What's happening
November 2009 - Stuck at Summit
Jacques has been up at Summit for a week, servicing and maintaining the equipment in the long cold twilight of Greenland's winter. The instruments have been working quite well so far, without unexpected problems. Jacques was supposed to return home today, but bad weather has kept him grounded. We hope we'll see him back in Boulder before too long.
August 2009 - Another field season!
We have received some good news--we have a year extension on our grant from the National Science Foundation. This means we will have an extra year at the Summit site to collect data and refine our atmospheric chemistry models. The extra time will help us generate improved models.
June 2009
Brie took this photo of the flux tower gleaming in Greenland sunlight.
Summer has come to the Arctic again, and it is easier for our team to visit and maintain the instruments on the flux tower at Summit. Temperatures are up to just below freezing.
May 2009
Sometimes you just have to experience things for yourself. Laurens checks out real-world atmospheric turbulence para-panting over the Alps close to Annecy, France.
This month we checked in with Laurens, who is working on the modeling components of the Ozone and Snow project. Laurens' challenge is to use climate and atmospheric chemistry models to help explain the data the team is finding at Summit, and that can predict air/snowpack interactions over larger scales and longer spans of time.
Field work tends to get all the glory outside of science. But as Laurens explains, modeling using data gained in the field can ultimately contribute more to our understanding of earth systems. "The models are important because they help us understand the functioning of the whole system, of which we can measure only a selection of parameters. The model can provide complementary information on those parameters that have not been measured, helping to 'close' the system. Another essential contribution of the model is showing how locally measured processes translate into relevance at larger scales. Improving the model with the observations allows us to extrapolate the simulations to the regional, continental or even global scale for current conditions but also for future climate and global change. This will prove how important these processes are for the Earth system."
Laurens is starting to tinker with a model he has been using to measure atmospheric chemistry over tropical forests, adapting it to snow-covered surfaces by changing the sources and sinks. This process is just beginning, but it seems promising and Laurens thinks he has the right framework in place.
He is also working with a climate model, which is very challenging given the data we're collecting at Summit. For instance, standard climate models don't have enough detail in the vertical structure of the atmosphere to deal with the small daily fluctuations, cold temperatures, and low wind speeds we have found here. Laurens is improving the models to make them simulate a more realistic meteorology which is very important to study the chemistry. We are trying to get the daily weather right, not just the long-term climate, because we are interested in understanding what controls those day-to-day fluctuations.
April 2009
Richard Honrath (1961-2009)
Richard on site in Summit, Greenland in 2007, beside the
flux tower that supports our instruments.
Richard Honrath, a highly appreciated colleague, productive and energetic atmospheric scientist and caring educator, died April 17, 2009 in a kayaking accident.
Richard received his B.S. in 1984 from Cal Tech, his M.S. in 1987 from Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1992. Upon moving to Alaska in 1987 Richard focused on measurements of atmospheric nitrogen oxides in the Arctic, building a high sensitivity chemiluminescence analyzer, one of a handful of such instruments in the world at the time. Upon receiving his Ph.D. Richard joined the faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan Technological University. There he built a strong research program in atmospheric sciences that made outstanding contributions to our understanding of photochemical production of important atmospheric species in sunlit snowpacks, long-range transport of pollutants, and the impacts of biomass burning on the atmosphere.
Richard always selected challenging and adventuresome projects, usually in remote, isolated and difficult locales. Much of his work on photochemistry in sunlit snowpacks was done at Summit, Greenland. To study springtime outflow of pollutants from the Arctic and summertime outflow of North American emissions to the Atlantic, he established temporary measurement stations in two lighthouses on the northern and southeastern tips of Newfoundland.
Perhaps Richard's most daunting undertaking and major accomplishment was the establishment of the Pico Mountain Atmospheric Observatory in the Azores. As the only surface-based measurement site in the North Atlantic that allows sampling in the free troposphere, observations here have greatly improved our understanding of intercontinental pollutant transport and the transformation of transported species, while stimulating many new U.S.-international collaborations. It is a testament to the dedication and abilities of Richard that the site was established and operated from 2001 to the present on extremely limited resources. Richard's death makes continued site operation an even larger challenge. To honor Richard's memory and to build upon the important work he began, support is being sought for continued operation of this site.
Richard's contributions received international recognition. He authored 50 professional papers, and his work earned the Michigan Technological University Research Award in 2006. At the time of his death, Richard was serving as a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs and had active research programs in Greenland and the Azores. At the same time he was dedicated to his role in education of students. Richard was a co-proposer and the first director of Michigan Tech's atmospheric sciences doctoral program. His group included a remarkably high number of international students.
While living in Alaska it became clear to Richard that he loved the north country. During graduate school he and his wife Lori lived in a cabin outside of Fairbanks without running water. Richard was an avid outdoorsman, dog musher and cross country skiier. For several years he coached a youth Nordic ski club. He also enjoyed mountain biking, hiking, and whitewater kayaking.
For all of his professional achievements Richard remained a kind and generous gentleman, with the utmost integrity. Richard was an inspiration because he cared about people and the planet, and he acted on his convictions. Richard's death is a tragedy for his family, for his students, friends and colleagues, and for science. He is survived by his wife Lori, son Ramey, daughter Prabha, and a large extended family. We will all miss his wit, his smile, and the clever glint in his eye.
- Detlev Helmig, University of Colorado at Boulder; Daniel Jaffe, University of Washington-Bothell; Maria Val Martin, Harvard University; David Parrish, NOAA/ESRL Chemical Sciences Division; and many other of Richard's colleagues who contributed to this obituary.
February 2009
The view from Jacques' dorm room window is a vista of...snow!
Jacques displays his iced-up balaclava.
It is Jacques' turn to visit the Summit site. The days are very short and cold. The sun sets between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. Temperatures range from about -35 to -50C most days.
Jacques writes, "It's just amazing how much water we exhale... It turns to ice immediately, which is a pain sometimes because you can't see a thing through the goggles after a while."
24-26 January 2009
Our international team is all together for the first time this weekend. We are in the midst of a three-day data workshop at INSTAAR in Boulder. Team members from INSTAAR, Michigan Tech, and Wageningen are here, plus a few participants from other science teams who are collecting data from or modeling Greenland.
We have spent hours discussing project objectives, data sharing, snowpack measurement systems, tower experiment systems, data, outreach, and modeling research. It is very helpful to be able to hash out complicated issues in person, asking questions as they come up instead of waiting for emails to go back and forth. Some of us just met for the first time on Friday or Saturday (especially the students), so it's nice to put faces with the names and messages. We are all finding a lot of ideas to pursue.
November 2008 - the real Big Chill
An image from the Summit Camp webcam on 12 November, two days after Detlev arrived at the station. The sun is still just coming up over the horizon, giving about six hours of twilight per day.
Detlev is up at Summit for two weeks. The weather is brutal: minus 50 degrees Celsius. It is literally deadly cold. At that temperature, any sliver of skin exposed to the wind is instantly gone.
Nobody on the team has worked in these kinds of extreme conditions before. It creates several problems. For instance, Detlev wears glasses, and to protect his face from the cold he has to wear goggles and a facemask over them. Both the goggles and glasses lenses quickly ice over, and he can't clean them off without causing himself injury. Once another scientist there at Summit had to lead him by the hand back to the camp buildings before he could see again. In another instance, Detlev needed to move two instruments on the tower to the same height. It was much harder than usual because he couldn't remove a glove for a moment to use a screwdriver. Worse, the electrical wires stiffen up enough so that they crack irreparably if moved.
It's a far cry from our toasty labs in Boulder!
September 2008
An image from the Summit Camp webcam on 12 August 2008.
Want to see what the weather is like at our field site in Greenland? A webcam at Summit Camp shows a live picture from the science site. You can also check the outside temperature, wind speed, and direction for the hour, day, week, or month.
Keep tabs on us during our expeditions, and see if that snowy, endless day (or night, in the winter) is as cold as it looks!
22 August 2008
An image from the Summit Camp webcam on 12 August 2008.
Goodbye Greenland! Brie stands by the handlettered signs that are the first--and last--things passengers see on their arrival or departure at Summit. This was Brie's last day before flying home to Colorado.
August 2008
Electricians Jeff and Nick wire up the gas shed that houses some of our equipment and gas cylinders.
Jeff and Nick are electricians who support all the science teams at Summit as part of their work for the logistics company CH2M Hill. They are wiring everything electrical in our gas shed, including an alarm system that warns us through several means (emails, sirens) if there are any gas leaks. This flux facility is where our team spent most of our waking hours while at Summit.
August 2008
First sunset in Summit Camp, 6 August 2008.
Brie sent this photo from Summit. It's a lovely sunset on her birthday--and also the very first sunset of the year. The sun is finally swinging just a touch below the horizon for the first time since late spring.
The hangar on the left of the picture is the rec tent, which houses some exercise equipment and a DVD player. The pallets in the middle of the photo are cargo. The closest is actually a trash pallet; the scientific teams have to remove all their garbage from the ice.
July 2008
The big house holds a kitchen, common area, and shower. Hydraulic lifts keep it from being buried in winter drifts. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
Summit inhabitants making pizza in the Big House kitchen. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
We spend a lot of hours working in the flux facility, but we have time for relaxing too. The Big House holds a kitchen, pantry, common area, the camp manager's office, and--best of all--a bathroom with a shower. A rec tent nearby has exercise equipment, a television with DVD player.
In winter drifting snow buries anything on the ground, so the Big House stands on hydraulic lifts that keep it mostly above the snow that fills in underneath. This spring, in fact, the building got new lifts to take it a bit higher.
July 2008
Welcome to Greenland! Jacques and Kathryn just off the plane at Summit. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
Brie snapped this shot from the instrument tower, on an arm about 8 meters (26 feet) above the ground on the 10-meter (33-foot) tower . Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
Our work is going in earnest now at Summit. Jacques and Kathryn arrived to join Brie at the station.
We sometimes have to climb the instrument tower to adjust or move equipment. It's a long way up, so anyone who goes has to have a training course and a panoply of safety gear. In the photo below, Brie is in a helmet and a full-body Petzel harness hooked onto the tower with lobster claws. There's also an ascender to catch anyone who falls while climbing.
June 2008
Brian in the middle of setting up the instruments in our June 2008 trip to Greenland. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
We are on the ice! We traveled north to Scotia, New York Air National Guard C-130 to Kangerlussuaq, on the coast of Greenland. We were then flown to Summit Camp. We had gorgeous views of the ice sheet from the plane windows.
We are part of a crowd: about 50 scientists are here, all setting up their projects and getting their equipment up and going. Everything was installed successfully, except the fast ozone analyzer. We are waiting for permission to use the nitric oxide gas in the instrument in the underground lab.
Our first measurements have started to come in. We are checking them over for quality and fine tuning the instruments.
May 2008
May 27, 2008: David and Detlev in an airport halfway to Greenland. A commercial flight to New York State comes first, then an airlift from the National Guard 109th Air Wing from Scotia, New York to Kangerlussuaq on the coast of Greenland. Another National Guard flight lands the team at Summit Station. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
We are getting ready to travel to Greenland at last. Four of us—Detlev, Brie, Brian, and David—are going to set up the instruments at Summit and begin collecting data. Our trip will be from May 27 to June 6. We are all staying late at night to finish up all the details and make sure we don’t forget anything.
April 2008
Finished at last! All the instruments are together, tested, and ready to go. They have been packed up and shipped to the 109th Air National Guard in Scotia. From there they will be flown to Greenland where the team that goes to the ice will install them in June. We are taking some deep breaths here in the lab after all that work.
March 2008
We are in the middle of getting our scientific instruments assembled that we will need in Greenland. Some of the instruments we can use right out of the box, like anemometers and UV monitors. But others, like the fast ozone analyzer, we have to build from scratch. We’ve built an ozone analyzer before for the Ozone and the Oceans project, so this one will be easier to construct—we have already solved the problem; we just need to put it all together.
We also have to test the instruments extensively to make sure that they act the way they should. We want to find any problems here in the lab, with all our tools and resources nearby—not on top of the world in Greenland.
December 2007
The new flux facility at Summit. To keep air-snow interactions from being contaminated by fossil fuel engines, equipment and people have to move around by electric snowmobile, sledge, or on foot. Our team hauled all of our gear out on sleds and on foot through lots of snow. Photo: Brie Van Dam (INSTAAR).
When we’re in Greenland next summer, we’ll be working at a new flux facility at Summit, which is especially for projects like ours that look at how gases move in and out of the snow surface. A lot of teams will be working on different projects at the same time, so we’ll have plenty of company and will be sharing resources. Seems like the time is flying by until we will be up there, and there is so much to finish beforehand.
October 2007
We’re getting started on our project. We ordered two new sonic anemometer systems that we will use on the ice in Greenland. We have to figure out how to set up all of our instruments in a way that will let us measure everything we need to when we’re in the field. Everyone is spending time thinking, talking, drawing diagrams, and figuring out how to improve on the efforts of past projects.
September 2007
Our project has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)! Our team is excited to begin work and find out more about how ozone in the atmosphere interacts with snow. There is a lot of competition to get a grant from the NSF, so we are proud that our proposal was chosen.
Detlev and Laurens, the Principal Investigators for the project, have worked on ozone fluxes together for several years in sites from Greenland to the Azores to Antarctica. Many students will be working on this project as well, including Brie, Brian, and Gabriel. You will meet them all in the months ahead.
This research is supported by the National Science Foundation grant no. OPP 07139923.
Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.