Summit Station Turnover Update

Big House, Summit Station, Greenland

We are very pleased to write that a second Twin Otter flight, delayed for several days due to weather, flew to Summit Station today, picked up its passengers, and departed for Iceland. The Phase III staff is now home alone for the next two months. No slapstick violence though, okay guys?

Comments (0) Feb 16 2012

High winds drift snow along the back of a large building, the Science and Operations Barn, at Summit Station, Greenland. Photo: Luke Nordby

For the second consecutive day, flight operations have been cancelled for Summit Station today due to local high winds and reduced visibility. While the Twin Otter continues to wait in Kangerlussuaq, CPS Summit operations and science project managers, Tracy Sheeley and Katrine Gorham respectively, will linger with the Phase III team for another day. Since the team that tended the research station from November through early February flew out over the weekend, the pair is content to drift like the snow. Waiting for weather is existential, a beat in the rhythm of polar work, and they each have plenty they can do from Summit.

Comments (0) Feb 14 2012

One down, one to go

A quick stop on the roof of the world to drop off the last bit of science cargo, pick up the outgoing Summit staff and refuel the Twin Otter, and the Norlandair crew headed to Kangerlussuaq. Photo: Katrine Gorham

The first of two ‘take out’ flights departed Summit Station for Kangerlussuaq on Saturday, carrying the five-person, November-to-February winter crew with it. A second flight scheduled for today was canceled due to weather in Kangerlussuaq. “There is a big front moving in from the south, and the pilots are concerned about icing conditions,” wrote Tracy Sheeley, CPS operations manager for the station. As a result of the cancellation, Tracy and Katrine Gorham, our science projects manager, remain at Summit, the NSF-funded research station with our new five-person staff.

We’re delighted that our winter crew got out on time, and will keep you posted on the take-out. Stay tuned!–Kip Rithner

If you're happy and you know it, pose for a picture! Many thanks to our Phase II Summit winter crew, which is off to warmer climes and lower latitides. Photo: Katrine Gorham

Comments (0) Feb 12 2012

A Norland Air Twin Otter arrives somewhere cold where light is tinged with pearly dawn. Photo: Kalli Eiriks http://www.norlandair.is/en/home

A Norland Air Twin Otter arrived at Summit Station around noon today (Summit time) after a one-day delay due to weather. This completes the put-in of people and supplies needed to prepare a new five-person team to operate the station from mid-February until mid-April.

“We are orienting and acclimating,” Tracy Sheeley (Summit operations manager) wrote in an email a little while ago.  “Happy to have the group all together at last…we had Team Iceland, Team Kanger, and now -  TEAM SUMMIT!”

The group will be busy with transition activities for the next week. To learn more about some of these, read this post:

http://www.polarfield.com/blog/summit-turnover/

Comments (0) Feb 04 2012

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

A sumptuous feast, including Beef Wellington, marks the end of Phase II and the beginning of Phase III winter operations at Summit. Clockwise from front left: Katrine Gorham, Tracy Sheeley, Ben Castellani, Lance Roth (in the knit cap), Phil Austin, Christy Schultz, Tommy Cox (or Tommy's hair anyway), Ben Buchwald, and Shannon Coykendall. Photo: Ben Toth

A Norland Air Twin Otter plane on skis landed at Summit Station today, delivering staff, materials, and fresh fruit and vegetables. A staff of five, isolated at the station since early November, welcomed the advance team to the remote research outpost on Greenland’s icesheet.  It’s “a full Big House,” commented station manager Ben Toth, referring to Summit Station’s iconic main building. “It’s nice to have some new faces around.”

Let the transition begin! This Norland Air Twin Otter brought Summit staff (and freshies!) to the station. Photo: Ben Toth

The Twin Otter paused only long enough to deliver passengers and cargo before flying on to Kangerlussuaq on Greenland’s west coast. Additional CPS staff are waiting there to assist with Summit’s transition and/or staff the station until it opens for the summer research period in April. Weather permitting, the Twin Otter will fly this team to Summit tomorrow before flying back to Iceland.

Summit Station is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation in cooperation with the Government of Greenland. It is managed by CH2M HILL Polar Services.–Kip Rithner

Comments (0) Feb 02 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

Yukimarimo. Photo: Shannon Coykendall

A late December bedecking of Yukimarimo around Summit Station seemed like “a present befitting the season,” wrote Ben Toth, whose team is keeping the NSF-funded research station and its ongoing experiments running through mid-winter.

“These little snowballs occur when fine frost layers form on the snow surface at cold air temperatures,” Ben explained. “These balls form due to weak wind conditions and become mobile, like little tumbleweeds across the surface, collecting in pockets sculpted by drift or in footprints.”

Ben says the team of five “finished off the year with a productive week sandwiched between the two holidays. Christmas Sunday was celebrated with the requisite Christmas tunes, a lit tree, decorations, and a Kiwi-style meal of “good tucker.” Rack of lamb and pavlova was on the menu as was roasted squash (the very last) and amazing maple syrup pies.

“New Year’s Eve was celebrated [with] a plethora of appetizers. . . . The tapas-themed meal segued into a comfortable evening counting down to 2012. All hands made it to midnight but retired shortly thereafter, rising somewhat later than usual on New Year’s Day to spectacular light and clear weather bringing in the new year.”

For more on Yukimarimo, visit http://homepage3.nifty.com/takaokameda/index.html)

Tumbled snow or Yukimarimo at Summit Station, Greenland. Photo: Shannon Coykendall

Comments (1) Jan 02 2012

Summit Station Images Featured on Atmospheric Optics

Greenland Glory. Photo: Ed Stockard

The above photo, and the one just below, have been featured recently as the Optics Photo of the Day on the Atmospheric Optics website (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/). Ed Stockard shot both images at Summit Station on Greenland’s ice sheet, where he is working this fall.

The Atmospheric Optics website is devoted to explaining and exploring the visual results of light playing on particles in the air–ash, dust, and in Ed’s case, ice. The rainbow-colored rings encircling the building form a “glory,” explains website curator Les Crowley, the result of “sunlight diffracted almost directly back along its path by very small fog droplets.” Click the picture for a better view. Glory indeed.

Visit the Atmospheric Optics website to learn more about optical effects in the atmosphere, and to find out when, how, and where you might be able to see some in person.

A short description of the science behind the optical effect accompanies each image. You may also visit Ed Stockard’s flickr page, which he is updating with more lovely images from Summit (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coastaleddy/ ).–Kip Rithner

Greenland Halos. Photo: Ed Stockard

Comments (0) Sep 12 2011

The construction team at Summit Station, Greenland, has been super busy over the last couple weeks with preparations in anticipation of the incoming science groups. One of the big projects has been relocation of the Mobile Science Facility (MSF) which currently houses the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ICECAPS project (PI, Von Walden, U Idaho). The construction team and heavy equipment operators had to excavate the structure, free the iced in skis, and drag it to its new location about 80 meters away. This move will occur annually to minimize drifting and keep the structure above the snow surface. The researchers were on site to ensure that all the instrumentation was properly shut down, secured, and powered up at the new location. 

Here are a few pictures of the process (all courtesy of Ryan Neely)–Katrine Gorham, PFS/CPS 

Excavating the MSF which was partially buried by drifting snow after a winter of high winds and stormy conditions.

Hitching up the MSF to drag it to its new location.

ICECAPS research team working on instruments inside the MSF to secure them for the move.

The Mobile Science Facility is mobile!

Done! The MSF is now seated at its new location. The next move will happen in 2012.

Comments (0) May 04 2011