Three GrIT tractors roll across Greenland's icesheet. All photos: Robin Davies

It’s that time again! CH2M HILL Polar Services personnel are enroute to Summit Station on their annual overland resupply traverse. The Greenland Inland Traverse (“GrIT”) team departed the coastal Thule Air Base on the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded GrIT earlier this month.

“The GrIT crew seemed happy, although a bit anxious, to get out of town following the 4th coldest winter snap in Thule history,” wrote CPS project manager, Geoff Phillips. “It was a long, cold prep season for GrIT that wasn’t without its unexpected yet chronic equipment troubles that always concern the crew when they pull away from town. They left at the beginning of the longest stretch of fair weather we have had since we got here in late January and it appears to be following them up the route.

Winds blowing 10-15 knots and temperatures around -45 made early spring work near Thule Air Base a challenge.

“They made great time up to Camp Century (approx. 112 miles out) although they had to fight for every mile they made.  The snow is very soft in some locations and required double and occasionally triple heading the loads (2 or 3 tractors hooked up to one load).  That makes for long, slow days and exhausted crewmembers.  They are staying in good spirits and remaining optimistic that the snow will improve soon.”

You can follow the GrIT via a website that uses GPS positioning information from tiny tracking devices affixed to some of the traverse vehicles. Bookmark the site and check back frequently:

The 733 mile route follows a path established in a 2008 traverse between Thule Air Base and Summit Station, the research station funded by the U.S. NSF in cooperation with the Government of Greenland.  The traverse continues previous efforts to establish a safe and efficient overland route between Thule and Summit Station.  An overland route provides a greener supply delivery option to Greenland stations which currently rely on air freighting.

A ground-penetrating radar affixed to the front of the vehicle found a safe route through the crevasse zone in March.

In March, the Strategic Crevasse Avoidance Team (SCAT) surveyed and flagged a safe route through the crevasse zone, a challenging 70-mile transition between Thule and the ice sheet proper. Using a ground-penetrating radar and antenna attached to a boom affixed to the front end of a tracked vehicle called a Tucker, SCAT images the ice sheet to keep on the lookout for crevasses. When the team suspects a crevasse, they probe and flag its location using Global Positioning Systems Technology. The ice sheet in this area is so active that technicians must study the route each time GrIT crosses it.

Back to the GrIT. The overland convoy is led by the SCAT GPR Tucker, one Case Magnum, and two Case Quadtrac tractors, all towing a multi-sled cargo train that includes about 45,000 gallons of fuel, two 12,000 gallon double-wall fuel storage tanks (for Summit), a “sheep’s-foot” roller packer (for Summit skiway grooming), a Crew Quarter living module along with miscellaneous materials, supplies, and food for the traverse.

The GrIT 2012 crew is Pat Smith (Field Manager/Lead Traverse Mechanic), Robin Davies (Mechanic), Shep Vail (Traverse Equipment Operator) and Galen Dossin (Mountaineer/Field Safety).

“The crews [traverse, SCAT, construction, technical, etc.] spent about eight weeks in Thule building the next version cargo sleds and servicing/repairing all the heavy equipment that is needed on the traverse. They also put all the sled pieces together to form the larger traverse sleds that you see in the pictures,” Phillips says.

Sled redesign is ongoing in hopes of maximizing fuel and time efficiency.

“In 2010 we tried to use air-filled pontoons that were purchased off-the-shelf from Whitewater Raft Manufacturers. They proved the concept that the design will help steady the cargo on top of them and even-out the effects of rough snow-surface conditions. In 2011 we tried a custom pontoon made from similar materials to those rafts, which worked well but had problems holding air over the course of time. This year’s design is similar but made from a different material and installed in a large pouch that will hopefully keep snow out of the pontoon area which caused trouble in the past,” Phillips explains. “The HMW sled looks the same as previous years but has a slightly modified formula for the plastic that was based on CRREL testing and research on the material. The new type of HMW should be more resistant to tearing while maintaining its ‘slippery’ qualities on snow.”

A cargo sled clambers over sastrugi (wind-sculpted waves on the ice sheet).

Another notable change in the GrIT set up is the replacement of the Wannigan, the mobile kitchen and office that was towed (along with the outhouse) behind the tucker.

“The Crew Quarters not only houses the kitchen facilities and communications gear (same as the Wannigan last year) but it also has berthing for five people and a shower/powder room. You know those GrIT guys need a Powder Room! It is a huge step up in comfort compared to the rather small Wannigan and sleeping tents,” Phillips says. “This should help with morale and crew fatigue since they will have a warm kitchen facility and bedroom always available instead of having to build a tent city every night.”

The GrIT crew hopes to arrive at Summit Station late this month, weather willing. On this trip they’ll deliver fuel to NEEM (the North Eemian drilling camp, an international ice-core harvesting camp), pick up cargo from a 2011 deep field glaciology effort by Hans Thybo, and return to Thule in mid to late May. –Marcy Davis

Comments (0) Apr 15 2012

Zero Emissions Technology Races Ahead

Their lightest rider pilots UAF’s machine in the range event. In a sport and profession generally dominated by males, most teams competing in the CSC include women.

All photos: Tracy Dahl / CH2M HILL Polar Services

Last week marked the 13th annual SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC) and the 10th year the event has been hosted by the KeweenawResearch Center of Michigan Technological University. This year the snow conditions were excellent, facilitating the event and enhancing the enjoyment of participants and spectators alike.

This was the 7th year I have attended the event, and the 4th since the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs  became a major sponsor. This year, CH2M Hill Polar Services (CPS) also sponsored the competition. This event is part of the SAE Collegiate Design Competition Series. What sets it apart is the focus on developing cleaner, quieter, more environmentally friendly and socially acceptable transportation. The target of creating the cleanest over-snow transportation, in combination with a great educational outreach opportunity, makes this event an excellent fit for the NSF’s arctic research effort.

The teams line up outside the shop area prior to the start of the endurance event.

Endurance and Range

A cleaner, quieter snowmobile isn’t much good if it can’t go the distance. The CSC is divided into two broad categories, internal combustion (IC) sleds and zero emissions (ZE) machines. The IC category is primarily intended for the recreational market, while the ZE side targets markets requiring clean operation that can handle the shorter range that accompanies battery operation.

The IC machines are challenged to complete 100 miles, while the ZE sleds are required to travel a minimum of 10 miles on a charge, with the team going the farthest on a charge typically winning the range event. Only three of the four ZE machines passed technical inspections for the range event, and of these, only the McGill University team was allowed to compete for points, as the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and Michigan Technological University teams missed the competition deadline literally by minutes. While the well-balanced and relatively trouble-free McGill machine won the event with a range of 9.78 miles, the UAF machine actually travelled 16.42 miles on its battery pack.

Alaska leads McGill in the range event.

McGill designed an innovative high hitch for use in the draw-bar-pull event. The design transferred forward force into downward force to reduce track slippage, but the machine was power-limited, allowing the UAF team to win the event.

A closer look at McGill’s simple and innovative hitch design. The Wendigo is a silent ghost of the woods taken from Canadian folklore. These electric machines are very quiet indeed.

And the winner is…

UAF won the ZE category overall and was also voted the “most improved” from the previous year. As part of its support to the competition, the NSF supports field testing of suitable ZE vehicles at Summit Station, where atmospheric monitoring, snow chemistry and other experiments require pristine conditions. So I invited UAF team captain Isaac Thompson to come to Summit along with his machine. He accepted. I placed only one caveat: slow that snowmachine down.—Tracy Dahl

UAF’s machine was extremely fast and powerful, easily winning the ZE “Acceleration with Load” event. This event tests the machines for their intended purpose (pulling heavy sleds), while adding a competitive element that makes it interesting for the student teams and spectators alike.

A well-balanced package suitable for utility applications--including those at Summit Station, Greenland—the McGill machine was the most reliable of the ZE machines. Its lack of power hurt the team’s chances of winning the competition, but they knew this going in.

University of Waterloo team co-captain Kristen Sperduti was another of the talented female participants in the CSC this year. The engineer cut some of the fastest times of any team in the objective handling event.

Comments (0) Mar 14 2012

On January 3, 2012, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and Russian tanker, Renda, departed Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to deliver 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline to the isolated community of Nome on Alaska’s west coast. The mission followed fall delivery attempts foiled by foul weather and shipping delays. Renda’s delivery boosted Nome’s dwindling fuel reserves, a critical resupply in the heart of winter.

We’ve borrowed a fun youTube video of the outbound escort – check it out.

The Healy escorted the Renda from the ice edge near Nunivak Island through 300 miles of sea ice – a journey that took eight days. The cutter is capable of breaking through about 4.5 feet of ice easily and through up to 8 feet of ice in a process called backing-and-ramming (repeatedly running into the same spot until the ship breaks through). A specially-designed, reinforced, blunted bow allows the Healy to ride the ship’s front end up on the ice.  The 8-ton ship acts as an ice-crushing lever, splintering sea ice in a wide multidirectional swath. The ship’s hull shape also causes the ice to overturn, thereby creating plenty of  space behind the ship for Renda to follow.

Once the duo arrived at Nome on January 14, crews purposefully froze Renda into the ice to ensure a stable and safe platform for fuel delivery through two fuel hoses stretched across the ice to on-shore fuel tank storage – a two-day process.

Following successful mission completion on January 18, Healy helped Renda become unstuck from her parking space and the two vessels made the return trip through 360 miles of sea ice. At the ice edge, reached on January 29, the ships parted ways for their home ports of Seattle and Vladivostok. –Marcy Davis

Comments (0) Mar 12 2012

…with captions by Phil Austin, team lead.

Despite the science and station tasking that now includes additional efforts to get Summit ready for the summer season, our last crew of winter has taken a moment to answer our call for glimpses into their world at the top of Greenland’s ice sheet. Here, Phil Austin gives us a tour. For orientation, CPS breaks the long winter period–September through mid-April, typically–into three phases, which are each staffed by ~5 personnel. Phil Austin, our Phase III manager, shows some activities commonly (and not so commonly) involved in turnover between crews.

Thanks to an amazing Summit team for keeping the lights on and the science going as we head toward spring.

Fabulous Freshy Sort. For Phase III's three-month stay at Summit, we received around 750 lbs of fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy by Twin Otter flight from Iceland. It was indeed a beautiful site - all in absolutely perfect condition. Once we had moved everything into the Big House, it need sorting and then storing in the freshie shack, or in the case of dairy, outside in the "frigidare." Needless to say, we enjoyed all the salad goods very quickly. Photo: Christy Schultz

Early Morning Fun. One of our Twin Otter flights this turnover was forced to stay overnight at Summit due to fast changing weather on the east coast of Greenland, Denmark Strait and Iceland. Winds were up around 75 knots, and all Iceland's airfields were closed. Early next morning the Summit crew provided heat to the aircraft to enable engine starting in the -60 degree temperatures. In the photo you can see that the starboard engine is now running, and the blankets are being removed from the port engine to start the heating process. The heater is that yellow contraption on the left (called a Herman Nelson), and you can just make out the hose from the second unit to the left of the snowmobile headlight, which is heating the aircraft batteries. Photo: Christy Schultz

Science Technicians Cleaning Tower Instruments. A constant task for the techs is keeping the meteorological instruments free of snow and rime and thus providing current weather conditions. This may look easy in this ground level shot; however, the techs also need to climb 45 feet up the tower and clean the instruments there. Try that at -60 degrees and in the dark! Photo: Christy Schultz

Summit Camp from TAWO (Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory). One of the fantastic things about being at Summit is the all-round view of the curved horizon, as well as the ever changing, always incredible, lighting. Photo: Christy Schultz

Summit Mascot. Every camp needs a mascot, right? Photo: Christy Schultz

Comments (0) Mar 05 2012

It’s the time of year when bright curtains of colored light –auroras –dance across the northern sky, especially between 60 and 72 degrees north and south latitude. Aurorae, named for the Roman goddess of dawn, are a natural phenomenon occurring when charged particles, mostly electrons from the sun, enter the earth’s atmosphere where they are directed toward the polar regions by the Earth’s magnetic field. As these particles enter the upper atmosphere, they collide with other atoms and molecules. During the collision, some energy is transferred to the atom or molecule which becomes excited and re-emits the energy as light as it returns to a non-excited state.

The beautiful light displays are called aurora borealis (Boreas is the Greek god of the north wind) in the northern hemisphere and aurora australis (the Latin word for from the south) in the southern hemisphere. Although aurorae happen year-round, they are usually more visible in winter because of long periods of darkness.

In simple terms, aurora intensity and frequency depends on the solar wind, the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun’s upper atmosphere. More solar wind means more charged particles that enter the earth’s atmosphere which means more aurorae. Sunspots, which are temporary, appear as dark areas on the sun’s surface and amplify the solar wind. The result is more auroral activity on earth. Solar wind is stronger with more sunspot activity, which peaks about every 11 years.

Aurora borealis are best viewed on the northern horizon on a clear night. Colors are stratified and depend on altitude, composition and density of the atmosphere because different gasses emit different colors of light when charged with energy (a principal also used with neon lights). Aurorae are typically greenish-white due to the characteristics of oxygen in earth’s atmosphere. At higher altitudes, oxygen changes and emits a red light more easily captured on film than seen with the naked eye. The bottom edge, about 100 km altitude, may be purple from a mix of red and blue emissions from nitrogen molecules.

Scientists can predict aurora activity, but not with very high accuracy. In fact, predictions are not even as good as weather forecasts. Solar wind takes a couple of days to reach earth’s atmosphere so scientists make predictions based on the sun’s behavior, but this is difficult to do in a global sense let alone for one location.

Get your daily (and hourly) aurora forecast from the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast and to see what’s up in space check spaceweather.com.—Marcy Davis

Comments (0) Feb 23 2012