The snow is melting in Barrow and the hydrology team has
been working hard to characterize the changes in the snow pack and patterns of
inundation in the lead-up to runoff generation on the tundra. Water is flowing
in the larger drainages around the Barrow Environmental Observatory. The
troughs between polygons and the polygon centers themselves at the NGEE
intensive monitoring site are full of standing water and slushy snow, with
barely discernible runoff velocity. That is expected to change this weekend
with higher temperatures.
Over the last two weeks Larry, Hiroki and Patrick (UAF)
worked hard to make sure major runoff troughs were cleared of snow and snowpack
“snow water equivalent “, SWE, data were collected in preparation for runoff.
This week was a handoff of work duties to new research crews from LANL and UAF.
Garrett, Lily and Marvin (LANL) began the week shoveling runoff troughs at
sites A and B. Yesterday Garrett and Cathy (LANL) practiced using the flowmate
velocity probe in low flow conditions in snow-banked troughs at sites A, B and
C and collected water samples for isotope work.
We said goodbye to Hiroki (UAF) last night, but before he
left he trained Marvin to perform the snow surveys. New student Andy (UAF) trained
new student Lily (LANL) in the programing, installation and downloading of
water level probes. Now we are ready to capture the runoff event once the
temperature rises.
The site characterization team, John and Craig (LBNL)
joined forces with Alex from UAF to take cores in the region of the proposed
deep unfrozen saline layer. Yesterday they found the layer and last night the
whole crew celebrated with a spicy taco dinner prepared by Garrett and Lily!
