Staff return to Summit Station's Big House during a spring storm. Photo: Katrine Gorham

Due to high winds and low visibility on the ice sheet, a scheduled flight to Summit Station, Greenland, has been cancelled today. The flight would have brought additional personnel and supplies to the outpost to prepare for the busy summer research period. An advance team arrived on Thursday and has begun turnover with the staff of five who have been maintaining ongoing experiments since early November.

Saturday’s forecast calls for improving conditions, though continued high winds may keep the staff grounded in Kangerlussuaq for another day. Stay tuned.

Comments (0) Feb 03 2012

What light through yonder window breaks?

Dawn breaks at Summit Station for the first time in 2012. From left, in the distance, the Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory, Swiss Tower (on which instruments are mounted), Science and Operations Barn, the Green House, and the Big House. January 31, 2012. Photo: Ben Toth

Our friends at Summit Station welcomed the sun yesterday. “I could almost even feel its warmth on my face…. almost,” wrote station manager Ben Toth.

The sun is returning, and so is a small plane, which should approach the station via Iceland tomorrow. It will drop off fresh veggies and an advance team of staff, then fly to Kangerlussuaq to pick up the remaining staff waiting to get in to Summit.  It’s time for a fresh crew to prepare for the busy research season ahead.

So far, the forecast is favorable, so cross your fingers. Meanwhile, here’s another picture of the dawn.

The Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory blocks the sun, which helps reveal the Yukimarimo (snow doodles) in the foreground. Photo: Ben Toth

Comments (0) Feb 01 2012

Comments (2) Dec 27 2011

 Frosty Freeze

The walk back from the atmospheric watch building seems a bit longer on cold winter days. From this point of view, Summit Station's science and operations building nudges the iconic Big House, with its roof-perched radome and welcoming porch light. Photo: Shannon Coykendall

We were glad to read that cold north winds, which for several weeks had been dominating the weather reports from Summit Station, subsided last week. A welcome relief to deep freeze conditions reported earlier. “We hit a wind chill of -107F earlier today and the ambient temperature is around -67F…it doesn’t take much wind to make it bite!”, wrote Shannon Coykendall on 30 November.

The moon rises over a winter storage berm at Summit Station. Photo: Shannon Coykendall

In addition to bringing the cold, north winds can blow exhaust from station generators into the pristine sampling zone. Ongoing atmospheric and snow chemistry measurements are impacted when the station’s emissions mix into the signal. So, during periods when the winds blow from the north, station personnel avoid activities that create exhaust.

Twice during late November and early December, the staff had to fire heavy equipment to collect snow to resupply the station’s water supply during north wind conditions. Each time, the science technicians followed protocol and notified the research community.

Heavy equipment stored outside at Summit Station in Greenland gets a nice layer of frost. Photo: Shannon Coykendall

Finally, last week, “Summit crawled out from underneath the north winds that have dominated the past few weeks. Bringing clouds and warmer weather, the southerlies created an opportune chance to catch up on making water and for the science techs to perform their non-north wind tasking,” wrote station manager Ben Toth. “The winds also gained strength this week, reaching sustained speeds of 15.5 knots. Temperatures this week ranged from a low of -60 C on Tuesday to a high of a balmy -34 C on Saturday.”–Kip Rithner

Comments (4) Dec 15 2011

A Polaris Ranger outfitted with tracks helps stretch fiber optics cable across the tundra near Toolik Station. All photos: Rorik Peterson

Many rural Alaskan towns remain without reliable communications infrastructure, particularly when it comes to the Internet. Rorik Peterson, a mechanical  engineer  from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, hopes to change that by stringing fiber optics cable across the Alaskan tundra.

Peterson, whose research includes modeling the seasonal freezing and thawing of soils, began a NSF-funded study during the 2011 spring that focuses on the durability of fiber optics cable in the harsh arctic climate. In April he and colleagues traveled to Toolik Station to set up their two-year experiment.

Routing cable from Toolik.

“It was a bit of a headache setting up our study at Toolik because of the many science groups that use the facility and study the ecosystems around the facility. But we worked together to find a time when we would not impact other science projects.  Seven station staff and I spent an entire day spooling out cable across several environments to see how the cable will fare over a couple of years. Not only is weather a consideration, animals are as well,” explains Peterson.

Fiber optics cables are currently operational between Anchorage and Fairbanks and along the Dalton Highway (the “Haul Road”) between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, but burying cables is impractical given the remote setting of many Alaskan villages.

“We set our cable on top of the snow and tundra using a Polaris Ranger retrofitted with tracks. We had a 5km spool of cable trailered on the station pad that unspooled as we drove. We wanted to make a loop for easier testing, but it was challenging to do given that the cable, although somewhat flexible, is still pretty rigid and we didn’t want any kinks. We used a 1km section and made certain to drape cable across bedrock, a wet and swampy stream environment, and a bushy section of tundra.  In snowy sections, the cable will sink into the snow a bit as the days warm and the black cable melts into the snow and soil,” Peterson says. “The next step is a lot of sit and wait.”

FIber optics cable must be tough to serve Alaska's bush villages. Peterson spooled fiber optics cable across a number of harsh environments.

Peterson will revisit the site periodically to see whether animals disturb the cable. A real-time camera will take snapshots of the weather that Peterson will use in his assessment of how cold temperatures (often more than -40C) might affect the cable’s physical properties as well as data transmission.

“If the cables stand the test of time, a lot of Alaska’s interior may someday see significant improvement in their Internet communication. Communications companies will be able to easily characterize line performance and send teams out via helicopter for repairs when needed,” explains Peterson. “Now, even places like Barrow rely on satellites for communications. Most scientists that have worked out of there will tell you that it’s easier to make a DVD of their data and send it to colleagues via air rather than to try to upload or download data in real time. Fiber optics technology would change that.”—Marcy Davis

Comments (0) Nov 28 2011

Halloween 2011 at Summit Station, Greenland

On the floor, from left: Sonja Wolter, Ben Toth, and Brad Halter. Next level up on the couches from the left: Christina Hammock, Tommy Cox, Lance Roth, Ken Keenan, Russ Howes, Ed Stockard, Katrine Gorham and Tracy Sheeley. Standing from the left: Shannon Coykendall and Ben Buchwald.

The team halted turnover activities temporarily last night at Summit Station to celebrate Halloween, and as the pictures attest, folks were clearly in the mood for a costume party. “We dined on a lovely Halloween themed-meal, complete with pumpkin ghoulash and mashed potatoes with sculpted ghosts,” wrote Tracy Sheeley, Summit manager of operations.  “Quite a celebration!”

Those who’ve enjoyed reports of optical phenomenon at Summit during the early winter phase might note that CPS science technician Christina Hammock (far left) is dressed up as a sun dog.

“Everything is going smoothly for turnover,” Tracy wrote. “We got in one day late due to weather, but are moving through everything steadily.  Temps are chilly (-55F/-48C, windchill – 93F/-69C, as I type) with 16kt winds. Great group of people for both phases.”

CH2M HILL Polar Services operates Summit Station, near the highest point on Greenland’s ice sheet, for the U.S. National Science Foundation, which manages the station in cooperation with the Government of Greenland. Summit houses instruments that provide year-round, long-term measurements for monitoring and investigations of the Arctic environment.  The station is open by invitation to visiting scientists during the summer, and is accessible via ski-equipped airplane and tracked vehicle. During the winter period, which lasts from September through early April, the station is closed; but a team of five maintains the station and its ongoing experiments. CPS breaks this winter period into three, roughly 10-week phases, and conducts resupply and intense training activities during staff turnover between each period.

“If all goes to plan, we will send Phase I out on Saturday and Russ (Howes, CPS’ Greenland maintenance manager) and I out on Sunday.” wrote Tracy. Good luck to the incoming Phase II team, and thanks and warm wishes–literally–to the outgoing Phase I team.–Kip Rithner

Comments (0) Nov 01 2011

NSF Awards Arctic Research Support and Logistics Contract to CH2M HILL Polar Services

We are as thrilled and energized as this Greenlandic Husky pup! Photo: Ed Stockard

CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS) is quite pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a contract to CH2M HILL Constructors, Inc., of Englewood, Colorado on 28 September 2011 to provide research support and logistics services for NSF-sponsored research in the Arctic.

Since 1999 CH2M HILL has teamed with subcontractors Polar Field Services and SRI International to form CH2M HILL Polar Services, or CPS.  A new partner—Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation’s UMIAQ—will join the CPS team for the contract period beginning in October 2011.

CPS will deliver pre-proposal field work estimates, risk assessments, logistics and operational plans, transportation, communications, safety training, telemedicine, engineering, design and construction, maintenance, field camp operations and personnel to groups working in the Arctic.

New team member UMIAQ is a subsidiary of Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC), the Barrow village corporation established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. UMIAQ will provide local support to researchers working in Barrow, Alaska and surrounding communities, including operation of UIC-owned facilities and the Barrow Environmental Observatory. UMIAQ understands the politics, culture, land use, regulations, and engineering and design conditions in arctic and subarctic Alaska and provides reliable local knowledge and expertise.

Visit the CPS website (http://www.polar.ch2m.com/ ) for more information about the company’s services.

For more information about the NSF arctic research program, visit http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=ARC.

Contact:

Mike McKibben, CH2M HILL Polar Services

303.885.4644, mike.mckibben@ch2m.com

CPS Program Manager

Comments (0) Oct 14 2011

Green Sky Over Greenland

September 27, 2011: Aurora and star trails over Summit Station, Greenland. Photo: Ed Stockard. Originally published on Spaceweather.com

Several folks sent a link to Spaceweather.com today because another image by Ed Stockard (long-time colleague and frequent field notes contributor) was featured on the site. Ed shot the image, republished above, earlier this week at Summit Station during a period of intense solar wind activity.

This image got me to thinking about the man behind the curtain. How’d he do that?

Ed says he used a Photoshop program that digitally “stacked” a group of photos into one image. He tinkered with the results, adjusting “contrast, levels, size, sharpening,” and so on.

“It did turn out pretty good,” Ed writes from Summit Station. “It was 133 photos of several hundred in a time-lapse I made that night. The time-lapse is really cool (in my opinion) but it is so large I can’t share that over the Internet. . . . I’ve done a few time-lapse, one last night at -40, the camera and timer survived but I’ve also been working on that aspect too—little tricks to keep batteries alive and equipment warm, etc. Fun stuff that keeps me out of trouble!”

Ed and four others are currently at Summit Station, up on the Greenland ice sheet, ushering the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research station into the winter period.

Spaceweather.com says that Earth’s magnetic field (which responds to the charged particles emitted by the sun) will remain “unsettled” for the next few days. Keep that camera warm, Ed!—Kip Rithner

Comments (1) Sep 30 2011

In an image taken with a 360-degree-view fisheye lens, Ed Stockard stands observing a full-sky show, a circular halo called a parhelic circle along with 22 degree and 46 degree halos. Also present: a circumzenithal arc, an upper tangent arc, and a faint Parry arc. Visit http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halosim.htm and view the frequent and infrequent links on the left. Can you find them all? Photo: Ed Stockard

Marko Riikonen visited South Pole in 1998-1999 to film and study the optical effects of ice crystals in the atmosphere, which manifest visibly as halos across the sky. He was part of a team on an NSF grant led by Walter Tape, a mathematics professor from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. On January 11th, 1999, the team hit the optical jackpot. An exceptionally bright halo display, which included several frequent and rare halos, appeared in the sky. Marko recalled that it lasted almost an hour—an unusually long time for such a magnificent display—and a good number of station folks came out to watch it. He termed the display an “exhausting experience.”

Riikonen had had his share of discovery prior to his trip to the South Pole; in Chile he witnessed the so-called Lascar display which had at least five new halos, and is still unexplained. Says Marko, “We tried to explain it with cubic ice, but that’s not the answer.”

Meanwhile, in 1999, a few months after Riikonen left South Pole, I found myself heading to Summit Station, Greenland, for the first time. In mid-March four of us went to open the research site after a winter hiatus.  Although I had seen some polar halos in Antarctica, I was totally unprepared for what I saw one day while grooming the skiway.

From Oct 15th 2001: Skiway flags salute a nice 22 deg halo with a sunvex parry on top. The wider “v” below is the upper tangent arc. Completing the photo is the partial parhelic circle and associated parhelion or sun dogs. A very faint helic arc is visible to the right. Photo: Ed Stockard

Looking out from the Tucker I saw two halos around the sun and a variety of arcs that I had not a clue about. I stopped the machine and got out. Looking around I could see what I know now is called a parhelic circle encompassing the sky. Literally, turning around in 360 degrees I could see this halo. I started talking to myself. I said words I can’t repeat in this article!

I climbed back in the Tucker but could only drive a short distance before I had to stop, get out and repeat to myself the words of absolute amazement. I didn’t know at the time how the arcs and halos formed. I don’t remember all of the individual sights I saw but that day stuck in my mind.

Fast forward, this time 12 years, to 2011 and I am now spending August to November for the second consecutive year here at Summit. I have spent quite a few years working for PFS/CPS in Kangerlussuaq, which is the logistics hub for the U.S. National Science Foundation’s research program in Greenland. I’ve been a frequent contributor to this blog from my photographic work there. Kanger, as we call it, has remarkable auroras but I’ve rarely seen halos in Kanger like those on top of the ice sheet at Summit.

A typical but beautiful 22 deg halo marks the first phase of 2011-2012 winter operations at Summit Station. Photo: Ed Stockard

A 22 deg halo with faint parahelion or sun dogs. Marko suggested I use a sun blocker, which I made from the lid of a 5-gallon bucket on a 12-ft piece of old bamboo. The blocker keeps the photos from washing out and being over-exposed. Photo: Ed Stockard

Marko Riikonen found my photos in 2010, after they showed up on Atoptics.co.uk and on my flickr.com site. He picked one to include in his new book on halos. He has mentored me in optical photography through this current phase here at Summit, often emailing with obvious enthusiasm. It has been a delight and inspiration having his insight and tips on photographs, as well as his explanations of the phenomena I’m witnessing and documenting.

Halos and arcs can be seen worldwide, but the varied and rare phenomena mostly occur at the higher latitudes.  In some remote places in the Arctic and Antarctic, scientists have to rely on the eyes (and cameras) of others. My work here at Summit Station during the early arctic winter has allowed me a unique vantage point to photograph atmospheric optics in detail, for enthusiasts and scientists such as Riikonen to gather more knowledge about them.

Halos can occur by moonlight too. Here, a fairly complex 2010 lunar halo display. Present and easily visible are the 22 deg halo, parahelic circle, parahelion or moon dogs in this case, the upper tangent arc and parry arc along with a lower tangent arc on the horizon. Photo: Ed Stockard

As this correspondence has developed Riikonens’ comments have introduced me to a new vocabulary: Wegener, Schulthess and Kern arcs; Tape infralateral arcs; and all kinds of halos. Riikonen says, “When the temps fall below -30 C, you probably will get some odd radius displays, like last year.” He also says my photos have advanced the field a bit: “The Greenland ice cap halo skies have been a question mark until your photos started coming along. You have already written you name in the halo history.”

Cool.

Riikonen himself is well embedded in halo history, living in Finland in an area that often sees halos. On the night of December 7 /8 2008 in Rovaniemi, Finland, five new halos were revealed. “It was a great night. The display was created with [a] spotlight in diamond dust. The diamond dust was so thick that the moon did not shine through, so the only possibility to see halos was to use the spotlight. The cystals were huge. You could look at them with [the] naked eye. I had never seen a high-quality diamond dust like that.”

Riikonen’s travels in search of halos have taken him to Resolute Bay in Canada and “the pole of cold” in Oymyakon, Siberia.  At Oymyakon, in 1997, the optics were found to be rather typical. In his words, “We went to look for halos in the extremely low temps. Well, they were nothing special. When it gets too cold, it is mostly just 22 halo.”

I asked Marko about climate change and the effects it may have on these optical elights. He answered, “The high cloud halos in Finland have gotten markedly poorer soon after we entered new millenium. We used to have a so-called ‘halo spring’ in April-May during which numerous good, high-cloud displays were observed, but now there has been no halo spring for almost a decade. The Finns have been observing halos since the beginning of [the] 1980′s, so it is three decades of data now. That is of course way too small of a sample to say that climate change is responsible for the better quality high-cloud displays famine. Maybe the first two decades were exceptionally high-quality and now we are back to normal. Or maybe that was the norm and due to the climate change high-cloud halos have become poor.”

The above links and the halos mentioned are only a partial list of what Riikonen has seen. Marko hopes others will also photograph the world’s wonderful sky and provide shots of little-seen and possibly never-photographed optics. To all in the Arctic, Antarctic and around the globe:  Keep the camera ready. . . Jot down a few facts with the photos—temperature, clouds and winds may help.  Share in Marko’s enthusiasm and put forth some good data with remarkable photos. You might even hit that optical jackpot.—Ed Stockard

Comments (0) Sep 29 2011

Christie Haupert is all smiles 20 steps from the Equinox marathon finish line. Her good friend, Chad, cheers her on from his borrowed bike. Photo: Dana Moudra-Truffer

Last weekend a group of Polar Field Services/CPS staff gathered to watch the Equinox marathon on a crisp and burnished fall Saturday in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Equinox begins and ends at the University of Alaska, and is famous for its brutal course. For the second year in a row, colleague Christie Haupert was among the entrants (Cody Johnson was on a river trip—more on that in another post).  When he saw her sprinting toward the finish line, Marin Kuizenga’s boy, Matteo, 6, said, “Wow, that’s someone who could teach me running.” True dat,‘Teo.

Here’s what Christie said about her run.

I finished in 3:58 (same time as last year).  I’m actually not too sure how I feel about the run. Despite the same finish time as last year, I had many more highs and lows this year during the race, a true testament to how the same 26.2 miles can never be the same. . . . The Equinox Marathon is a very special race for Fairbanksans. So many friends and neighbors not only support but partake. The entire event is spent running alongside friends and at every mile my name is called out in encouragement. The marathon is truly a special event—so many people doing it for so many different reasons. The energy is incredible and the Equinox Marathon (being one of the most grueling and challenging around) stands out above many.

I think the best story of the day wasn’t what I went through, but rather what my friend supporting me experienced. My friend Chad, who happens to work for the Toolik Field Station, agreed to meet me at pre-determined locations along the course to feed and water me. He was going to ride his bike. Our first meeting spot was to be four miles into the race…but when I went by (only a minute faster than I expected to be), Chad was nowhere to be seen. I worried he was late and this was going to set in motion a complete failure of my support. Four miles later, I found Chad waiting for me, only on a different bike. As he biked along for the next quarter mile he gave me the short version of his previous hour – charged by a moose, flat tire, traded bike, made it in time to meet me at mile 8. Chad was there for me the rest of the race and I really enjoyed looking forward to seeing him and getting the food and water I needed. Post race, over a celebratory beer, I learned that upon leaving the start, Chad encountered a cow moose on the trail, with two calves. The moose stood her ground, despite his attempt to charge her while making noise. He decided to take an alternate route and quickly noticed that his rear tire was going flat. The only way to meet me was to get another bike. He was running so late by that point, he had to put the bike in the van he had driven [from Toolik] and drive the bike to the 8-mile spot. Resourceful!

Congratulations to our super girl for finishing first in her division.

Christie Haupert, spring 2011. Photo: Kip Rithner

Comments (0) Sep 22 2011