Friday, April 25, 2014

NGEE Arctic Broadcasts “Live” from the Coastal Plain of Alaska…

Scientists working on the NGEE Arctic project have never been shy about outreach and communication when it comes to the exciting research that we are doing both in the field and laboratory. Over the last two years we have implemented a number of innovative approaches to informing people of the challenges we are tackling in the Arctic; we have a project web site, Facebook, Flickr, monthly “Science Talks”, and postings to our project blog. Today we took another step by broadcasting live from the tundra where we are working for the next couple of weeks. The Google Hangout was led by the Public Affairs Department at LBNL, and featured scientists working in Barrow and others in laboratories back in Berkeley, CA. Also joining us in this endeavor were students from Oakland, CA and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Craig Ulrich and I setup a laptop and video camera in the field and “went live” at 10:00pm. We were introduced by Dan Krotz from LBNL and then Craig and I talked about the NGEE Arctic project and about the geophysical and permafrost sampling tasks that our team are undertaking this week. Although we experienced a few technical glitches, everything went smoothly and the students seemed to enjoy seeing science in action. They asked some really great questions too! A special thanks to the students and teachers that made this a successful and learning experience.