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

Roma and Italia

Hello All,

Well today was the first day of the conference and yeah I have already learned some interesting information, mostly just making me glad I haven't spent too much time looking at Cryosat data yet (because there are some bug that need to be sorted out in the data).

On Monday, Christian, Ron Kwok and Benjamin Holt and I went to Rome to do a quick sightseeing trip.  We did a long walk (some 15km or more) and saw many sights.  However, we saw most of them quite quickly (literally as we walked by).  The only place we spent some time was Vatican City, looking at St. Peter's square, St. Peter's cathedral, and the Sistine Chapel, and even then I could have spent a lot more time.

Here are a few pictures to highlight what I saw.

Colosseum

Just a fountain along some street

St Peter's Square and Cathedral

Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele ) not an ancient Roman thing but still

The thing I find about Rome, is that you can't turn around without seeing something ancient and cool. 


Well that is all I want to share about that for now, oh and add 8hrs to the time stamp in the images.



Well that is it.

Justin

Another Trip

Well I have not posted in a really long time but I am off an another adventure. Next week is the 2nd International Cryosat Validation workshop in Frascati, Italy (just outside Rome), and I get to attend. I am exceed to learn more about this as this is what my PhD will be on.

But it not every day I get to fly to Europe so I am using the opportunity to visit my Opa and Oma (grandfather and grandmother) and aunts and uncles. Most of my family still lives in Holland. I am really excited to see everyone and will post pictures and so forth of my adventure. I am get one day in Rome before the conference to explore a bit.

Thus morning I arrived early at the airport and marked some lab reports. Now I'm just have a Fresh squeezed Grapefruit juice at the Chili's at the airport.

Well that is it for now