Plenty of Time to Think

A 16 hour plane trip to Barrow, including layovers in Chicago, Anchorage, and Fairbanks, gives a scientist plenty of time to read and think. These are two of the hardest things to do in the office. I browsed my way through a stack of scientific journals and then turned my attention to a series of individual articles that I printed off prior to leaving the office yesterday evening. Other passengers around me had similar ways of passing the time; watching videos, reading, listening to music, and solving various types of word games and puzzles.

Passengers on airplanes seem to especially enjoy the challenge of solving Sodoku puzzles. My wife, Denise, can spend hours filling in these puzzles with a dizzying array of numbers 1 thru 9. She tells me that erasing is not allowed. It may take 10 to 15 minutes of serious concentration, but she more often than not declares victory, turns the page, and starts a new puzzle. I congratulate her and then usually go back to reading or thinking; sometimes I think with my eyes closed. Denise questions my true motives especially when thinking is accompanied by occasional snoring. I tell her that being a scientist is hard work!

Several hours into my flight from Chicago to Anchorage, I ran out of reading material and began rummaging through my backpack for other ways to occupy my time. In January, I received a package from the North Slope Borough School District and the Fred Ipalook Elementary School. That package contained an "ABC Book About Our Home in Barrow" that had been written and illustrated by students from Miss Jenn Wallace's third grade class. I had given a field tour to this class last September and enjoyed talking to them about climate and ecosystems around the world. I stayed in touch with this class over the winter. You can learn a lot about a town or village, like Barrow, through the eyes of its children.

Each page in this book contains a caption and picture for every letter in the alphabet. My understanding is that each student was assigned a letter and was thus responsible for that page of the book. They are obviously a creative group of students. The pages touch on everything from A as in "Arctic" fox which can be found on the tundra to Z as in the Arctic Ocean "zone" in which we live. In between comes N as in "nanuqs", a word from the native Inupiat language that refers to the polar bears that inhabit this region. A few other pages along with drawings from the kids are shown below.

Our team has a busy two weeks in Barrow. It would nice, however, to stop in and see this class again. I learned from their teacher that last week was the annual Science Fair at the Fred Ipalook Elementary School. I'd like to hear about some of the student projects. Maybe there is a budding scientist in the class?

Finally, there will be six of us this week in Barrow; Larry Hinzman (UAF) and Cathy Wilson (LANL) are already in Barrow now, having left Fairbanks earlier this morning. Anna Liljedahl and others from UAF, plus Craig Ulrich (LBNL) will arrive with me tonight. Larry tells me that, thanks to UMIAQ and to some strategic pre-trip planning, things are in place for a quick start when we begin our field work tomorrow.

Tundra Time

A quick check of the Weather Channel app on my BlackBerry shows a seasonally warm and sunny forecast today for Knoxville, TN. Temperatures near 90F with just enough humidity to remind us that summer is around the corner for east Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains.

That same Weather Channel app informs me that the forecast at my destination of Barrow, Alaska is 80F colder than Knoxville; and light snow currently falls across the North Slope. Sounds like it should be another great week as our NGEE Arctic team travels 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle!

If you are reading this blog for the first time, let me point out that the NGEE Arctic project is focused on better understanding high-latitude ecosystems for the purpose of improving climate prediction. Our team consists of scientists from across a range of disciplines and organizations. Participants in the NGEE Arctic project are from four of the Department of Energy national laboratories (ORNL, LANL, LBNL, and BNL) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The size and diversity of our team allows us to study and model complex surface and subsurface interactions that drive critical climate feedbacks in tundra ecosystems.

The scientific and technical breadth of our team gives us a unique capability to conduct integrated research in these complex, globally-important and sensitive ecosystems. Field and laboratory research in places like Barrow provides data that can then be used to develop and test models that will, in turn, enhance prediction of future climate. We have ecologists, hydrologists, geophysicists and others working with modelers to tackle this challenge.

Beginning today, various scientists involved in the NGEE Arctic project will be in Barrow until May 16th. Field activities will include laying out trail mat within sensitive areas of our research plots; installation of water sampling wells; and geophysical surveys. Other activities will prepare us for additional work in Barrow later in the summer. There will be plenty to keep our team busy in the next two weeks! UMIAQ will provide logistical support for our team just as they have during previous trips this year. Daily postings to our NGEE Arctic blog will highlight our many activities and provide a glimpse of our project as we conduct field research in the remote and interesting landscapes of the Arctic.

Leaf Area

We just finished servicing, calibrating and packing the LI-COR LI-3100C Area Meter for use in Barrow. Since the leaves on Arctic plants are considerably smaller than the leaves we usually measure we had to switch out the camera lens and sample guides to configure the instrument for a higher (0.1mm²) resolution.  Due to the remote location we have attempted to anticipate any maintenance issues and have included spare parts and a small tool kit.  The instrument will be a key part of the Vegetation Dynamics work as many of the parameters and processes we seek to understand need to be related to leaf area, including many key model inputs.

Fair Weather in Fairbanks

After a week in Barrow, where the temperatures dipped to below zero and wind chills approached -25F, we were greeted with 50F temperatures upon our arrival in Fairbanks. Alaska is certainly a region of contrasts, especially in the spring when temperatures can vary so widely from the north to the south.

Today would be the last of our trip to Alaska and we had two goals to achieve. The first one was to pick up 300 pounds of permafrost samples at the airport and transfer them to FedEx for shipment back to ORNL. This proved to be rather straightforward exercise and within 90 minutes we had cores packed into insulated coolers. David had discussed protocols for shipping before leaving so everything went very smoothly. With any luck, the cores will arrive at ORNL before we do on Tuesday afternoon.
After a quick lunch, our second goal was to meet with Jon Holmgren, the fellow who makes the SIPRE coring device we used in Barrow. While the SIPRE performed exceedingly well and provided us with over 25 quality cores, it did suffer noticeable wear after 4 days of hard use in literally rock-hard frozen permafrost. Jon confirmed, as expected, that it would need repair if we were to use it again. He commented, however, that the number of cores we obtained in a relatively short period of time on the North Slope was impressive even if we did damage the device in the process.

Fortunately, Jon was more than willing to share experiences that he had in drilling cores and we left his shop just north of Fairbanks feeling like we had performed admirably in our first permafrost sampling trip to Barrow. We still have a lot to learn, but at least in this area of arctic science we were no longer rookies.

So, in closing, we had a productive trip to Barrow. During these trips we will collect field and laboratory data that will facilitate our ultimate goal of improved climate prediction by better understanding the surface and subsurface interactions that occur in these sensitive and globally important ecosystems. This information will, in time, be used to better represent processes that will lead to reduced uncertainty and improved model prediction of climate.

Thanks for reading our daily blogs this week, we appreciate your interest in our research. Our team would like to acknowledge logistical support from UMIAQ and financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program. Due to the hard work of many, we will return to Barrow in early- to mid-May at which time the NGEE Arctic Blog will return as well. Until then be safe...

A day to relax...not likely.

Today was originally supposed to be a day when we wrapped up a few remaining tasks on the tundra, packed samples for shipment back to our respective laboratories, and generally organized ourselves as we readied to leave Barrow later this evening. That would have been a productive and enjoyable day, but it turned out to be a little more complicated.

David and SungJin stayed behind this morning as the rest of us departed Hut 163 bright and early for our field site. There was heavy fog and temperatures hovered right at zero degrees F. Permafrost samples that we had collected for biogeochemical analysis were organized by David and SungJin, then packed in coolers for shipment to Fairbanks. The plan was to pick those up at the airport and further prepare them on Monday for shipment to ORNL and LBNL. David was able to arrange for shipment with Alaska Air Cargo and those samples were later placed on an Alaska Airlines 737-400 Combi destined for Fairbanks.


While David and SungJin were handling the permafrost samples, the rest of us were on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) installing survey points. These points would be used in the future to accurately map not only latitude and longitude, but also the subtle but important variation in elevation across this Arctic landscape. Slight variation in topography make big differences in how water flows across the land surface and, in turn, how vegetation dynamics and carbon emissions respond to changes in soil water distribution.



Although we had only 8 of these survey points to install, it would take almost an hour to drill the hole and insert the 10 foot piece of metal rebar. Our biggest problem was the difficulty of drilling into permafrost. Earlier in the week, we used the drill rig and a SIPRE coring device to collect soil samples. These samples, however, were only 3 feet in length. For the survey points we needed to drill smaller diameter holes to a depth of almost 10 feet. This proved tedious and extremely time-consuming. We had been told that it would be easy to get augers stuck in permafrost as there is a tendency to actually freeze augers in place. This proved true and Ken Lowe, as operator of the drill rig, had to exercise considerable care to prevent this from happening. We were able to place the 8 survey points, but it took much of the day to do so. We will return later in the year and survey these points with UMIAQ staff from their Barrow Survey office.

While installing the last survey point a call from David reminded us that our plane departed Barrow in just a little more than 2 hours. We finished drilling the hole, installed the metal rebar, and began making our way off the BEO. Back at the UMIAQ warehouse, people packed supplies and equipment into storage for our next trip to Barrow in May. A quick shower and we were off to the airport where we checked in with time to spare for dinner at Arctic Pizza just down the street. It turns out that dinner is usually the best meal of the day when working in Barrow as it is a good time to not only eat, but discuss the days activities and plan for tomorrow.

Colleague from Korea and More...

Most of my postings this week have focused on participates involved and activities related to the NGEE Arctic project. I should mention, however, that we hope to engage a range of national and international participants in our science. Although we are working now in Alaska, ultimately we will want to make statements about the fate and function of the Arctic in a changing climate. This will take an effort that involves a much larger community from around the world.

It was along these lines that we were joined this week by SungJin Nam, a researcher from Korea. SungJin contacted our team several months ago and asked if he could join us to learn more about sampling permafrost in the Arctic. SungJin works at the Korea Polar Research Institute where he has gained the majority of his expertise working in Antarctica. This week was his opportunity to see how permafrost cores could be taken using a small drill rig and the SIPRE coring device. SungJin hopes to use similar approaches as he and others at the polar institute expand to include research sites in Alaska and elsewhere in the Pan-Arctic.

SungJin will travel to Fairbanks tomorrow for a few days and then onto Nome where he currently has an established research site. In appreciation for adding him to our team this week, SungJin presented us with pens embossed with his research organization logo and topped in the shape of a penguin. Science allows ample opportunities to meet new people and make new friends. It's a fun part of our job. I have a grandson, James, who will enjoy one of these pens when I get home.


Most of day was spent locating and establishing survey benchmarks in and around our research site. These will be useful as we begin to measure surface topography in an area that encompasses thaw lakes, drained thaw lake basins, and polygonal ground. We are using these landscape features to guide both our measurements and models.

Craig spent much of the afternoon using his TOPCON system to located sites where we will establish survey benchmarks. As I mentioned yesterday, this system provides very accurate location of points that we will later use for elevation measurements in the surrounding landscape.



David took the opportunity today to organize all his permafrost cores for shipment back to ORNL and LBNL. All samples were assigned unique plot and sample identifiers in the field and these were then linked to bar codes. Although it will be a challenge, we want to maintain close tracking and accountability of samples taken in the NGEE Arctic project. This applies not only to permafrost samples, but other field and laboratory plant, soil, and water samples we might take in the coming years. Our goal will be to complement our measurements and models with a data management system that will facilitate data integration across the project. This will be an important capability that we will use to ensure we achieve our project goals.

The spring festival continued throughout the day. Unfortunately, we were working on the tundra and missed all the activities. UMIAQ staff told us it was a great day for the community. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to enjoy some of the festivities. The finals of the snow machine races are Sunday at 3:00pm and I'd like to see that if we have time...

Kudos to My Colleagues

Sometimes one forgets that good things happen thanks to the hard work of those around you. Today the entire team had a long, cold day on the tundra, but nonetheless achieved considerable success.

Like yesterday, we dedicated a lot of time to collecting permafrost samples. This is not a job for one person, but instead takes a collective effort to operate the drill rig; insert and extract the SIPRE coring device; collect ancillary data on hole depth; and then bar code and log information in your field notebook. David Graham managed this process well in what eventually involved the assistance of six other people.

All of these activities were especially challenging because of wind and colder temperatures. It was not necessarily cold by Arctic standards, but cold enough to make working difficult. Larry had brought along a simple hand-held device that measures wind speed. He pull this out several times today and watched as wind speeds rose from 10 to 15 to eventually 25 MPH. Temperatures fell throughout the day and the wind chill factor this afternoon dipped to minus 20 F. Thankfully the sun was out and the working conditions did not get too bad.


Throughout the day, we just kept getting quality permafrost cores. Ken Lowe was a big help because of his experience with operating a drill rig. Ken gained this experience working on sites at ORNL and probably never dreamed those same skills would make him a prime asset for the NGEE Arctic project. Craig Ulrich, from LBNL, was also an asset as he located each of the sample locations with great precision. We had obtained some high-resolution imagery of our site from a colleague at the University of Texas, El Paso and using those images, Craig was able to position our sampling points to within a foot or two. Pretty amazing given that the tundra was covered by anywhere for two to maybe three feet of snow.

Our work will continue through the weekend. The Barrow community, however, is having their annual spring festival this weekend. It is called "Piuraagiaqta" and will include everything from a scavenger hunt to snow machine races to a parade that will wind it's way through town. We have been invited by several UMIAQ staff to attend and may be finished with work Saturday in time for the "Nigliq" or the goose calling contest that begins at 5:00pm. And then there is live music later that night by the "Barrowtones". Not sure that either I or my colleagues can stay up that late after a long day in the field, but it does promise to be an exciting and interesting weekend!