BlueBear
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Post by BlueBear on Jan 4, 2016 16:19:12 GMT -8
As amaruq suggested in another thread, I thought I'd describe the work some of us do in Greenland (and address a "my tax dollars at work?" quip in the same thread.) As I've chatted about several times, my work takes us periodically to the Greenland ice sheet, where I currently run a project that monitors changes happening in Greenland's vast, snowy interior. We keep a small blog about the project here: Under the Surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet (The blog is sparse in winter, it picks up in the Spring when we're in Greenland.) Preparations are underway for our next Spring 2016 campaign. I posted this today because we just had a large paper released in the journal Nature Climate Change, which covers some of the work we've been doing up there. It quantifies a feedback we noticed several years ago, which contributed directly to the record runoff in 2012 in Greenland, causing enormous flooding around the coast. If you're interested in such things, you can read a CIRES Press Release or an article in the Washington Post about our latest paper. Our campaign last year in 2015 collected the last bits of data that paper needed for publication, as well as a bunch of other stuff. If you'd rather watch than read, here's a short video by Dr. Dirk van As (one of our collaborators & co-authors) that sums it up pretty well: "An Ice Lid: More Greenland Meltwater Into the Oceans"
And a short video here by me... a bit rushed in the voice-over, but it does the explaining: Each year we return to drill core samples, take dGPS readings of ice movement, run several experiments and maintain & repair stations for long-term measurements. We drive around via snowmobile in south Greenland, and take a plane to northern sites. Darren (Tigger, here) came along this past year to serve as our mechanic. We're so reliant on those snow machines to get around that we needed a mechanic, and he fit the bill for several reasons. We're glad to have him on the team! Most of the damned time though in Greenland, we're simply digging. So... much... digging.  I'll explain the measurements we're taking from our stations, but that'll be another post when I have more time. That story is less "exciting," but it's important if you want to monitor this stuff with satellites (which NASA does, who happens to be funding us). So... more later, but I figured I'd post this up for now! - Mike (Twitter: @icesheetmike) |
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jay
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Post by jay on Jan 4, 2016 16:39:18 GMT -8
Thanks for the info, I will definitely be following up on it. Am very interested in such things.
Lots of respect for you, I could never spend that much time in temperatures that frigid. Too much Southern heritage, I guess.
Safe trip to you and everyone and try to keep warm, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
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RumiDude
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Post by RumiDude on Jan 4, 2016 17:02:08 GMT -8
Cool stuff!
Rumi
PS: Very nice animated video with explanation which helps a dunderhead like myself understand. |
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 4, 2016 18:04:43 GMT -8
I'll be posting some videos and pictures taken as well (from a mechanic/photographer/snow digger perspective) as well. Our luxury quarters while waiting to go on the ice sheets  Picking out the sleds we're going to use on the ice  Luxury accommodations on the ice  Our view and entertainment on the ice sheets  Travel on the ice  What we spent weeks doing  What we spent most of the rest of the time doing  Mike getting a station ready for us to install  The guts of a station  What we slept in...for a month  Mike testing to ensure the station is working properly  After prepping for a day or two, the culmination of work comes to this point  The one day we truly had a "day off", we spent exploring the inside of Dye-2 while waiting for our plane to take us off the ice.  |
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johnnyray
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Post by johnnyray on Jan 4, 2016 18:27:02 GMT -8
Anyone ever sneak a kite board along?
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 4, 2016 18:41:39 GMT -8
Anyone ever sneak a kite board along? Not that I saw. It would be hard to disguise it as scientific equipment. Very few luxuries were taken (seriously). I packed a santa hat, beard, smart phone, solar panel to charge devices, and brought my personal tent so we had an indoor bathroom. One of the other guys brought a speaker so we could listen to music and we had a dice/domino game that was played in the evening on occasion. I sweet-talked one company into providing us dehydrated beer (not paid for with tax payers money). We were also each allowed to bring up to one liter of alcohol for personal consumption while in Greenland.  |
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Post by Coolkat on Jan 4, 2016 18:58:05 GMT -8
tigger , as a mechanic does the cold present unique issues when doing repairs or not really since the equipment is made to be in the cold?
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 4, 2016 19:22:34 GMT -8
tigger , as a mechanic does the cold present unique issues when doing repairs or not really since the equipment is made to be in the cold? We had an ice auger pull cord that froze up and snapped due to the cold (cotton cord). We spent hours tearing it apart and putting it back together (we were successful). The augers were very temperamental and we were constantly having to do maintenance on them (fuel issues, carb, etc). We would warm up the snowmobiles for a minimum of around ten minutes before driving them and we did have issues with two fouled plugs on different snow machines and we lost one of the gauge panels completely. I never did determine why it failed after spending three hours checking fuses and wires. When we had to work on the wiring of one of the stations (extending an old station up to the new upper station), I had to use wire nuts to connect three sets of wires - something that would normally take about two minutes max. It took me nearly three hours literally. Why? The station was one mile away from our base camp. When I got there to wire it up, the katabatic winds were blowing pretty strong and it was significantly colder than it had been. After digging out the station, I went to attach the three sets of wires. I pulled off my gloves and grabbed the wire nuts. My hands were instantly covered in wind blown ice forcing me to put my gloves back on. I tried several times, trying to block the wind with no success. I ended up having to drive back to base camp, get a large tarp, drive back to the station, cover the hole (8'x8') with the tarp, bury the edge, re-dig out the hole which was now partially buried and then proceed to use the six wire nuts to connect the wires. A two minute wiring job that requried three hours. There were several storms which packed the snowmobiles with snow (even with covers on them). We had to dig out all the snow before doing our checks on them. Having to wear gloves and goggles made a few repairs complicated, but we had a team. Multiple minds together make for solutions. Our team was a well oiled machine. Although I was the "mechanic", I had plenty of help from each of my team members at least one point in time and often, solutions required the entire team to come together to come up with resolutions. |
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Post by Coolkat on Jan 4, 2016 20:13:10 GMT -8
Well now that sounds challenging! You have my respect simply because I'm not mechanically inclined at all. The working as a team to solve problems sounds like a ton of fun to me, even if the temperatures are lower than I'll ever experience. One more question... does it ever get clear at night to see the stars?
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 4, 2016 20:40:39 GMT -8
One more question... does it ever get clear at night to see the stars? Please ask any questions you want. One of the main reasons I volunteered to do this trip was so I can do public education (from a non-scientific point of view). I am not a scientist. Mike and the others in our team often hurt my brain with the amount of education provided and I appreciated it greatly. I have already given a talk at the University of Oregon and plan on sharing what I have learned and my experience at middle schools, high schools and other public events. It was never really "night" while we were out there but we did have about two good weeks of weather before we started getting "normal" weather (2-3 good days followed by 2 day storms). It got to about dusk...and that was it. It was "clear" enough but the only place it ever got dark was inside Dye-2. Almost all my video is storms but most of my pictures were when the weather was nice. This was around 11:00 pm.  |
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Post by Sleeping Bag Man! on Jan 4, 2016 22:21:13 GMT -8
Doesn't look very green
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zeke
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Peekaboo slot 2023
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Post by zeke on Jan 5, 2016 4:56:37 GMT -8
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Jan 5, 2016 5:25:30 GMT -8
Ha! Mine too, except mine was a Yahoo! news feed. |
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Jan 5, 2016 5:34:19 GMT -8
We're so reliant on those snow machines to get around Serious question... why not one of those Iceland snow trucks? Portability? |
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BlueBear
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Post by BlueBear on Jan 5, 2016 6:03:53 GMT -8
We're so reliant on those snow machines to get around Serious question... why not one of those Iceland snow trucks? Portability? Great question. We'd love to have a couple of those to haul around in (we'd need two of the 6x6 versions with a trailer). You could totally get those on a C-130. The answer is cost. $$$$. We already have Skidoos, we don't have Arctic trucks and they cost upwards of $150K+ apiece with the features we'd need, plus import taxes into Greenland. I've spoken with some of the reps at Arctic Trucks Iceland, they'd love to sell them to us, there's just no way we could afford them right now. One truck costs more than our entire annual field budget. Definitely a wish-list item though. |
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