (including Pictionary, card games, and Rock Band) and movie nights with some fellow arctic researchers. Some social hubs within Barrow include the AC grocery store and the roller rink (for indoor soccer games and the disco). We hosted a beachside bonfire last weekend and enjoyed s’mores and hot dogs with BASC researchers.

Be sure to check out our YouTube link for some new videos...coming soon! As we say on the BASC walkie-talkies, "over and out!"

Ali

View From The North

2008-05-22T14:26:00.004-04:00

Another (shorter) post - I mentioned that we made a sampling trip last week to collect snow samples from a series of locations. Here's one of our hero shots - Ian stands on the sea ice, roughly where the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea meet. Behind him, you can see the shores of Point Barrow, northernmost tip of the continent.

After a whale is caught, the captain (or delegated representative) flies a flag from an umiak (seal-skin boat) on the beach immediately north of the town. This is the public sign to let everyone know of the good fortune - though today, the news is generally first announced by radio!

Back from Blog Break

2008-05-22T13:38:00.010-04:00

After an incredibly long hiatus, here's something new from Barrow.This entry is brought to you by Frosty the Snowman, a.k.a. Dr Rowland, a.k.a. He Who Does Not Blog.

The absence of blog entries is certainly not because we've had an absence of activity - far from it. Since Dr G departed for the sultry climes of SE Pennsylvania, we have:

i) observed and participated in the landing and distributing of three separate whales

ii) done lots of science

iii) visited Ipalook Elementary School and tried to show the students that science is fun

iv) completed a transect in which we collected snow samples from Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of the US mainland

v) said farewell to Hut 163 and hello to our new digs in the NARL Hotel

vi) experienced persistent guilt and nagging about the lack of blog updates. For the record, this comes from deep within our own sub-consciences and is in no way connected to Dr Grannas' emails... (The sub-conscience is related to the subconscious, but is altogether creepier, guiltier and more nagging.)

vii) seen the arrival of more than 40 new people - scientists, students and media - to BASC

viii) seen the first tufts of tundra peeking through the increasingly slushy snow cover

and ix) done a bit more science, just to be safe.

Certainly the biggest event for us was the chance to help out with the spring whaling season. I'm somewhat reluctant to talk about it in depth, mainly because whaling is a particularly sensitive topic in New Zealand - politically and emotionally - and I don't want to put anything into the public arena, ie the internet, that may be misused or misinterpreted. For the same reason, there aren't going to be photos of dead whales posted here. If you're interested, talk to Ian or I when we get back to 'Nova.

So... what can I safely say about the whole whaling experience.

First - everyone is pretty buzzed when a whale is caught. As far as I know, most Inupiat people in Barrow still depend heavily on hunting for their food supply. While whale isn't the only item on the menu here, it is one of the most relished. One of the top priorities when cutting up and storing the meat is to make sure there's some put aside for big holiday celebrations such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Second - whales are heavy! After one has been successfully harpooned, it may swim a considerable distance before it tires and a boat can approach to deliver the coup de grace. The whale is then towed back to the whalers' ice camp. While the whale is being towed, calls go out over the radio letting people in town know of the catch and asking people to come and help haul it up onto the ice. A pulley system is used to facilitate the hauling, and if there are too few hands to pull, a snow machine is used to give a little extra aid. Most of the work is done by hand, however.

Third - whaling here is legal and carefully regulated to ensure that the whale population isn't over-hunted. In the past, commercial whaling has had a massive impact on many different whale species, which is why it is for the most part outlawed today. Each year, there is a quota drawn up for the number of harpoon "strikes" allowed by whaling crews from each Eskimo village on the North Slope. This year, there has really only been one week in which the conditions of weather and ice allowed for successful whaling. It was a really good week - I think there were eight whales caught in total - but that is still much less than the maximum number allowed. At least to this non-expert, it doesn't seem that subsistence whaling activities are going to have any adverse effect on the population.

Finally - the smell of freshly cut whale is very distinctive. To remove it from clothing, etc, we were advised to empty a six-pack of cola into the washing machine, then put our gear through a regular wash cycle.

Now for some stuff that I can show pictures of.
We put together a collection of hands-on science experiments for the young (and young at heart) to run for one of Barrow's "Schoolyard Saturdays" a few weeks back. Unfortunately, other local events meant that noone outside of BASC showed up. We did, however, get some inquiries from the local school district, and the result was a visit to Ipalook Elementary School to do some fun science that's (very) loosely related to the work we do in the field. If you can make the connection "we sample stuff in the air, so using air pressure to crush soda cans is related to our work", you can do anything... Our main goals were to have fun and show that science is all about guesses (I mean, hypotheses) and observations, rather than (just) labs and high-tech gadgets.

Here, we are "watching" sound by observing salt grains dancing on a stretched plastic film. Stretch plastic film over the top of a pie dish, secure it with a rubber band, then sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. The salt grains bounce around when the film vibrates due to sound waves in the air. We got the best results by striking a metal pan with a wooden spoon above the film.

And here, we are messing around with water - specifically, the combination of surface tension and air pressure that keeps an index card "stuck" to the rim of an inverted cup of water while it is held over an eager volunteer's head.

Okay, anyone still reading this must really have nothing better to do, so I'll sign off here.

Frosty - aka Dr Rowland

The grass is always greener ... in Pennsylvania

2008-05-08T17:43:00.002-04:00

Although I tried clicking my Sorel boots three times, that just didn't work to transport me home. Unfortunately it took about 20 hours of flying/layover time to get myself back to Pennsylvania. Yes, I've abandoned Ian and Glenn to return home and catch up on some work things, process some of our samples, and go to Villanova's graduation. I'll be back in Barrow in about 2 weeks and will bring along undergraduate researcher Ali Bausch.

During all that travel time, and now that I'm home, I've had a bit of time to think about Barrow and the lower 48. Here are some of my musings:

1.) Trees are great!
2.) Pollen is not so great. (note to self: stock up on Claritin and Benadryl to combat allergies)
3.) Flying into both NYC and DC, I flew right through a thick blanket of smog. Didn't notice any smog when landing in Barrow!
4.) Ahhhh, yes, that unique smell of the mulch used by Villanova's groundskeeping crew.
5.) After getting used to traveling in a Ford F250 4x4, driving my Mitsubishi Galant felt a little bit like driving a skateboard with a motor.
6.) I hate traffic.
7.) After being acclimated to 10 degree Barrow weather, the 75 degree Philly weather feels like being thrown into a scene from Dante's Inferno.
8.) Although it's a chic decorating touch, it is no longer necessary to duct tape towels to the windows to keep the sun out.
9.) Sunsets are great!
10.) Bees are great little creatures - until they bite you!
11.) It's nice to be able to dress in a single layer again.
12.) It's a weird feeling to go on a long distance trip and not need to sign out a snowmachine or make arrangements for a bear guard.
13.) Going out to eat now means I actually have to pay. (Restaurants around here just won't accept a BASC card as proper form of payment ... darn!)
14.) Gassing up the vehicle also means I actually have to pay (...and I had to do it myself!)
15.) I don't have to call to have my sewer pumped. Cool.
16.) The smell of fresh cut grass is just about the best smell in the world.
17.) I can't walk to work anymore. :(
18.) I have to cook for myself now.
19.) Real mattress > air mattress
20.) It is great to have more than 2 radio channels to choose from.
21.) TV on demand is awesome!
22.) No offense Ian and Glenn, but it's nice to have a bathroom I don't have to share!

Polar Bear Sighting!

2008-04-27T23:05:00.011-04:00

Thought that might get your attention! In reality, we have not had any polar bear sightings (or PPBs for that matter either). There was a polar bear that wandered into town last week - but it was quickly hustled out of town by the wildlife management staff (or so we are told, as we didn't actually see it ourselves).

We've been chastised for not updating the blog in several days. So, I will update you on the events of the last few days. First, a photo that I took of what is called a "sun dog". This is caused by reflections and refractions of sunlight on ice crystals present in the atmosphere. The scientific name for this phenomenon is "parhelion". There is a lot of cool physics involved in the formation of a sun dog. If you see a sun dog it means that the air has horizontal plate crystals of ice ... WOW! (Okay, if you actually said WOW to that, I encourage you to investigate further just how these parhelia and halos form ... just google "parhelia" or "sun dog").

Regardless of what causes them - it's a cool picture!

We've had reasonably good weather in terms of temperatures, however the winds have been howling considerably. This, we believe, led to the recent demise of one of our air samplers. Ian and I went to the BEO late last week for the usual maintenance routine of the sampler located out there and found it to be non-functional. The motor had shut down. Frozen up is the better phrase. Although we can't be sure, it seems that the winds were working against us and blew snow up into the motor and it froze up (even the heat tape couldn't prevent it). Luckily, Ian worked his magic and it is working again. And with only a few choice four letter words!

So then it was time for the usual maintenance of the air sampler on the roof of the lab. Wouldn't you know it, that one broke too! This, however, was due to a broken connection which Ian also was able to repair. So we're back in the air sampling business again.

Glenn has also been continuing the photochemistry experiments. The wind has been working against us there as well. We bury our samples at known depths in the snow (to see how the chemistry changes depending on where in the snowpack the chemicals are) ... but then the wind blows away the snow and exposes previously buried samples. So Glenn plays a constant game of "bury the samples again". But, we're getting good results so far ... some really interesting things going on for sure. More on that in our upcoming Nature paper. ;) (That'll be an inside joke of sorts for our fellow chemistry geeks out there).

In our spare time we've been enjoying the sights in and around Barrow ... taking occasional trips along the coast to look for polar bears, renting movies (yesterday's rental included Envy and Hellboy), eating out in town (our favorite is Osaka - a great little Japanese place), etc. We're also very grateful for the care packages we've been receiving from friends and family.

This coming week may be a bit more eventful as we are planning to do a snow sampling transect from out on the ocean (NE of Point Barrow) and continuing down to the southern portion of the BEO (Barrow Environmental Observatory). It should cover many miles and will likely take most of a day to complete. Will have to remember to pack a lunch that day ...

Happy Earth Day

2008-04-22T17:34:00.002-04:00

Today is Earth Day! We discussed how best to celebrate this event here in Barrow. Some of the ideas we came up with (and reasons they ended up being not such good ideas for Barrow):

1.) Plant a tree.
This won't work, unfortunately, because trees can't grow in Barrow. The growing season is too short and the permafrost prevents the extensive root system trees need to survive.

2.) Pick up trash along the beach.
This won't work, because the beach is currently covered in a few feet of snow.

3.) Cut back the thermostat.
Are you kidding? It's freaking freezing here!

4.) Open your windows to let in the fresh air of Mother Nature.
See #3.

5.) Take the bus/subway/train to work.
Sorry, no train, subway or buses in Barrow. You could snowmachine, though! Even better - tie up a sled to pull behind it and "carpool" with your buddies hanging on for dear life in the back.

6.) Convert to solar power.
Why, that's a brilliant idea for May to August! Not such a good idea for November to March.

7.) Exercise outdoors in order to really appreciate Mother Nature.
Sure - I'll just throw on my sneakers, shorts and a tee and jog along the beach. Nothing better than a good dose of frostbite in the morning! It really wakes you up!

8.) Wait until the evening to mow the lawn, especially on "unhealthy air" days.
No problem there! No lawns to mow up here!

9.) Keep your tires properly inflated to reduce wear and increase gas mileage.
Great idea ... I'll get to that right after I fix the flat caused by this unpaved road here!

10.) Weatherize and insulate your home.
Really? I'd never have thought about that up here, where it is 30 below!

Suit Up! It'll be Legendary!

2008-04-18T20:25:00.002-04:00

Here is a little preview of what it takes for us to get geared up and go out in the field. Enjoy!

As Seen on TV

2008-04-18T15:12:00.005-04:00

This week, a Brazilian film crew was working in Barrow for their version of the show "60 minutes". (Or at least, that was the closest analogy they could come up with). The lead reporter, Ana Paula Padrao is Brazil's version of Diane Sawyer/Barbara Walters/Christiane Amanpour. They interviewed several people here at BASC, including the facility's executive director (Glenn Sheehan), science coordinator (Steve Hastings) and our group. They spent several hours with us and went into the field and videoed our work and interviewed us about our project, its relation to climate change and the ramifications of pollution for the indigenous peoples here in the Arctic. The show is to air in Brazil sometime in late May or early June, of course translated to Portuguese. We were excited to be involved in the show and it gave us quite the ego boost to be told our project is "fascinating" and would be of great interest to their Brazilian audience.

Now, if we only spoke Portuguese!

A Taste of the Arctic

2008-04-15T20:30:00.011-04:00

This afternoon we were treated to some local delicacies ... muktuk, whale meat, whale tail and caribou. Lewis Brower (the BASC station manager, pictured below) brought in a plate of these treats for us to try. The photos below show the four samplings we were able to enjoy.

The first was muktuk (shown in photo below). This is the skin of the whale and the blubber immediately underneath. It had a distinct fishy flavor, but not too strong, and was very oily. The texture was chewy.

The second was whale tail. This is like muktuk, but specifically from the tail portion of the whale. Very similar flavor to muktuk, but a different texture ... more chewy than muktuk.

The third was whale meat. This was my personal favorite. It had a sweet, fishy taste and was very tender - almost melting in your mouth. The meat was fibrous - more so than I would have suspected (but then again, whales are mammals!). Any fans of sushi would really enjoy this, I think.

All of the whale was from a bowhead whale.

The final delicacy was caribou. You could definitely tell this was a land mammal, with a bit of a gamey flavor (but not nearly as "gamey" as I would have guessed). It too was very tender. And yes, this is raw, in case you were wondering.

The plate was empty by the time we finished. So far, Lewis has avoided taunting us with the really exotic fare (specifically, fermented walrus), which he assures us is an acquired taste.

Dr. Bill's Quick Update

2008-04-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

Well, I’ve been here in beautiful Barrow, Alaska for a week now. I wasn’t out of the airport, in the cold, for more than 5 minutes before I decided to grow a beard! It can be so very cold. The clothing that the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium lent to me is fantastic. I wore it “snowmachining” on a morning when it was minus 22 degrees and didn’t even notice the cold (too much). Last night, I went out to help a Villanova team member gather samples. I wore my Pennsylvania ready winter clothes and froze!

We begin our webcasts to Bristol High School 3rd period on Tuesday. Our guest will be Mr. Lewis Brower, a member of the local Inupiaq community. He will speak on local history and culture. On Wednesday, I will host a webcast discussion of the status of Bristol High School’s iron study. On Thursday, the Villanova group, an extraordinary band of young scientists, has agreed to webcast a discussion of their projects dealing with the photochemistry of pesticides in the Arctic snow.

Barrow Health Care

2008-04-12T16:55:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I was able to experience first hand the Barrow health care system. It seems while innocently chewing on some snack mix I managed to crack a tooth. Cracked teeth are no fun when you routinely breath in -20 degree air ... it sends quite the pain through your head when that happens! It also makes eating slightly difficult.

So, I made an emergency appointment at the dental clinic, which is located in the Samuel Simmonds hospital in town. They were able to get me in right away and I was treated by a terrific dentist, who shares my name (well, at least the first one)! Amanda Gaynor. She took an x-ray to determine if the crack extended to the root (luckily it did not). She felt the best course of action was just to fill it back in, but warned I might need a root canal once I get back home. Joy!

She blew some high pressure air in the crack and asked me how bad it hurt. A little ouchy, but not too bad ... so she gave me the option of doing it without novocaine. I said, "sure, why not, I'd rather not have a numb chipmunk face for the rest of the day". She had it ready in case things got too painful ... but I made it through and about 20 minutes later had my tooth back in normal condition.

The longest part of the hospital visit was waiting 40 minutes at the pharmacy to get my prescription (some antibiotics). (Mental note: don't go to the pharmacy on Friday when everyone else is getting their meds before the pharmacy closes for the weekend!). Oh, and Ian deserves a medal for waiting in the truck for an hour and a half while I had all this work done. Thanks Ian!

So all in all, it wasn't a bad experience ... I'm just glad I'm working somewhere that a cracked tooth can be fixed on site!

Cheers,
-Amanda

Joy of Spring Festival (Piuraagiaqta)

2008-04-07T00:00:00.006-04:00

This weekend in Barrow (April 4th - 7th) the community ushered in the Spring season with the annual Piuraagiaqta celebration. Activities ranged from Maklak racing to a chili cook-off. On Saturday we had the opportunity to participate in the parade as representatives of BASC, also known as the "Barrow Arctic Surf Club." We revived a float from last year's 4th of July parade and retrofitted it for the bed of a Ford F250. The pieces of the float were found under 2 feet of snow by the warehouse and had to be painstakingly excavated by hand (see photo below).

Assembly took place in 3 hours the night before the parade, requiring the use of any scrap lumber we could get our hands on and the tools we could find at 11pm. The assembled float was kept in a secure location until morning so as not to ruin the surprise. The morning of the parade we gingerly drove the giant wind sail of a float the 3 miles to City Hall where we were to assemble for the start of the parade.

The parade traveled from City Hall down the block to Arctic Pizza. We went past the Wells Fargo Bank, heading along the coast towards the post office, ending at the Inupiat Heritage Center. Overall the parade lasted about 45 minutes and we managed to throw six 5 gallon buckets of candy, about 250 packs of Rice Crispy treats and 250 packs of cookies to the excited kids (and adults) lining the parade route. All along the way, we blasted Beach Boys music (appropriate for our "surfing" themed float). None of us want to hear the Beach Boys for a while now.

We also were able to make a new friend along the way. Deanna is a postdoc working at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) and is working at BASC for only a week or two. She's here by herself and so we "adopted" her and had a great time with her during the parade. (She has one heck of an arm for throwing candy!). She is in the white parka in the photo below.

PPB Revisited

2008-04-03T19:48:00.001-04:00

Out on the Trail

2008-04-03T03:51:00.008-04:00

The past few days have been filled with the repeated calibration of our air samplers. I have had some trouble getting them to operate correctly in the cold and the best advice we got from the manufacturer was to "put a light-bulb in it" for some warmth. Anyway, more on that later.

Today I suddenly found myself in dire need of calibration data from one of the air samplers which was soo conveniently located 7 miles into the tundra , and only accessible by snow machine. I got my tools together, radioed in for a snow machine, and was on my way by 4:30 pm. About half-way to the control shed where the air sampler was located I started to notice a decrease in the visibility of the trail I had to follow. I made a good decision and turned back (especially due to the ever present danger of polar bears and this being my first unescorted journey). Now I was never in any danger, I mean I'm not that stupid to mess with polar bears or the vast expanse of the tundra. Below is a clip of my trip back to BASC. What you can't see in this video (and neither could I!) are the wind blown mounds of snow which snuck up on me and tried to throw me off the snow machine.

Later in the day we had some real snowfall and it was time to collect some fresh samples. The wind wasn't too strong but it was snowing hard enough that there was a complete "white-out". From a first-hand experience there is nothing in nature that is more confusing and disorienting than the horizon disappearing. All I could see was white, there was nothing for me to focus on... until I heard something. All it took was a simple "uh, guys...?" and we found ourselves trying to keep up with our own legs which were leading us to the nearest shelter. You see when you mix not being able to see a great distance with the largest terrestrial carnivore on the planet you become a bit skittish, but not without good reason. We were only about 50 yards from the lab and most likely in no danger but it is good to be safe!

Obviously our flight response was in full gear.

In the foreground is one of our sampling buckets, just past that is a small ridge which drops about 10 feet to our sampling site. Can you imagine what it would look like to see 3 scientists, all decked out in white, scurrying up that? Notice the lack of horizon.

Fooled by a PPB! (Potential Polar Bear). Rifle training starts tomorrow...

-Ian

Northern Lights

2008-03-30T20:55:00.005-04:00

Over the past few nights we have been able to witness some spectacular Northern Lights. These atmospheric phenomena are also called the Aurora Borealis - a term coined by Galileo after Aurora, the goddess of morning. (If you were in the southern hemisphere, you'd call them the Aurora Australis). Ian managed to get some photos, shown here.

In this photo above, the blurry figure in the foreground is Ian. (The setting needed to capture the aurora leads to blurring of the foreground). This was just to prove that these are indeed the actual observed northern lights and not just something we googled for images. Behind Ian you can still see a bit of the twilight from sunset ... this view is looking north - the Arctic Ocean "beach" is in the background.

Our first indications of an active night would come around 11 pm - just when the last light of the evening twilight would diminish enough to give us a darkened sky. Whispy trails of greenish-colored "clouds" would appear and move and shimmer, moving generally from north to south. As they became more intense, they'd move quite rapidly and other colors of purples, pinks and blues would appear as well. This would generally keep up for a couple hours - and of course we stayed up for the whole show. At one point we decided to put down the tailgate of our truck and laid in the back to get a more comfy position for viewing.

It really is no wonder that there are mystical tales associated with the Northern Lights. There have been (and still are) many different beliefs about the aurora and their association with the spirit world. For example, the Algonquin believed the lights to be their ancestors dancing around a ceremonial fire. A less spiritual interpretation came from prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush - the lights were supposedly the reflection of the mother lode of all gold. (For a great description of some of the aurora history - see the wikipedia.org entry for aurora).

But what causes the aurora? The sun sends a constant stream of charged particles toward Earth. Some of these interact with the outer portions of our atmosphere ... the energy from this interaction gets transferred to oxygen and nitrogen present in the atmosphere (about 100 km above the surface of Earth). This excites the oxygen and nitrogen ... but the oxygen and nitrogen don't stay excited forever ... and to get rid of this excess energy, they emit characteristic wavelengths of light, which then are viewed from below as the aurora. (Again, wikipedia gives a good - albeit very detailed - description if you want the real hard-core details).

Whatever the cause, they are a spectacular sight.

Breaking Trail

2008-03-27T23:09:00.007-04:00

Editor's Note: The following occurred on Wednesday, March 26, 2008.

One of our sampling goals while we are in Barrow is to collect sea ice, snow and open water from the Arctic Ocean. When we heard that the BASC station manager (Lewis Brower) was heading out to the ice to break trail as part of the ABC whaling crew, we asked if he would be so kind as to collect some samples for us. However, Lewis gave us an even greater opportunity - he asked if we wanted to come along out with him and get the samples ourselves. We of course jumped at the chance. The only condition was that we'd help break trail toward the open water. A fair exchange in our view!

Each of the whaling crews at Barrow must break their way through the rough ice that is present near the coastline to get out to the open water where whales will surface to breathe. It is imperative for a successful hunt that a passable trail is made from the coast all the way out to the open lead, as this is how the crew's supplies, boats, snowmachines, etc will be taken to the whaling camp. (The open water is about 5 - 5.5 snowmachine trail miles out). Each crew makes their own individual trail and it is not easy work. As you can see from the photo above, the surface is extremely rough and the large chunks of ice must be broken down enough to allow passage of snowmachines with sleds in tow. This labor is all done by hand with ice picks and the trails are smoothed out further by running snowmachines back and forth along the trail. We were warned that it is very easy to flip a snowmachine under these conditions and to be careful and take things slow and easy. We also had to keep an eye out for polar bears, although none came our way on this particular day.

After a slow trek to the farthest point of the ABC crew's trail, Lewis stopped to assess where we should go next. Lewis made a careful scan of the ice conditions ahead (this must be done by someone who knows how to read the ice and can predict where the best trail will be). He then instructed us on how to proceed, taking the time to explain to us "newbies" why he wanted to go a particular way - so it was a great learning experience for us.

We were out on the ice for just under an hour when Lewis' father, Arnold Brower, came out to the ice. At nearly 90 years old, he is the oldest whaling crew captain in Barrow. (ABC stands for "Arnold Brower's Crew"). We were amazed at how easily he made his way across the snow and ice - certainly moving faster than Ian, Glenn or I could. As we made our way farther out to the open water, Arnold and Lewis continued to climb to high points to scout out the best trail ...

We continued to make slow but steady progress ... but the open water is still about 3 miles out ... so there is a lot of work left before the crew will get to their final destination where they can set up camp near the open water.

However, it wasn't all work and no play. Often we were able to stop and talk with Lewis and Arnold about everything from whaling to their trips to the lower 48. We were thrilled to be able to hear Arnold's stories of whaling and hunting (he also has a hunting camp about 85 miles away that he regularly travels to), how one can ferment whale (it ferments "like berries" in Arnold's words) and how he makes reindeer jerky. It was also eye-opening to hear his first hand account of how he has lost portions of his food stores because the underground ice cellars are becoming too warm (due perhaps to the changing permafrost from warmer ground temperatures). Holes are dug into the permafrost which can then serve as natural freezers ... unfortunately, as the permafrost warms, it threatens the integrity of the stored food, as it can begin to grow bacteria and eventually will spoil all together.

After about three hours we stopped to enjoy the finer things in life - a hot cup of tea on the Arctic Ocean. Lewis graciously shared his thermos of tea with us and it certainly hit the spot. We then headed back to BASC, just in time to catch dinner ... and reflecting on the day's events, Ian, Glenn and I all agreed that our time on the ice was the most interesting, exciting, humbling, and awe-inspiring experience we have had.

Snow Day

2008-03-27T20:59:00.010-04:00

Today we took a snowmachine ride to the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) to sample snow. The BEO is an area of land over 7,400 acres in size permanently set aside for Arctic research experiments. The land belongs to the UIC (Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation) and they have set aside this land specifically for scientific research. The existence of the BEO is a testament to the commitment of the North Slope residents to the advancement of science and to collaboration between local people and scientists. BASC has been designated to manage the operations at the BEO and the National Science Foundation also has a cooperative agreement with BASC to support management of the BEO. The North Slope Borough (northern Alaska's regional government) also supports the BEO. In short, it is a great place to conduct research, as there is an existing infrastructure that makes the life of a scientist much easier than just tromping off into the tundra un-aided (or un-invited).

You can see from the photos, we try to take precautions not to accidently contaminate our samples. We wear Tyvek full-body suits that slip over our clothes/coats/parkas. We wear nitrile gloves. We also walk a ways upwind of our snowmachines. Our sampling scoops/shovels have been washed throughly and are transported to the site wrapped in foil and then plastic. We look rather funny out there on the tundra with our "bunny suits", but it's all for a good cause.

And now for the science!:

The snow we sampled will be used for several purposes. First, we will be extracting organic polltuants from the samples. We will melt the snow and pass it through a glass column that contains small particles of an organic resin called XAD. The pollutants should "stick" to the resin and the water will pass through. We'll then package up the XAD resin and ship it back to Villanova where we'll extract it and analyze what comes off to identify and quantify what was in the snow. We're looking for things like pesticides, PCBs, etc. The reason we don't do the extraction here is because it takes a rather large volume of solvent, and we don't want to generate a lot of chemical waste while we are here in Barrow.

We'll also take a small volume of melted snow (about 300 milliliters) and do a different kind of extraction - this one is using "stir bar sorptive extraction". Basically, we have a small magnetic stir bar that is coated with an organic polymer called polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS). The sample sits on a magnetic stirring plate and the stir bar agitates the sample for several days. Again, the assumption is that the pollutants will stick to the PDMS on the stir bar. We'll then extract the stir bar using a very small volume of hexane and Ian will be able to analyze that on the GC that we have on-site here. We can do this analysis on site because it generates virtually no chemical waste.

Finally, Glenn and I will be using some of the snow to make solutions that contain known amounts of pollutants. (Very small quantities - the concentrations are a few micrograms of pollutant per liter of water). We're going to seal these solutions in glass containers (small little vials called "ampules") and set them outside in the snow and let them "cook" in the sunlight. We think that some of the pollutants are going to degrade when left to "cook". Over the course of many hours we will monitor the concentration of the pollutant (since we know what we put in at the start, we can see how much of it degrades, or goes away). If it goes away fast, then it means that photochemistry (that is, chemistry driven by sunlight) is a potentially important way the pollutant degrades in this environment. If it goes away slowly (or not at all) then it means that photochemistry isn't so important.

We want to know about all of this, because ultimately these pollutants will end up getting into surrounding soils, streams, lakes and the ocean when the snow melts. The local indigenous population relies heavily on wildlife from the area as a food source and unfortunately, these pollutants are showing up in the fish and whales and seals and other wildlife they consume. We want to better understand HOW the pollutants are getting to their ultimate destinations and how the pollutants might change while they are sitting in snow and ice, waiting for snowmelt to transport them elsewhere.

So that is a description of our goals for this particular set of samples. We'll be going out a lot more to sample ... and you'll see those trips on here as well.

The Great Arctic Peep Experiment

2008-03-25T23:28:00.059-04:00

Editor's Note: This set of experimentation was commenced only after completing the initial installation of our air sampler on the roof of BARC as well as various other lab preparation tasks needed for us to do our "REAL" science. The GAPE 2008 experiment was our way to blow off some steam and have some fun on a Sunday holiday. So yes, mom, we ARE doing work too! :-)

On Sunday, March 23, 2008 we celebrated Easter with a great scientific endeavor. We call this the Great Arctic Peep Experiment 2008 (or G.A.P.E. 2008 for short).

Long assumed to be a species found only in temperate climates, it has come to our attention that a hearty breed of Peeps makes its home in the Arctic. We discovered two varieties - yellow and pink. We hypothesize that the color differences may in fact distinguish the male and female of the species, but because we have no knowledge of how to sex a Peep, this will have to remain conjecture.

Our first experiment involved the observation of the Peep in its native climate. A Peep was found resting in a snowbank and was observed from an appropriately safe and non-interfering distance to document its behavior. After a prolonged exposure to the elements, no adverse effects were observed. The photo shows a pink Peep after 3 hours in its snowy resting place at -15F.

Given the evolution of the Arctic Peep and its adaptation to survive in extreme cold, it was necessary to also test Peep response to heat. It was hypothesized that the Arctic Peep would be quite susceptible to heat. This hypothesis was tested by exposure of the Peep to a propane torch, as seen at left.

We observed an extreme adverse reaction of the Arctic Peep to heat. It seems that the adaptation the Peep evolved to survive the long, cold Arctic winter has left it vulnerable to heat. This response is evidenced in the photo at left, showing the charred and melted Peep after only a short exposure to the heat source.

Unfortunately, this experiment was not able to be performed in triplicate, for obvious reasons.

It is known that certain materials (e.g. one's tongue) will stick to cold metal surfaces (e.g. a flagpole in winter) with surprising adhesive strength. We tested this by placing a Peep on a metal railing. The Peep did not stick to a metal surface at ambient temperature. We hypothesized that this was due to the relatively dry exoskeleton (i.e. sugar coating) of the Peep, and that a moist Peep would have much greater adhesive properties.

After moistening the Peep with water, the Peep did indeed adhere itself to a metal surface, with surprising strength.

Unfortunately, before we were able to free the Peep, a known Peep predator took advantage of its immobile state and consumed the Peep before we were able to render any assistance.

Our next experiment was to test the adrenal system of the Peep and its "Fight or Flight" response to an obvious threat. Anecdotal evidence of previous researchers indicated that Peeps were rather passive and often were observed allowing obvious predators to devour them with no apparent struggle. We exposed several Peeps to three threats - a mallet, a hand axe and a pick axe. Both yellow and pink Peeps were exposed to the threats. The photo at left shows our "Peep Cam" and the view the Peep had of the approaching "predator" armed with the hand axe.

The first Peep was of the pink variety and was threated with a hand axe. The Peep ran from the impending downward swing of the axe. The photo at left shows that the axe completely missed the Peep due to its hasty getaway.

The Peep quickly escaped to the base of a nearby snow pile (as seen at left from the "Peep Cam").

It climbed this snowpile with surprising agility and made an escape to an inaccessable height, far out of the reach of the threatening hand axe. The "Flight" response certainly saved this Peep from its untimely demise.

The yellow Peeps, on the other hand, did not show any Fight or Flight response. They allowed themselves to be smashed and chopped to bits with no apparent effort to run or defend themselves.

The final experiment was called the "Peep Drop". A pink Peep and a yellow Peep were dropped from the top of the BARC building (a height of approximately 38 feet) to observe if Peeps would reach terminal velocity and if one type of Peep dropped more quickly or landed with greater impact than another. Both Peeps traveled with the same velocity and both felt the pull of Earth's gravity equally. Photos of the Peeps, post-plummet, are shown below. Both Peeps emerged from the drop apparently unscathed, although the yellow Peep complained of a slight headache after the experiment. It was given a Tylenol and recovered soon thereafter.

In conclusion, our analysis of the notorious Arctic Peep has broadened our knowledge of a rare species. The efforts of the research team shed new light on their habitat and behavior and open the door to myriad future studies.

Home Sweet Hut

2008-03-23T17:15:00.000-04:00

Lab sweet lab

2008-03-22T15:47:00.017-04:00

Today we will finish unloading the rest of our lab supplies. We have been fortunate enough to acquire 2 separate lab spaces in 2 different locations. The first lab will be our instrument lab located at BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) in building 360. The BASC facilities are what remains from the old Naval Arctic Research Labs or NARL.

The second lab will be located in BARC (Barrow Arctic Research Center, image below) a new state-of-the-art research facility.

Our early arrival has allowed us to be the center of attention here at BASC. Everyone has gone out of their way to help us through our initial neediness while we get our lab set up. We are starting to feel settled in and look forward to getting our experiments underway. Check out the unpacking montage below!

This is where we also get to "edit" old posts... just to see whether anyone is paying attention...

North to Alaska

2008-03-20T23:49:00.000-04:00

32 hours and 4 time zones later ...

2008-03-20T02:38:00.003-04:00

Our two-day journey began in the sultry (relatively speaking) climes of Philadelphia. The first uneventful leg of the trip took us southwest to the Valley of the Sun - Phoenix, Arizona. After an hour layover, we took to the skies again, bound for Anchorage, in the land of the midnight sun. Here, after 13 merciless hours of flying, we rested our travel-weary bodies overnight in the 1-star accomodations of the "Executive Suites", Spenard Road, Anchorage. Restored, we embarked upon the final leg of our journey that would take us to the city of Barrow, Alaska - our home for the next several months.

Our plane rolled to a stop on the icy runway and we taxied to the solitary building that comprised the airport terminal. We watched as the steps were wheeled to the rear entrance of the aircraft - jetways are an unheard of luxury in this remote outpost, the northernmost settlement of the United States. The first breaths we took upon exiting the plane greeted us with a frigid blast of cold, bringing with it the unique, yet unmistakable feeling of instantaneous "snot freeze". The outside air temperature was approximately -25F, with wind chills well below -35F. Such was the anticipation of this moment, that excitement outweighed discomfort and it took several moments before our bodies registered the extreme cold.

Yet, we realized our pampered mid-latitude bodies would soon be whipped into shape, as we were greeted by hardy locals wearing simple fleece jackets (and even one teenager in shorts!).

Thus began our field season in the Arctic. Soon to come, we will be bringing you riveting scenes as we unpack our cargo, set up our lab, and make "Hut 163" our home away from home.

GC on the High Seas

2008-03-12T15:51:00.005-04:00

After a cross-country road trip, our equipment now finds itself on a ship, making its way to Anchorage. We are eagerly anticipating its arrival in Anchorage and subsequent departure via air to Barrow. We wait now with bated breath, as there are currently storm warnings and gale warnings for the northern Pacific (see http://www.weather.gov/om/marine/zone/hsmz.htm for current marine forecasts). Eek! Please everyone, cross your fingers that our GC (the main piece of equipment that will keep our science going) makes it across the high seas in one (functioning) piece!

I should mention that I am perhaps adding a bit of melodrama to this part of the voyage. Our resident sailing expert (Maggie Kennedy, a U.S. Coast Guard member who is a grad student here) says the forecasted 23 ft seas and 40 KT winds are nothing to worry about. I will trust the expert.

We now have just a few days left here at Villanova, and it's off to Barrow. We're frantically trying to finish up all those last little things that need to be done before heading off on a field study...things like last minute experiments, shipping those few forgotten items, arranging for cars and houses and pets and plants and such to be taken care of while we're gone, and of course, our own packing!

Finally, thanks to everyone for all the wishes of "good luck" and "have fun" and "don't get eaten by a polar bear". We'll do our best!

Cheers,
Dr. G

Introducing our newest team member...

2008-03-06T12:34:00.008-05:00

The Villanova Team is pleased to welcome a new member on board.

Barnaby K. Longbottom (a.k.a. Beaker) has, after thorough deliberation and due process, been promoted from lowly Lab Hanger-On to full-blown Intrepid Polar Adventurer. The team is sure that his fearless - some would say reckless - disregard for personal safety will make him an invaluable contributor to our endeavors in Barrow.

Beaker - already spotted hard at work!

Beaker says...

"While you're here, check out our new link to Ilisagvik College's daily announcements and dining room menu. It's just below the weather on the right. Since we're going to eat most of our meals at Ilisagvik, I'll be checking here every day. Tonight we're having Tim's Bean Soup (again). Mmmmmmm, tasty!!!!"

Cheers, Frosty

We're Movin on up

2008-03-01T14:59:00.001-05:00

Shipping Day

2008-02-29T21:51:00.002-05:00

Well, today was the big day! The freight company came to take away our equipment and send it off to Barrow. All 1500 pounds or so of it! After many days of packing and sealing and bubblewrapping, our "stuff" is on its way by truck to Seattle, then a ship to Anchorage, then a plane to Barrow.

We have put together a small video of today's events. Please check it out on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ClUt1ZrBZA

We'll also post something here once we get the QuickTime Video ...

Enjoy the video!

Cheers,
-Amanda

My 1 AM lab door greeting

2008-02-29T01:46:00.005-05:00

Our Adventure Begins ...

2008-02-28T15:03:00.002-05:00

On March 17, 2008 a team of chemists will depart from Villanova University, bound for the cold, icy expanses of northern Alaska. Barrow, Alaska will be our home until June. "Why such a cold vacation spot?" you might ask. Although Barrow is an "odd" vacation destination to be sure, we are in fact traveling there for much more academic reasons.

Ian Eisele, Glenn Rowland and myself (Amanda Grannas) are going to spend the next few months studying the fate of persistent organic pollutants in Alaska. We'll be joined in April by Bill Smith (a high school teacher) and then in May by Alexandra Bausch (an undergraduate from Villanova). Specifically, we will look at how sunlight can break down these pollutants when they are trapped in snow and ice. Also, we will be sampling the air, snow, sea ice, water and runoff (during snowmelt) from the area to get an idea of what kinds of pollutants are in the region, how concentrated they are, how those concentrations change over the spring-summer season and try to find out where they are coming from and what happens to them once they arrive in Barrow.

For those interested in the gory details, a more detailed description of our research can be found at: http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/amanda.grannas/icesnow.html

What you are probably more interested in is following the adventures of our team. For example, "Did they see a polar bear today?" or "Who fell off their snowmobile lately?".

Here is where you can find that type of information. Each team member will be making postings here, hopefully on a very routine basis. We plan to upload pictures, video, slideshows, etc. It should be great fun for us, and I hope for you as well!

So, with that, I welcome you to our Blog and hope you enjoy the snow! (oops, I mean SHOW!)

Cheers,
-Amanda (aka Dr. G)