Update

Well I am at the Oslo airport now.  I am early for my flight, of course, being me, and not having much else to do this morning. I thought I would use the time to update you on some of the interesting things I feel I have forgotten to mention over the trip (there is only a couple).

 

One that you may have guessed right at the beginning of my trip was the importane of guns on Svalbard.  If you go out and about, whether alone or with friends outside of town or go camping, you must take a gun.  People are attacked by bears each year.  In Svalbard, there is no hunting of polar bears but if it is necessary to save lives, a bear will be killed.  However, it is expected that the persons will do everything reasonable to prevent this from happening, such as leaving the area, and waiting until there is no other option.  Earlier this year a camper was dragged from his tent by a bear, his friend shot and killed the bear saving his life.  This was investigated and they were found to have done the right thing.  However, just recently a researcher shot a bear from a bit of a distance.  He claims it was a warning shot and did not even know he had hit the bear.  However, he did not report it, but later a dead polar bear was found in the region where he was working.  He came forward but was fined, both for shooting it and for not reporting it.  Perhaps if he had reported it, he may not have been shot. Anyways, long story short, guns on Svalbard are part of everyday life.  When we operated in the field, there was at least one gun on the ice with ice, loaded and ready to use.  However we always tried using flare guns and when possible left the ice for the safety of the zodiacs and/or the ship. 

Oh and Norwegian for polar bear is isbjorn (ice bear).  We saw a couple this trip (Fram Strait) and lots on the first cruise.  We also saw some seal remains and the amount of blood is amazing, you could see the drag marks across several floes and then the unfortunate corpse.

 

Other things, such as the fact that Svalbard has a whooping 56km of roads was neat, yes I went on pretty much all of them.  There are different rules regarding backcountry use for people who live on Svalbard, and everyone else, like me or even people from Norway.  These limits include where you can go, stay, and if you can use snowmobiles (called scooters) offroad.

 

Otherwise the thing about Norway that I cannot get past is the cost, cost of living is quite high (but then so are wages).

 

Hmm, I thought I had more to write about but guess not.  I am just excited to get home, excited to see Nicole and Jax and to talk to you all again.

 

Cheers and talk soon

 

 

26, day 1

Well, It is Sunday, Sept 19th.

Last night we had a cruise dinner on the ship with everyone and then went into town.  We had unloaded the boat in the afternoon and so we went into Longyear and went to the pub, then another pub, and finally to bed.  It was a lot of fun, and special in the sense that it isn't every year I have a birthday with people I have only met 5 weeks ago.That said, I did miss Nicole and Jax alot, and my family too.  Hopefully I'll get to see most of you soon, and then see many of my friends as well.

Today I am in sitting in a cafe in Longyearbyen, having breakfast (well lunch) and using the wireless internet to catch up on emails.  Looks like I have some work to do tonight, maybe, but that is okay too.

On the whole I am really happy with the whole cruise experience.  I hope that I have collected some useful data, and that it helps my recognition/publications record which is lacking right now.
I also have met some great scientists, both early career and well established. I have learned a lot and am motivated to finish my master's thesis and I think start a PhD. While not every day of the cruise seemed great while on the cruise, looking back it was very good.

Well the rest of the plan for the next few days is to do some work, but also to relax before going back to the real world.  Longyear is a beautiful place with a stunning view.  I leave here on Tuesday afternoon and end up in Oslo Tuesday night.  On Wednesday I fly back to Edmonton and to my beautiful, loving, wonderful wife.

In Longyearbyen

Hello All,

 

Well today is September 18, yes my birthday, and today we are in Longyearbyen getting off the boat (a pretty good present)

Cruise dinner tonight on the boat and then maybe a few drinks at the pub.

 

More soon updates sooon, still unloading Lance

 

Cheers

 

Justin

Land Ho!

Hello All,

Well the water is calm, very calm actually considering we are in open water.
Last night I needed to get some work done, and until 8pm the water was rough
enough for me that I could only work in 10 minutes spurts followed by 30
minutes of looking outside at the horizon. However, by 8pm the water calmed
down and I could work. The water has stayed calm since then so I had a
fantastic nights sleep.

We are currently at about 78o 55' N and 7o 30' East. We can see the western
coast of Svalbard already. We still have some time until we are there
though, as the oceanographers are doing CTD measurements every 30'
longitude.

Today my plan is go get some work done and organize things a bit. We could
be going to shore on Saturday night or on Sunday night (is still unclear),
so things need to be ready.

Well that is it for now

Cheers

Justin

Update

Hey All, sorry for the lack of posts lately, been busy.

Well we are finished with sea ice work as of yesterday morning. We had a
final station that went really fast and then spent time cleaning and packing
most things up, including the EM bird. That evening we were completely out
of the ice and in to a bit of storm with rough seas. Needless to say I took
some sea sickness pills. It was interesting trying to fall asleep. The
front of the boat moves up and down enough that you gravity changes (ie you
feel heavy with the boat is lifting and very light when the boat drops down
the wave). Kinda cool but also makes me sick.

Today I have spent the majority of the day sleeping and trying not to be
sick. The oceanographers are hard at work doing CTD measurements every
degree and soon every half degree. Yesterday I found a styrofoam (or
polystyrol) cup (THANKS SEBASTIAN!!!) and had decorated it and had the
oceanographers send it down for me. It went to 2490m depth, pretty freaking
cool.

Well other than that just trying to finish up some figures regarding the
Cryosat flights we've made.

I hope you are all doing well. I return to Longyearbyen either Saturday or
Sunday night (is a bit unclear right now), but then I should have some
regular email access.

Cheers

Justin

Fog, Fog, Fog

Well it is now September 13th,

We were at 2o W and 79o 55' N yesterday and we are back to 5o W, 79o 50' N
today. We went east to do CTD measurements (Conductivity, Temperature,
Pressure (from which you can calculate salinity which is that saltiness of
the water)), and to buy time for the mooring technician to get the mooring
ready for deployment today.

We have had a lot of fog this trip, which is limiting both our flying and
when we can fly, how far we can go from the boat. The fog moves in very
quickly here and the pilots, justifiably do not want to get caught in the
fog.

Yesterday during the CTD, one of the oceanographers sent down a styrofoam
cup with the CTD system to 2400m depth. Because there is air in the
structure of the styrofoam, and because of the high pressure at 2400m, the
stryfoam cups come back out shrunk. One was given to the pilot and a few
more are for a charity she is working with, kinda cool. If I'd have thought
of this, I would have brouth styrofoam cups along.

We will be in the ice for a couple more days at least and hopefully we can
get some more flights in. It is quite beautiful when the sun does come out
for a little bit. There is new ice forming now as it is cool during the
nights and not that warm during the days. There are so many different types
of ice in the water that they form some nice patterns. For example, sea ice
sometimes forms in finger ice, which looks like interlocked fingers, there
is also nilas, which is very thin sheets of ice which only form when the
water is very still.

Otherwise, I miss Nicole and Jax, but the trip is almost over. I haven't
been taking many pictures because, well, I'm not sure. My camera isn't
great, time for a DSLR.

I hope you are all doing well

Justin

Update

Hey All,

Well I can't remember when I wrote last so I may repeat some information and
may not. Since the Cryosat flight on the 8th we went north to 79degrees and
did some work there (CTDs for the oceanographers and a two flights with the
bird and some ice stations). Today we did another underflight of the
Cryosat satellite track. This time we had better flying conditions and I
was quite happy with the result. However as soon as we finished our second
path along the flight track we had snow come in quickly and we had to stop
measuring and go back to the ship.

I'm hoping for good flying and ice conditions tomorrow so that we can do a
couple flights and get some overview. The problem is sometimes we have only
so/so flying conditions which limits the distance we can go away from the
ship and other days we have very little ice which also limits how far we can
go from the ship. The pilots justifiably do not like flying over large
stretches of open water at 100 feet (which means the EM bird is at 45 feet),
or when the weather is poor.

Other than that I have just spent the evening catching up on data management
and some processing.
We had an issue with the EM bird yesterday, two separate connectors broke
resulting in some trouble shooting but all is good now.

Well that is it for now more info soon.

Cheers

Justin

Update on Flight

Well we had a flight yesterday. The weather was looking fine in the morning
and then got a bit worse as it started to snow. However we had an opening
and after a test flight the pilot and mechanic determined we could fly the
bird so we did. We flew the Cryosat line (not exactly on it but very
close). We also had an ice station yesterday in the region. All in all I
feel like we have a pretty good validation set for that particular Cryosat
track.

Today we hope to do more flights and another ice station. The hope is also
that we can fill the hot tub today but we will have to see. The goal now
for the oceanographers is to deploy moorings and they need open water for
that. Today there is very little open water where we are (8W).

Otherwise I am tired, i think from working, and from the noise this ship
always makes (it is a straight diesel set up, not diesel electric) and is
quite loud. Oh well.

Well I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you Nicole and I'll see you in
13 days.

Justin

Big Day at 7W, 78.55N

Well as I said last time, we have flown over the fast ice, and near
Greenland yesterday.
Later today we will attempt to fly along a line that a satellite called
Cryosat-2 is flying over.
Cryosat is a satellite radar altimeter, which means that it measures it's
height above earths surface using radar. It is a new generation of
satellites with higher spatial resolution than old radar altimeters.
Cryosat should be cable of producing sea ice thickness, glacial thickness,
and ice sheet thickness estimates from the relative height these objects
stick up above water (or land in some cases). Since ice floats, some of it
is usually (and in theory always) above water, called its freeboard.

Cryosat needs validation data to make sure that the data it produces is
accurate. That is why we will fly along its measurement line and as close
to the same time as we can.This is a bit of tricky operation in the sense
that we need to fly a good transect (ie right along the line), and we need
to be there nearly the same time so that the measurements are of the same
ice (as the ice moves with the water and wind).

Otherwise things are alright, had a bit of a relaxing day yesterday which
was good for me I think.
Still enjoying the cruise despite missing Nicole and Jax immensely.

Well I will update when we have finished our flight.

Justin

Update

Well I can't remember when I wrote last but thought I would write a quick
note. This is now the fourth day of the cruise. In the previous 3 days we
have done 3 helicopter flights and 3 ice stations. Now we are somewhat on
standby. Can still do helicopter flights but the priority is the
oceanographers CTD measurements/mooring redeployment.

Yesterday we had a long flight over the fast ice near Greenland. The fast
ice is ice that is frozen to the coast, and here it extends for many
kilometers. Howevever, the fast ice does break up every now and again and
this year is one of those years. It was interesting to fly over as there
were several ice types and lots of big tabular ice bergs.

Well I should go, might be flying again in a few minutes

Cheers

Justin

Fram Strait

Well it is 2:23am on Sept 5. I am still up because I had to process some
data from today and do a 3am ice observation for someone.

Today we encountered a lot of ice, much more than we expected. Most of the
ice is in small floes (10-100m) with small water gaps between. We are
seeing a mixture of first year ice, which is ice that has not yet survived a
summer and multi year ice (which has survived at least one summer). Multi
year ice is thicker (usually) because it has had two or more winters to
grow.

Today was a busy day for the science team. We got in place for the mooring,
recovered the mooring, had an ice station from 1930 to 2330 and did a
helicopter flight from 2200 to 2250, oh and two CTD measurements.

A mooring is a host of oceanographic instruments (current direction/speed,
conductivity, pressure, temperature (and thus salinity) and other sensors
that are attached to a cable and some floatation devices and are anchored to
the bottom of the ocean using weights. The one we recovered today was
sitting in 2000m of water.

On ice stations we perform a variety of measurements including drilling for
ice thickness, taking snow depth, density, and other snow properties. We
use an EM31 which is a ground version of the EM bird we fly under the
helicopter (same exact principle of measurement), and we take ice cores.
We also have a couple people on this trip interested in borehole jack
studies and ridge dynamics. A borehole jack is a device that tests the
horizontal strength of the ice by using a hydraulic jack to push out on the
walls of a borehole made in the ice.
The ridge dynamics guys will be looking to take cores/drill through ice
ridges, which is a difficult and of painful task (painful in terms of sore
muscles and you often lose/wreck equipment).

Well that is all for me for today. I will do my ice observation in 30
minutes and then go to sleep until 0730. Need to fix a few things before
flying tomorrow and help the ice station team prepare in case they can go
out on the ice.

Justin

FramStrait 2010

Well the next cruise leg has begun. We left Longyearbyen on Sept 3rd at
about noon. Had a safety orientation again and some cruise meetings.

We are at 78.75N and 2.75W and sailing towards Greenland. We have already
encountered ice, which is good news for us. Unfortunately it is cool and
foggy so I don't know if we'll be flying.

Otherwise the passage over to here was, for me, rough, I felt pretty ill
most of the evening and night but my new room is much quieter than my old
one (and I'm not sharing with anyone). Luckily I still have lots of motion
sickness pills and patches and so I can just medicate myself and try to
operate like that when sick (though usually I just sleep). Still haven't
thrown up though.

Otherwise, hoping for more bird flights this trip as well. But also for
some time to work on other things.

Well I miss Nicole and Jax alot, but am also really glad for this
opportunity. I am getting to know many more sea ice scientists, practice my
skills and get more experience with the HEM bird.
I hope the pictures I posted have given you a taste of the beauty of the
ice.

There will be more pictures when I return again.

Justin

Pics

Okay,

I am in Longyearbyen for the next few hours, and the cafe has free internet....so here come pictures.
Otherwise things are good.  Hoping for lots of flight on the next cruise and for calm seas (we'll see i guess).  New crew, new people, could be good, could be bad. 
Now off to the store for some junk food and some beverages.

Cheers,

Justin

The EM BIRD (for Cory....no its more like a torpedo we hang below the helicopter). Laser scanner pod up front (EM coils, L1/L2 GPS, computer inside and Laser altimeter just behind the tail.

Ny-Alesund

Well the ICE2010 cruise is almost over. We are currently in Ny-Alesund, a
small research town on Svalbard. It used to be a mining town but is now a
research town, home to over 18 research institutions.

Last night we had a formal dinner and a little party with a photo contest
and some extra pictures.
We arrive in Longyearbyen tomorrow morning before breakfast for unloading
and reloading. I have to pack up my stuff tonight and be read to move into
a different cabin tomorrow.

Otherwise not alot of news. It doesn't look like there is much ice in Fram
Strait but we will see.
I miss Nicole and Jax alot.

Group photo right away

Justin

Polar Bear Swim

Hey All,

Well it is 2:30am on August 30th. We leave the final ice station in about
10 hours. I have the 3am ice observation so I am still up. We tried to do
a flight along the flight of a satellite track but bad weather limited this.
However we were very close by and we have data for a flow that is
representative of the region. It was miserable yesterday and today with 20
knot winds (which is like 40km/hr or so, and below freezing. I was out on
the ice for most of the day today and then did this short flight.

Today I did something I normally wouldn't do, I swam in the Arctic Ocean. A
bunch of us scientists went in to the water and then quickly climbed back
out. We did this one at a time, with a rope and had a safety diver nearby.
It wasn't graceful or particularly fun, but I'm glad I did it, even wore my
Canada toque.

Only a few more days and this first cruise is over, then the second one
begins.

Justin

Scared Another Bear

Well I'm coming to the end of another bear watch (for the weather station).
the 0130 to 0430 shift (actually two shifts), there was a polar bear when I
came up at 1:30 and we had to frighten him off from the weather station
using three flashbang flares. Have not seen him since.

We did two more flights of airborne sea ice thickness measurements (bringing
us up to 10 total). Later today we will finish the current ice station and
maybe have another one starting sunday. I'm not sure at all. I am quite
tired but had a fairly relaxed day, just long with little sleep. Today
should be okay again, potentially another helicopter flight.

This first cruise is almost coming to an end. Most of the scientists on
board will depart and new ones will come on on September 2nd/3rd.

This cruise has been interesting in the fact that we have been sampling from
2000m below the water to my airborne measurements and everywhere in between.
Measurements such as conductivity, temperature, turbulence, biological
sampling of the ocean floor, and the water column, as well as radar
satellite imagery, and even a team of divers going under the ice to take
measurements of light.

Well my replacement is here

Have a good

Justin

82N 31E

Hey All, so yesterday started out as a dismal day, just like August 25th.
but had some surprises.
We came across a polarbear with two cubs with her and they came right up to
the boat (close enough enough for my little camera to get some pictures).

Then in the afternoon we arrived at the mooring site and it was not foggy,
overcast but still not foggy. A quick test flight was done to make sure we
could go up to the height we need and this was the case so we did two quick
flights, one before and one after supper. Got lots of data and got to go to
82N, not my northernmost point but it was for everyoneone else in the
helicopter (pretty cool), and it will likely be the farthest north anyone on
this trip gets.

Then after getting back from the helicopter, the oceanographers recovered a
buoy successfully. After this and a little bit of chocolate with the pilots
and other heli team (on getting to 82N) I went out on the ice at midnight
with Sebastian and Steve to set up the weather station. It was a really
beautiful night, with some really nice light. This of course meant that we
had to setup a watch over the night and so I was then up from 0230 until
0500 this morning watching the weather station, making sure no bears came. I
am up again (at 730 am, having gotten about 3 hours sleep. We have a full
day today and so no rest for the wicked.

Well have a good day, I know I'll be a zombie later.

Justin

Steaming

Well today is a day of cruising to another sight. We are going to recover
some oceanographic moorings (instruments deployed in the ocean). However
we've had to smash through a lot of ice and go quite aways south. This did
mean that we could look at some of the data and catch up on entering notes,
and on sleep.
I was caught up on most of my processing/data but still had a bit to do.
Today we saw something like 3 polar bears from the ship and 7 seals.
We also saw a large rock on some ice (I think it was glacial ice and some
rock from a cliff or something. A few scientists got to go off the boat to
the ice to collect pieces of the rock. Also since the helicopter pilot was
the first to really notice it, he got to go too. I asked him to bring me
back a piece. So mom, you will have a piece of rock from both the bottom of
the ocean and unbelievably a rock that was floating around on a piece of ice
in the ocean, no just going to the beach in Longyearbyen (though I may still
grab you rocks from there too).

Well I don't have a lot to report.

Justin

Curious Bear

Well our bear visitor from the 23rd came back yesterday (24th). He didn't
venture close this time at all. The night of the 23rd we posted a bear watch
on the ship to guard the weather station we put up on the ice. No one on
the watch saw the bear at all that night, then the next day we went back on
the floe to do some more work. I joined after lunch and sure enough the
bear decided to walk near the far far end of the floe. We all stopped work
and went on the ship until we were sure that he was just passing by. This
time he seemed to have no interest in the ship unlike the previous day.

We have all been working really long days lately (I worked 19 hours on the
23rd and about 14 hours yesterday). We've been trying to do more helicopter
EM measurements but fog limits us. Yesterday I got to go along with the
helicopter to check for icing before our EM flight. This was nice as the
pilot could fly as he wanted to and I guess decided to show me a thing or
two as I was staring at the ice through the side window as though it was the
bottom of the helicopter. We did a couple of fast steep turns and some
others as well. Quite nice, a little disconcerting the first time but then
it was okay.

Today we are steaming East to go to some moorings that need to be recovered
and redeployed. However there is a fair bit of ice (as the amount of sleep
I got last night is a testament too). Lance is not an ice breaking ship,
just ice strengthened, so they try to stick to the open water between the
floes, or at least the thin parts (from what they can judge) on the floe.

Well I need to go. It is 6am so it is quiet still and I am going to shower
(it's been awhile) and do laundry.

Justin

On Ice Station

Hey Everyone,

Well if you'll remember before leaving Longyearbyen, everyone had shooting
training and polar bear training. Well yesterday was our second on ice
station and the first day I have been within 400m of a wild polar bear.
Yes, that is correct there was a polar bear on the flow with us. At first
he was heading towards the ship, out polar bear guard persons noticed him as
early as was possible and we all collected. After he walked towards the
ship for awhile it seemed to lose interest in that and decided to come
investigate us. I will admit it was a bit freaky to have this bear coming
towards us. We fired off several flashbangs which had a great effect and he
ran off. Then the ship kept track of him while he walked away. We
continued our measurements. It was interesting to see him and to see his
curiousity. In the morning we had noticed several seals in the water and
even when we were working, which is likely what drew him close, that and the
smell of us and the ship.

We set out a weather station, did some drilling of ice thickness and took
some ice cores.
No flying yesterday but hopefully today.

Otherwise things look good.

Justin

81.33N 22.36E

Hello everyone,

Another EM bird flight today, two actually with mixed results. Good EM data
but the new laser scanner on our bird is causing some frustration for me.
Oh well.

Things on the boat are going quite well. The cruise has finished with the
open water stations (and Mom I even have a stone from 400 or 500m below the
ocean surface for you, since you asked).

Our group does ice observations every 3 hours from the bridge of the ship,
noting the amount/type of ice, the size of the floes and general
meteorological (weather) parameters. Then I am also doing the EM bird
flights, setting up a high quality GPS station on the ship while we fly and
maybe on the ice once we start doing ice stations (which I will also do).
Ice stations involve us going out on the boat, either using the stepway from
the ship or using a small zodiac or the helicopter to go onto the ice. We
take measurements of ice thickness by drilling, EM induction measurements of
ice thickness, snow depth and other properties, and light transmission
through the ice, as well as some other variables.

Things on the boat are okay, I am getting quite used to sleeping in a loud,
bright environment, though I still need earplugs to sleep. My roommate for
the cruise works very different hours than I (often anyways) but this works
out well so far.

So now our ship will continue heading north, and we will keep flying. I am
hoping to do some trouble shooting tonight and tomorrow to get the bird and
laser scanner working better together.

So far I have seen one polar bear (from the helicopter). The risk here
seems much higher as everytime anyone goes on the ice there is a designated
polar bear watcher (this was also the case on the CCGS Larsen) but here
everyone on the science team has had gun/polar bear training.

tonight we had a fancy meal with wine and reindeer (which is delicious).
Will do a bit more processing tonight and then maybe shower/shave and go to
sleep.

Update

So we are in ice (and this ship is noisy when it is breaking the ice). But
on to more exciting news.

Yesterday I took part in light transmission measurements on the water. We
went out in a small boat (a bit bigger than a zodiac) and lowered both a
light sensor and a Conductivity/Temperature sensor into the water. This is
my first oceanographic work ever and my first time on such a small boat on
the ocean (in a survival suit of course).

Today we did the first test flight of the EM bird and all seems to be
working well.
Other than that I have nothing exciting to report.

Talk soon.

Justin

August 19, 2010

So not much to report in this blog posting. We have been doing oceanographic work in Rijpsfjorden for a couple days now and will continue with that today.
I have put the bird together and have't had many problems.

Looking forward to seeing some sea ice soon, but at least the water is calm. Thats it for now

Cheers,

Justin

Everything Almost Came Up

Well I didn't throw up, almost (ie salivating more, feeling very sick) but got a Gravol down before anything came up.
So I laid down for awhile and then later this afternoon the seas calmed down dramatically, and we had lemon meringue pie.

I put the bird partly together and started testing the system to make sure everything is running. We are about a few hours work from being ready to fly. But so far the weather is foggy and we are planning to do oceanography work in Rijpfjorden first (can try google but I don't know so here are our present coordinates. N80o,20.9163' and E022o, 04.6864' or if you want about 80.33N and 22.0E).

That's it for now. There won't be any pictures posted while on this trip now, as the internet connection is slow and expensive for the science funding. Also I will try to post everyday but no promises.
We have encountered out first sea ice floes already as the sea ice is blowing south with the strong North wind we've experienced so far.

That is it for now.

Cheers

Justin

Seasick

Hello readers,

Well I am seasick, haven't puked yet, but came close. Now have a Gravol motion sickness pill in me. I have patches with me but can't get past the side affects to actually try it.
Not much to report, we headed out yesterday into Force 7 winds and these are continuing. Seas are like 2-4 meters by my un-trained eye.
I always find it interesting that so many scientists are very prone to seasickness (like me) and yet still go on lots of these cruises. I guess it is because it is rarely bad the entire time.
Everyone onboard has been real friendly. I am hoping to get past this seasickness and work on putting the instrument together.

Well that is all

Justin

Leaving longyearbyen

Well it's now almost 4 pm Monday and we are about to sail from
logyear, gear is loaded and mostly strapped down. This is important
because we are apparently heading into rough seas, is I'm going to be
pretty darn sea sick. I may try my sea sickness patch, really don't
want to be liking for the next 2.5 days while we sail into position.
Also when it is this rough we can't do muc work on deck so can't prep
the HEM bird.

That's it for now, update tonight or tomorrow

Longyearbyen Day 3

Well here I am in Longyearbyen, back in the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) offices, borrowing a network connection.  Need to check e-mail, download some satellite photos and make sure my credit card is paid off before I go.

Oh, I did get my luggage (even had a rush sticker on it).  The only problem then was that my toothpaste had opened inside my toiletry bag, but that was easily solved with a rinse.

Today we did some searching for someone's equipment (not ours as we knew where it was).  Found that and then went for breakfast.  We then had three hours of gun training which was good as apparently there are lots of polar bears around here (someone was attacked near town last week).
We had to practice shooting, loading, safe handling etc.  I did pretty good, kept my groups tight and could do a good job whether laying, kneeling or shooting.  We practiced at 30m with a 30-06 (for those of who know gun caliber). We also got some practice in with flare guns which we can also use for scaring away bears (have flashbang cartridges).

The afternoon was spent cleaning the guns and then getting some gear to use on board and on the ice from NPI (this includes boots (winter and rubber safety), parkas, toques, mitts, waterproof mitts, coveralls, and most importantly survival suits (for working in on the ice or when we go in the small boats).

I think that this cruise will be a little more intense for me than the Larsen, sound like there will be lots of going off the boat in small boats out onto the ice, but as I am also supposed to do HEM flights, we'll see how often I am involved. I am looking forward to this cruise, hoping to be busy but also to have time to do some writing and processing of data.  We will see.

Tonight we have a quick packing session at 6pm and then 7pm is a group supper so that everyone can meet. I have met many people already and I think I can convince them all to write a short post on my blog so that you can all learn why everyone is here.

I don't have much other news to report.  Look for a blog post sometime tomorrow or the day after.

Cheers

Justin

Longyearbyen

Hey all, well just a short update since I was too tired last night. Overall my trip was okay though I am a little worried about by luggage as I'm told it should be here tonight, should.

Oh well not much i can do about it, but it sucks not having a toothbrush or soap, but again no big deal. Norway is a beautiful country and Svalbard is no exception, big beautiful snow capped mountains cover much of the island. Longyearbyen is a town of about 2000 people. Europeans on the whole are very friendly (as I already knew).

The plan today is to get some breakfast/lunch in a bit and then maybe some GPS training. May also go down to the bird equipment to check that it is all here, which I also really hope.

Well I miss Nicole as it would be neat if she could share in my adventures.

Talk to you all soon. This will all cost me a fortune in data but oh well, I should be able to get reimbursed.

Justin

Sent from my iPhoneoe

Longyearbyen at last

So i am in longyearbyen. Have a small little apartment for myself. No Internet though. Am too tired to write much so just wanted to say I arrived safely. More tomorrow or later if I can't sleep.

Justin

In Oslo but with problems

So part of my long journey is almost over. i made it to oslo. however my plane was 1hr late from edmonton because the pilots for our plane were late on the plane they were flying to edmonton from vancouver. this meant that my stop in london was extremely short.  upon arriving in oslo, i find out my bags didn't made it and are still stuck in london.  the should make it to longyearbyen tonight on a very late flight. so hopefully that is true as that has all of my clothing and toiletries.

this of course serves me right as this morning i was telling nicole that I thought air canada wasn't too bad and that i have never had any major problems with them....that willl teach me. howevr air canada did manage to get me a window seat with no one next to me for the entire flight from edmonton to london.  but there was a mom travelling with two small kids sitting in the middle and she let the kids sleep across the three seats, so i offered her my aisle as she looked exhausted. well now to eat some supper, and then fly to longyearbyen.

as long as my clothes do come tomorrow then i amokay, otherwise air canada will be getting some pretty upset emails/phone calls from me.

wel thats it for now.  more soon i hope

Justin

Off

Well my trip has officially begun. I'm skirting I the Edmonton airport now waiting or my flight. I get into longyearbyen at about 3:30 tomorrow afternoon Edmonton time, so I'll be up for quite awhile. In going to try to sleep on the lane to try and move Arafat into longyearbyen time.

I usually get some strange looks at security just due to the sheer number of electronics and cables I bring. This time I have my imputed and external hard drive, some flash drives (5) and them a field computer, gps unit, iPod and all the charging cables and connection cables. I also have some cables for a piece of equipment we will use ( the em31, which is a ground based em induction instrument.

Well I already know that I will miss jax and Nicole alot, but i am hoping that both Nicole and I will be busy so that the time passes quickly. However another side of me ( the professional side) is looking forward to the opportunity, adventure and hopefully some time to work on thesis stuff.

Well that is it for now, no pictures yet but hopefully I will have internet in longyearbyen so I can send some photos of it.

Cheers a d keep follow

Sent from my iPhone g my post. I know text isn't as exctinv as pictures but all the blog posts will be updated with pictures when I return.

To Nicole, my lovely wife, I love you and take care. Be safe and I will as well.

To Dan, have fun in S. Korea. Will catch you out there.

To Amanda and Cory, all the best in your quest. :)

To family, love you and take care. I'll be safe.

To other readers, hope you enjoy the posts

10 Days until Departure

Well I haven't exactly blogged much in awhile.  I thought I would do so during the whole pre-wedding week but that was soon dropped as I was busy. Then I thought I'd post pictures from the wedding later but still haven't done so (though check out http://alilaurenphotography.wordpress.com/.  Ali, our wedding photographer has posted some pictures on her blog.  You may have already gotten an e-mail about this from Nicole, the pictures are amazing and I can't wait to see the rest of the photos when I get back from my long trip.


So onto my long trip now.  Okay, in 10 days or so I depart for Longyearbyen (making stops in London (England), and Oslo (Norway).


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Longyearbyen, located in the Spitsbergen (or Svalbard) Archipelago, is a pretty important staging ground for European arctic research. Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund are home to many arctic research programs and stations (especially Ny-Ålesund, see http://www.kingsbay.no/ for more information).

Naturally before you can go on a scientific research cruise many things need to happen.  Besides being invited to join, there is usually a medical examination, some forms for next of kin notification should something go terribly wrong, research logistics (sending the equipment in time) and then all ones personal logistics (flights, packing, organizing data/software/manuals).

For me, this cruise is relatively simple logistically as most of the equipment is owned by the Norwegian Polar Institute (http://npweb.npolar.no/english). I just had to worry about the medical exam/forms, personal logistics and we sent along one piece of equipment (though that was handled by someone else). The Norwegian Polar Institute is even providing me with nice outer clothing (jacket pants, boots, survival suit)

So more info about this specific cruise, my role, and the schedule as I know it so far.

I am joining two cruises, ICE2010 and Fram Strait (just the names).  Each cruise will consist of numerous scientists (largely from Norway but also from the UK, the USA and other countries).  There are always numerous activities going on at once, and hopefully this year I can bring you some information about them all. I myself am involved in electromagnetic induction measurements of sea ice thickness.  Basically we fly a torpedo shaped instrument (for aerodynamic reasons) below a helicopter.  The instrument flies at about 45 feet (15m) above the ice, emitting electromagnetic radiation. As sea ice is relatively non-conductive, and sea water is conductive, the signal penetrates the ice, hits the water and induces a secondary field which is sensed by the instrument. The strength of this secondary signal depends on the distance between the instrument and the water (which is under the ice)  The instrument also carries a laser altimeter to measure its height above the ice surface and by subtracting these two distances we can get the total thickness (which is the thickness of the snow plus the sea ice).

Photo courtesy of Melissa Peters.

Our instrument (one of just a few in the world) provides sea ice thickness measurements over large distances. We try to make measurements each year in Alert (Ellesemere Island and where I went in May), and then anywhere else we can.

I am a little excited for the trip (for the opportunities, to meet some other people in my field and to gain alot of experience).  I also hope to get lots of work done.  However I am not looking forward to being away from Nicole and Jax for so long.   I know I'll miss relaxing at home, reading books etc.  Also it pretty much ends the chances I have to do more camping this summer.

Expect lots more blog updates, though they will almost certainly not have pictures until after I return as internet access isn't exactly fast or constantly available while on the boat.  I will basically be able to receive text e-mails and only through a special process.

Well that is it for now.

Pre-Wedding Holidays?

Well it has been some time now since I have posted on my blog.  But it is time for more.

Nicole and I are officially on holidays leading up to the wedding.  Nicole and I drove to Regina on June 30.  It was a warm day but good for driving, especially as the Honda has air conditioning, something our old beloved Toyota Tercel did not have (though we still miss this car deeply).

Nicole's parent's and dog are away on a vacation, returning today.  Nicole and I have been running some wedding errands, such as picking up the marriage license, filling wedding favors, setting up the arch (which we are borrowing from Tiff, a close friend who is getting married in August), and the rest of time just trying to relax and enjoy some time away from work.

This coming week will be busier with things such as decorating, finalizing details, meeting with the photographer and marriage commissioner and making sure everything is ready.  Keep an eye out for blog updates as I plan to update a few more times this week and maybe even post some pictures during or shortly after the wedding (for all the Netherlands family). 

Hurtigruten Cruise

Well another fantastic day at the conference, plus an excellent activity to talk about.
Today the local organizers had organized one of three activities for each person...hiking, fishing or a bus/ferry trip.  I decided to do the bus/ferry trip in order to go see some of the Norwegian countryside.  The bus tour was okay, crossed a few fjords on ferries and saw some nice fjords and mountain scenery.
Our bus even went through a couple tunnels, one through the center of a mountain, and the other below a fjord.
Then we boarded a Hurtigruten Cruise ship for a 4 hour ride back to Tromso through the fjords.  This was quite nice.  I treated myself to an expensive dinner in ships restaurant.  The meal was three courses and included seafood soup, reindeer steak and a cloudberry dessert.


It was nice to sit on the boat and watch the scenery as we cruised along.

Another late night but a good one.

Tromso's Midnight Sun

I admit, this blog post is written long after I have returned from Tromso, but wanted to post some pictures and update the blog.


On Tuesday, June 1 was Ben's birthday (Ben is the other student in our research group), we went with some friends/colleagues to look for some food and a drink.  We went to the student pub in town but the kitchen was closed so we went to another restaurant (Il Mare). The food was alright, the company better.  However it did take two hours from arriving in the restaurant to get our food (and there were only 10 of us). 

After supper we decided to go to the Tromso cable car and head up the hill.

At this time of year in Tromso, the midnight sun is in full swing.

There was even a little shack on the hill....not sure what for. We paused for some scotch and then decided to go back to the cable car in order to catch the last car back down.  All in all a good day.

Oh as far as the conference itself was concerned, more excellent talks and the first poster session was this afternoon.  I had lots of interest in my poster about my research at Miquelon Lake, which is always nice.  I try to design posters so that people will come up and talk to me, so that I'm not bored for the 2.5 hours of the poster session.  This poster did a good job.

Tromso: Update

Hey All,

So here I am in Tromso.  I left Edmonton on Saturday, May 29th at 4am (from my house).  I got to Tromso at 4pm local time (8am Edmonton) on Sunday, May 30th.  It was a long trip with delays, overcrowded planes, and crabby service people. I don't sleep on planes until I get exhausted, so finally on the way from Oslo to Tromso I started falling asleep but by then it was mid-afternoon and I try to force my body to switch to local time by staying up so I did.  I went to the icebreaker/registration, had two free drinks and some finger food.  As I don't know many people and am shy I didn't talk to many new people but i did see some familiar faces.  Christian has also introduced me to some of the senior scientists.

So Sunday nights sleep was good despite waking up numerous times.  On Monday the conference opened and the day was filled with good talks. We had a nice lunch (fish, rice) and another free drink.  There are also numerous coffee/snack breaks throughout the day.  Didn't do much Monday night besides eat a cold supper of some bread with cheese and meet and a salad that I made at the grocery store.

Food is expensive here, very expensive, as are drinks so yeah I am trying to like like a hermit.

 It is absolutely beautiful here, there is fresh snow on the surrounding mountain tops.  The conference has been really good, lots of interesting talks, good food, nice people and I'm feeling less tired.

Today was my first poster session. I actually had a fair number of people come by and ask me about it (some where doing it for the student poster award (which I won't win)), but others were just genuinely interested.  I met some top researchers, discussed my work and even the possibility of future work.

Tonight we may go out for some cheapish food and drinks as it is Ben's birthday.  I'm not really keen to go spend money but I should have some fun, right?

Otherwise, tomorrow is my bus/boat cruise so expect pictures the following day. Otherwise I have little to report. Tromso is expensive, but the people are friendly.

Well that is it for now.

Justin

Off again

Well today I depart for Norway for a sea ice conference. Thus is an international conference with most of the major sea ice researchers showing up. For me it is a good way to go to Norway, present some of my research and to look at others research, learn and network. I'm exhausted from not sleeping more than an hour last night, probably worrying about sleeping in.

I'm excited to go to Norway as I've never been and because it is supposed to be beautiful. I'll also be seeing some colleagues/friends and meeting with my cruise leader for my august trip. I'm also hoping to get some work done and doing a little sight seeing.

Well it is 5am Edmonton time and I arrive in tromso tomoorw at 4pm tromso time, so I have a long day ahead of me. In order to go cheap I had to book through Houston and Newark then Oslo. Oh well.

That's it for now, maybe we'll see how my mood changes by the time i get to Oslo. I usually don't sleep on planes but will try

Well it has been a number of days since I have posted.  We have only had one day of flying weather on May 10th.  We got two HEM flights done in the afternoon while myself and 3 others went out on the ice with skidoos to do ground based measurements.  It was an exhausting day of navigating through rubble, getting stuck, then moving 50ft and getting stuck again. We started at 2pm and finished at 12:30am.  Yes, it is light here all the time, and no the light does not dim at all, it is as bright at noon as it is at midnight.  It is great for working because you don't get tired as easily and you don't have to worry about getting caught in the dark.

On May 9th we went to the ice caves near the base.  However, they don't really exist anymore because they have melted away.  Nonetheless the valley they are located in is extremely beautiful.  Though i'm not a geologist it was easy to recognize rocks with large ripple marks on the surface which indicates that it was in a stream for a long time.  There was also alot of snow in the valley, rabbits and tarmigan (birds).  It was a great little evening skidoo trip/hike and was great for morale as we spent the entire day inside due to miserable conditions on the ice.

Today we went out on the skidoo this afternoon.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but only for about 10 km around Alert, so no flying.  However we had a good day. We are almost done here as we fly out on Friday.  Tomorrow we will process our last ice core and start packing up equipment.  I don't expect to blog again from Alert, but maybe from Resolute.  I want to go back through the trip with new blog posts showing pictures, GPS tracks, maybe even some preliminary results, so keep tuned.

Fog

Today there is fog.  It was not too bad this morning and locked like it would burn off but it has just gotten worse, so no flying today.  However this gives me a chance to catch up on sleep (if I'm smart) and to get some work done.  Also I can write this blog.  So yesterday I forgot to mention that we saw a seal.  I'm not exactly sure what kind but it was just sitting on the snow sunning his stomach. I will have a picture to show you.  Seals create breathing holes in the ice and maintain them throughout the winter. 

Otherwise we had a spectacular skidoo trip yesterday coming back from the measurements.  The ice was very rough with lots of ridges and so forth.  Christian also got his skidoo very stuck and ruined a belt on the skidoo but we fixed it in the field and drove back.

Today we are all just bumming around, I sort of feel like working but can't think of what to do and can't concentrate long enough to do it.

Well that is it for now.

Sun, Snow and Ice = Fun

So for the past two days we have had pretty good weather.  Mostly sunny, warm.  This means we've been out on the ice collecting data. Yesterday we used the helicopter to get a bit farther from the base and onto a multiyear ice floe (ice that has survived at least a couple summers of melting).  Today we went out with skidoos and had a lot of fun navigating the rough ice, plus lots of data.

Saw a wolf on May 5.  Thanks to Melissa Peters for the photograph, as I didn't have my camera (foolish).

One thing here is that the sun does not set, it is as bright at 2am as it is at noon, I can attest. We have been working from 8am each day returning at 8 or 9pm.  Luckily they save us some supper. Then each night we try to enter in our data from our notebooks and instruments.

People are friendly and the food is great. I wish I was getting more done, but we are busy with work.  Once we have a weather day (bad weather) then I will get some other work done.

Well that is it for now. No pictures as the connection is too slow.

Justin

From Resolute to Alert

Hey All,

Just a short blog post today to say that I have made it from Resolute to CFS Alert on May 4 as planned.  Had a good flight with a nice fuel stopover in Eureka!!!.

Alert is different.  Because it is a military base it has all that you could want, a gym, mess hall, auditorium etc.  But the landscape is beautiful (the mountains of Ellesmere are all around (except to the north were you can see the sea ice).

Today we went out on skidoos and conducted some drill hole thickness, ice coring, and ground based EM measurements again. The helicopters also arrived today so we may be able to fly our airborne EM tomorrow.  We spent last night and this morning putting it together.

Well thats it for now.

Talk to you again tomorrow

Out and About

Today is May 3, didn't have time to post yesterday because we got in late and the internet connection was slow last night.
So on Saturday we did not end up walking to the town of Resolute Bay, so no pictures of that. I went and walked part way towards the bay, it was incredibly warm (ice was even melting off the roof of the building).

On Sunday we decided to go for a skidoo trip.  We planned to go to Griffin Island to the southwest of Resolute and then follow that south towards the open water.  I've created a Google Earth track file, it plots all the points we travelled (taken every few seconds for the duration of our trip). Below is a downsampled synthetic aperture radar image from April 16, on which I've plotted the track.   You can see different brightness which reflect different surface roughness (with brighter being rougher).

 ENVISAT ASAR image showing our track from yesterday.  Image courtesy of European Space Agency and Dr. Christian Haas.

This ended up being a 7 hour trip, but was alot of fun. We stopped upon arriving at the shores of Griffin Island to climb some rubble.  We then followed the coast line of Griffin Island south for quite awhile.

Christian Standing on Ice Ridge near Griffin Island, near Resolute Bay, NU

Me relaxing out of the wind on the same ridge.  Photo Courtesy of Stefan Hendricks.

While driving the snowmobiles we conducted ground based electromagnetic induction measurements of ice thickness with two EM instruments that have different antenna lengths. As our group has six people we borrowed three skidoos (demand for skidoos limited us), and so we doubled up and took turns driving and being passenger.

At one point we stopped to do a more detailed comparison of the two EM instruments measurements but doing drill hole measurements of ice thickness, measure snow depth and pull the two instruments to the exact same place.  We had some bad luck here as we lost 2m of drill flights, on the first of 20 holes (dropped down the hole into the ocean...our bad), and then after measuring the thickness of the that holes, and the measuring tape was pulled out, the T-end broke off the measuring tape.  The T-end, pictured below is lowered through the drill hole, once it reaches below the ice it pivots to block the hole.  When you apply force by pulling on the tape, it fold the T up again.

So we had some problems but alot of fun.  Today we may go out this afternoon to do more drilling and a more careful comparison of the two EM systems. We will see.  As we didn't plan to do this, we are relying on the availability of equipment that others may have reserved.  The great thing about the scientific community is the sharing that happens.  We borrowed sleds that someone else had reserved yesterday, but they didn't need them that day so we could use them. We were planning to leave a drill tip behind, but since we lost ours down the hole, we need our spare now.

Well if I don't post tonight it may be a day or two until I have time.  Tomorrow morning we leave for CFS Alert.  It will be most of the day to get there, plus we'll have to unload and move all the equipment and get settled in. From now on there will likely be fewer pictures (and they will be smaller) as I will have to post to blogger using a mail client.

Hope you are all doing well.

Day 2: Resolute Bay

Today is the second day of my trip.  Yesterday I left Edmonton and went to Yellowknife, NWT.  Took a nice walk to the old part of town and met up with most of the group (all minus Christian Haas (my supervisor) who was already in Resolute Bay).

Then this morning at 3:30am I woke up and went to the airport to catch a 5am charter flight to Resolute Bay, NU.  The charter is managed by the Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Program.  The program is responsible for logistics support of scientific research in the Canadian arctic.  In Resolute , they have a large hanger and warehouse, as well as accommodations (which are much like a hostel).  The food is always amazing, and the people are friendly, plus you meet up with many other science groups.


This afternoon we will likely just go out for a walk and go to the actual village of Resolute Bay, NU.

Shot showing the B737 charter we took from Yellowknife to Resolute.  

Yes that is a big pile of snow in the background.

Otherwise it is a bit of a shock to come here.  Edmonton is getting greener every day and Yellowknife was about +10c, where as here there is a lot of snow and it is -15C but feels like -24C with the windchill. But then I like the snow, and the cold.

Polar bear in the Yellowknife airport.

Later today I'll likely post a couple pictures of the town of Resolute Bay, NU. 
I hope you all are doing well and I'll write again soon.

If you have requests for information or so forth, feel free to comment below the post or to send me an e-mail. As I'm very new to blogging, I can definitely use the feedback.

Packing Personal Gear

So today, Friday, April 30th I left Edmonton. I wrote all the packing stuff on Wednesday/Thursday while packing but haven't had a chance to post it until now. As for today I walked around Yellowknife with a couple others in our group and we will now go out for supper and a drink.  Tomorrow morning at 3:45am we leave the hotel for the airport to go to Resolute Bay, so more tomorrow.


 It's alot like packing for a vacation.  You need to balance the things you want to have with you with the things you need to have.  The biggest difference is that for most vacations if you have forgotten something, you can usually purchase it.  Naturally, when in these remote sites I cannot just walk down to the local store and buy some more mitts if mine are wet or not warm enough.  While I can probably borrow some from other researchers, I'd rather just be prepared.

Below is a table of daily weather data for this month (April) at CFS Alert, NU.  You can access this data, and data from many other locations in Canada, online at Enviroment Canada's National Climate Data and Information Archive. We can see that the temperatures have ranged between -34 and -1 degrees Celsius.  However, with the wind chill, the temperature feelsmore like -50 to -10.

Naturally this means I'm going to need a lot of cold weather gear.  Because we are doing in-situ measurement out on the ice and snow potentially for a whole day, my gear can get wet, the temperature can change, I will probably need backup pairs of clothes, extra mitts, etc.

The pictures below show the gear I am taking with me on Friday.  I have already shipped some stuff to Yellowknife with the equipment (I sent along my winter jacket, ski pants, winter boots, gore-tec pants, and two large fleece jackets).
The key to staying warm is layers, we we have base layers, mid layer and outer layer (jackets, ski pants).  However, when its cold you can add another mid layer (an extra sweater or fleece). In addition to clothing, we are required by the aircraft charter to carry a sleeping bag or blankets.  Our stay in Resolute from May 1st to May 4th is at the Polar Continental Shelf Program Base, and blankets are not provided.  While I have a really nice warm (-7 rated) mummy bag, I have opted to bring a smaller, lighweight bag which packs smaller and weighs less. Also as it is for indoor use, I'm not too worried about being cold (I can always through on more clothes if I am).

 This is more or less everything I need, minus what I wear on Friday and a pair of shoes to wear inside. The detail isn't great, and I tend to buy  black field clothing (to absorb warmth from the sunlight).

 Personally, I love using duffle bags, lots of space, and they are cheap! I hate having everything mixed together, so I dividing my stuff into smaller bags for organizing. The grey bag on the left is a compression sack, which I've stuffed the sleeping bag into.  The sleeping bag will compress to be just a bit larger than a 5 pin bowling ball.

And here is all the stuff zipped into my bag.  It weighs about 35lbs, so I still have weight and room to fit stuff in (as the airlines only allow 40lb baggage).

Canadian Forces Station Alert, where we are staying, is pretty luxurious from a field station perspective.  There is hot water, laundry, food is cooked for you, a bed, a gymasium, bowling lane, movie room, and even a bar. The laundry facilities are especially nice because it means I can wear clean clothes (unlike where on the glacier I was allowed a similar amount of personal gear, but that had to last one month with no laundry and only a cold stream for bathing if you dared).

Well I think that is it for now.  I am excited to go but also a little nervous, which will pass once I am there. I don't think the scenery will be quite as spectacular as my trip on the CCG Larsen last summer but I could be wrong. Of course I always miss Nicole and Jax, and wish that they could share in my adventures, but to me fieldwork is alot like a vacation. You go to a new, exciting place with wonderful scenery, you just have to work hard while you are there.

This blog post is quite long, don't fear they will be shorter in the future.

Shipping

A big part of scientific research is the logistics of the project.  As our group uses an airborne instrument as well as on the ground measurements, we typically have a fair bit of equipment.  This year we are looking at about 600kg of equipment occupying about 7 cubic meters of space. Besides our helicopter borne EM instrument (not pictured), we also have a ground EM instrument, several ice mass balance buoys, lots of on ice equipment such as an ice corer, ice augers (just to drill through the ice (no core), differential GPS, thermometers, salinometers, and other equipment.

This year we will ship our equipment from Edmonton to Yellowknife, NWT and then from there it will join us on a charter flight to Resolute Bay, Nunavut.  From there we charter a small Twin Otter to take us to Candian Forces Station Alert, Nunavut. This year, with all the equipment and 6 people we are in danger of requiring two Twin Otter flights to get everything up.  Luckily there are other scientific groups heading to Alert, so hopefully we can send some equipment up with them.

(Photo Courtesy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/C-FBBV_Kenn_Borek_Air_Ltd._de_Havilland_Twin_Otter_(DHC6)_03.JPG,accessed online on April 21, 2010.)

Besides needing to get all the equipment packaged up safely so that it won't be damaged it is also a challenge just to have all the equipment ready in time.  One constantly things of things that may be handy to have, or equipment arrives late.  This year, our EM instrument will be delivered on Friday, everything will ship to Yellowknife on Monday morning.

In order to estimate our shipping costs we estimate about $22/kilo each way, though the actual cost may be a bit higher.

While in Alert, I hope I'll be able to post some low res photos of us using the various bits of equipment.

Testing Twitter/Facebook Feed

Try to see if I have configured my Twitter and Facebook Feeds correctly to notify you all of my blog posts.

Test Mail2Blogger Post

This post is just to test if my Mail2Blogger is set up correctly.  I think this will be the primary way I will Blog while in remote environments where the internet connection is slow.

 

Blog Intro

The purpose of this Blog will be to inform those interested in my comings and goings related to my research this year.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures and so forth but we'll see what my internet connections are like.
This year I am scheduled to go to:
1) Canadian Forces Station Alert (April 30-May 19, 2010)


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2) Tromso Norway for the International Symposium on Sea Ice in the Physical and Biogeochemical System May 29-June 5, 2010)


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3) Onboard a Norwegian research vessel to do sea ice studies north of Svalbard (Aug 16-Sept 2, 2010)


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