Bear Lockdown!

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 ...