IN RESOLUTE

Hello Everyone, well I have finally had a good nights sleep and have some energy (and a fast enough internet connection) to write a blog post.  Over the past week we have all been exceedingly busy collecting measurements out on the sea ice for long days.  We had an extremely successful Cryosat-2 validation campaign (CryoVEx).  We are now back in Resolute and are busy entering in and compiling all of the data. 
I once again did not take many photographs, I have several hours of HD video footage (none of which is particularly amazing) but still quite cool.  I also misplaced my camera for a few days.  But here are a few photos.

The highlight of today was that as we were finishing packing up the plane to leave Alert we paused to take a group photo by the CFS Alert sign.  I laid my backpack down on the ground.  The wolves that live at Alert were hanging around and as we walked to our photo spot I remarked that it might not be the best idea to leave my pack (with food in it) lying on the ground, but oh well I thought.  However, no sooner had we gathered to pose, the wolf ran up and grabbed my backpack and started to carry it off.  I had to chase him down.

Backpack Stealing Wolf

Alfred Wegener Institute Polar 5 Aircraft with an EM bird below it.

Our Twin Otter

Ice Crystals

Needle Ice Crytals

Other than that, being the geek that I am I found some cool ice crystals growing one day.


That is all for today

Justin

SUCCESS!

Well this blog will have to be a quick one, I can barely keep my eyes open.


Today we did get up in the air, and landed on the ice. However, we first had to land at a different spot and wait for 1.5 hours for fog to clear over our actual measurement site. This meant that we didn’t get to start our measurements until 13:30 and we had to leave by 6pm. It was a bit rushed but still quite successful.

We performed over 800 snow depth measurements, acquired EM31 (ground based electromagnetic induction) measurements of sea ice thickness, performed drill hole measurements of sea ice thickness and the UCL team used their ground based radar at one of the corner reflectors.

All in all a very good day for the ground team. What was also quite exciting was the fact that the NASA “IceBridge” P3, the Alfred Wegener Institute Polar 5 DC3, the Danish Twin Otter carrying ASIRAS (an airborne version of the Cryosat sensor) were all in the air along the same Cryosat (which also passed overhead today) track today.

The plan is to do the same thing tomorrow morning but this evenings infra-red image looks a bit cloudy so we will have to see what the weather brings.

No pictures today but hopefully when I am back in Resolute the bandwidth
 
Well that is all, I am quite happy with our success so far.
 
Justin

And We're Off

Hello Everyone,




I have not been very dedicated with blogging each day but here is a bit more

information on our progress. Still no pictures or video since the internet

connection here is so slow.

Today is Friday, April 15. Yesterday we set up our two sites out on the sea ice using the Twin Otter airplane. This involves flying to a certain position, circling and trying to find a landing site and then finally
landing on the ice, with little information about it other than how rough the surface looks. You can get a bit of information of how thick the ice is from this information. Old multiyear ice, and second year ice as well have some surface roughness but the features tend to be rounded since they have been through at least one summer of melt. Old multiyear and second year ice tends to be thicker as well and so is generally safer to land on. Our pilot, Troy has landed on ice a fair number of times and is very experienced at this. It is a very interesting experience as the plain is performing tight circles and buzzing the desired landing spot. The airplane then ascends and does it again at least once more so that the pilot can get a good, close up view of the surface. When they decide we can land their, the line up the "runway", then slow the aircraft to just about the stall speed and dipping it down to the ice. The landings yesterday were quite bumpy, but only because the snow surface is so hard and so rough here.



We deployed two sites, one close to Alert at 83.5N (Alert is 82.5N) and one farther north at 85.5N. This second site is my most northerly point ever,quite exciting.In any event it was an exciting day for me, as it was also the first time I have been in a plane that has landed on ice, and on an unprepared runway.

Right now, it is about 6:30 am and I almost need to go to breakfast to meet up with everyone to find out the plan for today, We are planning to go out on the ice and perform intensive surveys of our northern most site, but as usual it depends on weather. Each morning I get up, look at some images like the ones at the link below:

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/satellite/animateweb_e.html?imagetype=satellite&imagename=hrpt_dfo_ir_s_..................jpg&nbimages=1&clf=1

The images on these links are infra-red images, and show the heat that comes from the ocean. They give a bit of an indication of cloud cover, which masks the heat from the ocean. This morning there appears to be some clouds over the ice, but our site may be cloud free. Here is hoping.

Well I should go.

Talk again at the end of a hopefully successful day.

Deployment of Corner Reflectors on Fast Ice site

Well hello again all,

I am writing to you from balmy CFS Alert on the northern tip of
Ellesmere Island.
We arrived here yesterday and spent the evening preparing for a
potential flight today. Unfortunately the weather was not good enough
for flying out north and landing on the ice. Luckily we have borrowed
3 skidoos and sleds and decided to go to our fast ice site today.
Landfast ice is just as it sounds, frozen to the land and does not
drift. It can be stable for a couple years or can break up (depending
on the year). The reason we are deploying on the fast ice is because
it will not drift, and because it's snow and ice regime are different
from the pack ice farther north.

We took the skidoos out to our site of interest (along a Cryosat
track). In the end we did not get right on the track but only because
of wanting certain snow conditions, not due to inability to access it
or navigate to it. We deployed two corner reflectors just over 500m
apart from each other on the ice. A corner reflector acts as a strong
reflector of radar signals and can easily be identified in the
airborne data that will (hopefully) be collected in a few days time.
We will then at some point before leaving go back to the site and
revist it and do intensive surveys of the snow and ice properties at
the corner reflectors and between them.

The skidoo ride today was nice, a bit tricky at time and not without
problems but we all made it safely. But it is such a fun way to
travel, takes some work/effort, but gives you some nice scenery too.

We missed supper but someone here was nice enough to arrange for some
leftovers for us when we got back at 8 or so. It is now 11:30pm here
and well time for bed, I just need to take out some other things yet
but nothing special.

I will eventually post some photos but I need sleep desperately.

Goodnight to you all (or good morning for some of you).

Justin

Resolute Bay

Hello All,

Since I have a bit of time to spare right now (and because it would mean working on my thesis or packing otherwise) I thought I'd write another blog post.  Today there will even be a few photos from the past couple of days.  I have tried to avoid photographing somethings for now, as I'll photograph them again in Alert, and otherwise some stuff I photographed last year already (see earlier in Blog).

Some of you may know that I recently purchased a GoPro camera for this trip and for some of my other ones.  I hope to give you all more of an insight into some of the amazingly excellent things I get to do.  I really am a lucky person to visit this remote locations (there is a reason the joke name for Resolute is actually Desolate). Well the GoPro for those who don't know is a small wearable, waterproof camera that shoots HD video.

Unfortunately, this means I cannot share the video with you now (maybe when I get back to Yellowknife) or for sure when I am home again, but I hope to put together a nice little video. Here is a few photos that will have to tide you over until then.

Ship frozen in ice outside a small community

Hot Guy on a cold day = Frosty face

Sea ice near Resolute Bay

Christian Haas, my supervisor on an iceberg (yes I also climbed up for the view).

Tomorrow morning we will fly to Alert.  We stop in Eureka on the way up, a special place with an Environment Canada weather station base and a spectacular set of views. All in all the journey will be about 5 hours of flying time, with a break for refueling in Alert. I will probably try to nap on the plane in order to keep my energy up.

Alert will be interesting this year as the base will be quite full due to a military exercise. Plus we will be landing on the sea ice with a plane instead of a helicopter this time.


Well I think that wraps up this blog, I've been playing with ffmpeg and MPEG streamclip to try to post a short clip but so far no luck.

Maybe I'll have to get Final Cut Express or something

Well that's all for now

Justin

In Resolute!

Hello Everyone,

Brr, well sort of, it was -30sC when we landed today but seems to have warmed up a bit.  Lucky for me I have a brand new Canada Goose Down Jacket which keeps me toasty warm in all conditions (I just picked this up in Yellowknife).  I haven't taken many photos yet, so expect those to come soon, and maybe some footage from my GoPro camera too.

Resolute is a great place, especially here on the Polar Continental Shelf Program base.  PCSP is a government program supporting Arctic research in Canada by providing logistical support.  They have an excellent hanger, a fabulous base/accommodations complex.  This past year  the base has expanded dramatically in size, with new facilities (labs, a gym, more beds, bigger mess).   The food here is always incredible, and now I even have a room to myself with my own shower (luxurious).

I will need to post some pictures soon as my desk is now a charging station.  Maybe tomorrow I'll shoot some video and take some pictures.


Well I should go sleep so I am ready for tomorrow.


Justin

Back to Santa Claus Country

Hello All,

Well once again I am headed back to the North.  I am going back to CFS Alert (where I was last may) in order to participate in in-situ measurements for CryoVEx 2011, the validation campaign of the Cryosat-2 radar altimeter. Christian Haas (my supervisor) and I will be aiding a team of researchers from the University College of London in conducting ground based measurements of snow and ice properties and validating the penetration of Ku-band microwaves through the snow to the snow/ice interface.  The satellite Cryosat-2 also uses Ku-band and there is some debate of whether or not it always penetrates to the snow/ice interface.  As Cryosat-2 is meant to estimate sea ice thickness by inferring the height of the sea ice above the water, if the signal doesn't penetrate to the ice surface, it will overestimate this height (called freeboard) and will report thicknesses that are greater than reality.

Yesterday I left Edmonton and flew to Yellowknife, I had a nice afternoon around Yellowknife and even got myself a brand new winter jacket at a good price (you'll see some pictures).  We met up with the Environment Canada guys who we are hitching a ride from here to Resolute with this morning. We should arrive in balmy Resolute Bay (it is -33C, feels like -45C with the wind) later this afternoon.

Otherwise not alot to report, have been downloading imagery and just getting ready.

Well I should go.

Cheers

Justin