6/7/16
More training today.
Fun things that happened today:
I pulled Elissa in a sled as I biked a fat tire bike to TAWO.
I road our new station fat tire bike the length of the airway and back (roundtrip 6.5miles). I make a lot of fun of the fat tire bikes when I see them back home, but they are really sweet here! You can just go off and bike almost anywhere b/c the snow is mostly solidified and the fat tires do well in the snow. In the very fresh snow or in drifts it's hard to bike, but these bikes can definitely bike on things that would be impossible in a normal bike
It was Robin's 32nd birthday tonight so they pulled out the costume box and we all got dressed up. Then they pulled out the whiskey and we watched bollywood music videos, which was pretty fun with this crowd
6/8/16
More training today. The excitement on base was that a group of 5 from Spain who are snow sailing across Greenland stopped in today for their first good meal in a long time. You should have seen their clothes and monster boots for staying warm.
A few days ago a snowmobile traverse that is crossing Greenland and taking lots of different snow measurements stopped by. They've been recouping, and the PI gave a science talk tonight. They went into great detail about all the measurements they're taking and how it goes into their models. Very fascinating. A lot of the instruments they have are so cool. I wish people who are climate deniers could come up and see the hardwork and science involved in all of this. Some of my duties up here are actually to collect data that relates to climate change, carbon cycling, and ozone. So far I can tell you I have not been bribed by Obama!
His talk, as in most climate talk, is scary. As their models get better and better with more data and more sophisticated equipment we keep getting a better picture. Thule (a research base in northern greenland) where these guys had done a lot of work has warmed 9F in the last 50 years, of which 3 degrees of that can be attributed to man-made climate change. The latest models show that the sea level will rise from 2-5 feet by 2100. But what is scariest they mention is that most people don't calculate past 2100. Most of that melt is caused by the small inland and mountain glaciers. But once Greenland and Antarctica really start to go there will be an incredible rise in sea level. And once they start to go, they will go quickly. I'm sitting on 11,000 feet of ice right now (same with the south pole of antarctica) so just imagine how much water that is. The presenter tonight told us that 60 billion tons of ice melted on the western side of greenland just this past year (to repeat, ONLY the western side of greenland, not the entire island). To put that in perspective that is the equivalent of 120 african elephants running into the ocean PER SECOND for a year.
We had another science talk at one of the buildings that uses LIDAR (a type of laser), Sodar, and other things to look at the atmosphere. For this one, since a good portion was outside, we were asked to bring a mug and my boss, Matt, provided us all with a pour of fancy whiskey to stay warm
More training today.
Fun things that happened today:
I pulled Elissa in a sled as I biked a fat tire bike to TAWO.
I road our new station fat tire bike the length of the airway and back (roundtrip 6.5miles). I make a lot of fun of the fat tire bikes when I see them back home, but they are really sweet here! You can just go off and bike almost anywhere b/c the snow is mostly solidified and the fat tires do well in the snow. In the very fresh snow or in drifts it's hard to bike, but these bikes can definitely bike on things that would be impossible in a normal bike
It was Robin's 32nd birthday tonight so they pulled out the costume box and we all got dressed up. Then they pulled out the whiskey and we watched bollywood music videos, which was pretty fun with this crowd
6/8/16
More training today. The excitement on base was that a group of 5 from Spain who are snow sailing across Greenland stopped in today for their first good meal in a long time. You should have seen their clothes and monster boots for staying warm.
A few days ago a snowmobile traverse that is crossing Greenland and taking lots of different snow measurements stopped by. They've been recouping, and the PI gave a science talk tonight. They went into great detail about all the measurements they're taking and how it goes into their models. Very fascinating. A lot of the instruments they have are so cool. I wish people who are climate deniers could come up and see the hardwork and science involved in all of this. Some of my duties up here are actually to collect data that relates to climate change, carbon cycling, and ozone. So far I can tell you I have not been bribed by Obama!
His talk, as in most climate talk, is scary. As their models get better and better with more data and more sophisticated equipment we keep getting a better picture. Thule (a research base in northern greenland) where these guys had done a lot of work has warmed 9F in the last 50 years, of which 3 degrees of that can be attributed to man-made climate change. The latest models show that the sea level will rise from 2-5 feet by 2100. But what is scariest they mention is that most people don't calculate past 2100. Most of that melt is caused by the small inland and mountain glaciers. But once Greenland and Antarctica really start to go there will be an incredible rise in sea level. And once they start to go, they will go quickly. I'm sitting on 11,000 feet of ice right now (same with the south pole of antarctica) so just imagine how much water that is. The presenter tonight told us that 60 billion tons of ice melted on the western side of greenland just this past year (to repeat, ONLY the western side of greenland, not the entire island). To put that in perspective that is the equivalent of 120 african elephants running into the ocean PER SECOND for a year.
We had another science talk at one of the buildings that uses LIDAR (a type of laser), Sodar, and other things to look at the atmosphere. For this one, since a good portion was outside, we were asked to bring a mug and my boss, Matt, provided us all with a pour of fancy whiskey to stay warm
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| fat tire bike |
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| Elissa and Jason setting up gas samples to monitor the CO2 in the atmosphere here |
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| the inside of the big house. The cafeteria and hangout area |
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| the Reg Guy drawer |
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| Fat bike I used to pull by sled one of the CO2 measuring instruments |
3 comments:
The Reg guy drawer looks like trouble!
very similar to the Reg Guy cupboard back home!
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