Time Flies When You’re Having Fun It seems like it was only yesterday that I met Marge and the five Somers High School students at the airport. The week has gone by very quickly. Time does fly when you’re having fun, and fun is what we have had as we have worked and learned together.

It has been a busy week with a packed schedule of activities and events. I hope the students remember their visit. I know I will, and for all the right reasons. Like last year, when Marge visited with seven students, it has been very rewarding to work and learn alongside bright and enthusiastic students. Each student has done very well, and each has probably surprised her/himself with their capacity and capability for learning and doing new and unfamiliar things.

It is always a pleasure and a privilege to work with an old friend, Marge (the current Connecticut Science Teacher of the Year), and to make new friends: in this case, Christine, Jack, Jessie, Matt and Moriah. So, it was with some sadness that I said goodbye to them at Fairbanks International Airport this evening.



One last photograph before saying goodbye at Fairbanks International Airport.

I take solace in the knowledge that Marge will, in all likelihood, be back and, who knows, it’s possible that I might be able to visit Somers High School before the end of the school year. I enjoyed doing that in April 2005, and I know I would enjoy doing it again this year.

Goodbye, bon voyage and let's hope your bags arrive in Hartford on the same plane that you arrive on.  ¶ 5:30 PM 0 comments

  Winterfest At Denali National Park Soon after 10 am we were at the Wilderness Access Center listening to ?? Swett (I don't know his first name) talk about his climb up Mt. McKinley in 1989, when he was 43 years old. He didn’t make it to the summit because he chose to help a sick, fellow team member return part way down the mountain to safety. Still, he made it to about 17,000 feet and played an important role in helping the other four team members reach the summit.

After the first speaker it was my turn to talk. The subject was The International Polar Year (IPY) and Citizen Science. I have spoken before at Winterfest and appreciated the opportunity to do so again, as we have an ALISON study site in the park and IPY will begin in 12 months. The National Park Service (NPS) in Alaska is very interested in IPY and there are opportunities for education and outreach partnerships among the NPS, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Denali Foundation, the Alaska Natural History Association and the Denali Borough School District.

Soon after I had finished speaking, we were on our way down the hill to Horseshoe Lake, the site of the ALISON study site. A number of people had expressed concern about us going down to the lake because there was a lot of ice under the snow on the trail; the ice had formed in early December when there had been a big thaw and rain. Just a few days ago students from Tri-Valley School, our ALISON partners, had turned back after slipping and sliding too much on a steep section of the trail.



Low clouds obscure the view beyond Horseshoe Lake.



The students look very small against the backdrop of the steep cliffs by Horseshoe Lake.

I’m glad to say that we had very little trouble on the trail, either going down or going back up. It simply required due care and attention. On the ice the air temperature was about -10°C with a light wind and snow under an overcast sky - very different weather from yesterday. By now the Somers students know how to make measurements and take snow samples, so they did all the work today. Once we had finished, Matt did extra work pulling the sled all the way back up that slippery trail. I know what a pain it is to pull the sled up the trail when the conditions are good, so Matt deserved our applause at the trailhead.



The work finished, we enjoy the level part of the trail before beginning the climb back up the hill from Horseshoe Lake.

Participating in Winterfest wasn’t just about me giving a talk and all of us then going down to Horseshoe Lake to do some ALISON science. We also wanted the students to do some fun things. So, while Kim, Marge and I had a late lunch, the students each went on a dog-sled ride and then tried their hand at snow sculpting. Jack even tried prussiking – I leave it to you to find out what that means.  ¶ 9:12 PM 0 comments

  Down The Parks Highway To The Denali Foundation The weather couldn’t have been better for the students’ first ever visit to Denali National Park and thereabouts. As we entered the park at about noon, the clouds cleared to reveal the snow-covered mountains under a perfect blue sky and bright sunshine. Good weather for outdoor activities and photography.

Our primary purpose this afternoon was to visit the ALISON study site on the Nenana River at the Denali Foundation. Kim and I set up the site with Willie Karidis on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (16 January) and today, as then, the site was still in the shade. Consequently, it was a somewhat cool -24°C. On the other hand, down at the bottom of the roughly 25 cm deep snow the temperature on the ice surface was around -5°C.



The students measure snow depth and temperature in the shade while the sun shines brightly just a short distance away.

While the shadiness of the site was similar to our previous visit, the ice had changed. A couple of weeks ago Willie sent us some data and mentioned that the ice surface had fallen. Today we saw exactly what he meant and confirmed the cause – the ice in the middle of the river had subsided further as the water level in the river had fallen further. What’s more, the ice where we had placed the sampling transect and ice gauge just 39 days ago now appears to be sitting firmly on the bottom of the river.



Assisted by Moriah and Christine, Matt takes a snow sample that will later be weighed so that we can calculate its density.

These are all very interesting and valuable observations as we try to learn more about the ice on the Nenana River. The river ice is important to us because we have a developing science education partnership with the Denali Foundation and the Denali Borough School District that revolves around the annual cycle of the river.

The Denali Foundation is interested in learning more about the river and ice because it hopes one day to be open all year and have winter programs to complement it current summer programs. Furthermore, this summer there are plans to have natural history raft tours from the Denali Foundation campus to the Nenana Canyon (Glitter Gulch). The raft tours will be for the many summer visitors to Denali National Park, and interesting information about the annual cycle on the river is needed. What could be more interesting than the ice cover?



Looking downstream on the frozen Nenana River from the Parks Highway Bridge at McKinley Village. We were making measurements at the ALISON study site on the ice just around the bend to the right.

The Denali Borough School District has three schools, all close to the Nenana River. Our hope is to create a river observation and measurement program in partnership with the school district. To be made by teachers and students, the observations and measurements would include freeze-up in the autumn and break-up in the spring, ice thickness and snow depth during the winter, and sediment load throughout the year. Sediment load will be interesting because the Nenana River originates at the Nenana Glacier; consequently, there should be strong seasonal variation of the sediment load due to the strong seasonal variation in water flow out of the glacier. The ice on the river subsides for the same reason; as the water level falls, the ice falls with it.



Appropriately, we all pose behind a block of lake ice. Tomorrow, it will be transformed by an ice sculptor.

After finishing our work on the Nenana River we returned to Denali National Park and the Murie Science and Learning Center. We watched a couple of films, including the very impressive Heartbeats of Denali, which is shown in the Visitor Center during the summer season. Heartbeats has some fantastic photography; naturally, I particularly like the bare, fractured lake ice.

Our day ended at the McKinley Village Community Hall to hear Helen Thayer talk about her adventures. Originally from New Zealand, and now living in California, Helen has climbed many mountains, and is a champion luge competitor and cross-country ski racer. Helen was the guest speaker at the opening of Winterfest.

Helen’s talk was mainly about her solo ski journey to the Magnetic North Pole in 1988, when she encountered many polar bears and went without food and water for the final seven days before reaching her goal. She also showed a few slides of her travels with her husband, Bill, (1) in the Gobi Desert and Sahara Desert, (2) in the Yukon observing a pack of wolves, and (3) paddling inflatable kayaks on the Amazon River. She is a remarkable woman, almost 70 years of age and still traveling in remote and wild places, and sharing her experiences with schoolchildren.  ¶ 9:04 PM 0 comments

  Frozen Underground Wonders - The Permafrost Tunnel Permafrost is permanently frozen ground. Or, to be more precise, ground that has remained frozen for more than one summer. There is a lot of permafrost in Alaska and throughout the Arctic, and as long as the ground remains frozen, then all is well. But if it thaws, then watch out, there are going to be problems. And that is the situation we are in today: there is ample evidence that permafrost temperatures are rising and ground that was once permafrost is now thawing.

It is not easy to build on permafrost and it has long been recognized that if you don’t take precautions then the very presence of your structure (house, airport, railroad, etc…) is going to disturb the thermal regime of the permafrost and ultimately both structure and permafrost will be damaged. In recognition of this, in 1965 the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers excavated a tunnel in a hillside at Fox, about 16 km north of Fairbanks. Known as the permafrost tunnel it was initially a laboratory for investigations into construction in permafrost terrain, and has since become a laboratory for research into broader scientific questions about permafrost processes and environmental variation and change.



Smiles all around – an enjoyable and informative visit to the permafrost tunnel is over and a visit to the Alaska Coffee Roasting Company is in the cards.

The main tunnel is a little over 100 m long, and there is a shorter secondary tunnel known as a Winze (pronounced winzee). When you enter the tunnel you react first to the unusual odour and, in winter, the contrast between the temperature in the tunnel (-1- to -2°C) and the outside temperature (-25°C today). Before long you don’t notice the odour because there are so many more interesting things that grab your attention. A bison horn and jaw bone stick out of the loess (wind-blown sediment), ancient (12,000 years old) roots and pieces of wood protrude from the ceiling, massive ice lenses arch above your head and buried lake ice beckons from the wall, and gold-bearing river gravels remind you of the fortunes that have been made and lost during Fairbanks’ short history.



Looking towards the rear of the main tunnel (left) and down into the Winze (right). The walkway keeps your boots clean and minimizes disturbance of the fine sediment that easily becomes airborne.



Looking up the slope of the Winze towards the main tunnel. There is no walkway here, so you tread lightly and try not to kick up the loose loess.

Our permafrost tunnel guide was Captain Rick Rachow, US Army. Because CRREL is part of the US Army Corps of Engineers, then the CRREL Alaska Projects Office at Fort Wainright has a regular army officer on staff. That person, in this case, Captain Rachow, often acts as a tour guide in the permafrost tunnel. He was a good host – friendly, informative and well-informed. Tours are primarily for small research and education groups; the tunnel is not open to the general public. Numbers must be limited otherwise the tunnel would deteriorate and quickly lose its research and education value.

The Somers students need to meet other scientists besides me and learn about other geophysical studies besides my lake ice investigations. Consequently, the afternoon was devoted to meeting four of my colleagues: Keith Echelmeyer, Anupma Prakash, Ken Dean and Uma Bhatt. Keith described his glacier and ice sheet investigations in Alaska, Washington State, Greenland and Antarctica. Anupma gave an overview of remote sensing. Ken talked about satellite volcanology and the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Uma discussed climate modeling.



That’s me looking sophisticated in red/green glasses that help me to see some of Anupma’s satellite images in pseudo-3D.

The students also learned a little about how the speakers became scientists, why they are scientists, what it means to be a scientists, plus some advice about working hard and not being afraid to take risks and choose new paths. My thanks to Keith, Anupma, Ken and Uma for putting a lot of effort into creating PowerPoint presentations, and taking the time to meet the students. I wish university professors had come to talk to my class when I was a 15-year old.  ¶ 7:58 PM 0 comments

  Snow and Ice Science Under The Sun at Poker Flat On most occasions that we visit Poker Flat to make ice and snow measurements, we visit the three study sites – MST Pond, 33.5 Mile Pond and 31.6 Mile Pond – in that order. This is because it’s the only practical way that 2-3 people with one vehicle can do it. But once a year we usually have enough people and vehicles to put a party on the ice at each pond to make simultaneous measurements. Today was that day because Marge Porter and some Somers High School students are here again.



While Kim and Jack were at 31.6 Mile Pond and Marc and Matt were at 33.5 Mile Pond, five of us were here at MST Pond. In front of Moriah, Christine and Marge are an ice thickness gauge, and a datalogger connected to thermistors that are taking air/snow/ice/water temperatures.

We like to do this make simultaneous measurements when we can because it is interesting and fun science to see how the conductive heat flow at each pond compares at the same moment in time. The maximum distance between ponds is about 3 km, from MST Pond to 33.5 Mile Pond, and even over that relatively short distance there can be significant differences between the ponds, differences in the factors that affect the conductive heat flow – snow depth, snow density and temperature at the top and bottom of the snow.

Today I think we saw the largest differences in conductive heat flow between the ponds that we have seen in the four or five occasions that we have completed this exercise. The conductive heat flow at MST Pond, 31.6 Mile Pond and 33.5 MilePond was -5.5 W m-2 (Watts per square metre), -4.3 and -3.8, respectively. There were negligible snow density, and thus snow thermal conductivity, differences between ponds. Consequently, snow surface temperature and snow depth, and thus temperature gradient, were the major determinants of the heat flow. MST had the highest heat flow because the snow surface temperature (average -35°C) and snow depth (average 36 cm) were lower than they were at the other two ponds.





Before we ate lunch, snow samples were weighed (top) and data were entered into the computer (bottom). Then we knew the results of our morning scientific exercise – the conductive heat flow at each pond.

It was still cold by any standard at the other ponds (-33°C at 31.6 Mile, -29.3°C at 33.5 Mile), but, unlike yesterday, there was hardly a breath of wind. Furthermore, the sky was clear and as we made measurements the sun rose above the nearby hills and bathed the ponds in bright light.

During freeze-up in the fall and break-up in the spring, we monitor events at eleven different ponds. While freeze-up and break-up are very sensitive to weather and climate, there are other factors that need to be taken into account. One of those factors is the depth of water. Until this afternoon we had water depth data for only four of the eleven ponds, and we are determined to rectify that situation before break-up this spring.



All the students took a turn drilling. Here, Christine discovered her ice drilling talents.

So, after lunch we spent about 90 minutes drilling ten holes through the ice and measuring the depth of water at each hole at the small gravel pit/30.3 Mile Pond. As I was expecting depth values in the 2-3 m range I was surprised that most values exceeded 5 m. Perhaps this partly explains why this pond is generally the last of all the ponds to freeze up completely in the fall and open up completely in the spring. It will be interesting to see how deep the water is in the remaining six ponds.

Our enjoyable day of science under the sun concluded with a little sightseeing. First, we walked over to the abandoned gold dredge near Chatanika Lodge, just around the bend from Poker Flat Research Range. Second, we visited the oil pipeline and saw the two nearby artificial ice towers. Visiting the gold dredge and the oil pipeline represented two different stages in natural resource extraction and the development of the Alaskan economy.



I stand with the students by one of the vertical support members (VSUs) that carry the above-ground sections of the oil pipeline.
  ¶ 8:51 PM 0 comments

  Snow Day at University Park Elementary School Each February since 2002 we have assisted with 4th grade Snow Day at University Park Elementary School. Today, 21 February, was Snow Day 2006, the fifth that we have contributed to.

Our role in Snow Day is to provide most of the outdoor activities: (1) making measurements with snow depth/temperature probes and digital readers [coordinated by Marge Porter]; (2) examining snow crystal sizes and shapes [coordinated by Kim Morris]: and (3) measuring the mass of snow samples taken with snow tubes [coordinated by me].

This was Marge’s third Snow Day, at least, and her five Somers High School students participated, just as their seven predecessors did last year. I wonder if the high school students asked themselves whether, when they were in 4th grade, they had been like these 4th graders. By the end of each Snow Day I have asked myself this question more than once. The answer is probably yes, which is a little worrisome.

Anyway, shortly before 9 am we were ready, waiting in the wind and blowing snow for the first class of students to join us at the front of the school. The four previous Snow Days have been characterized by calm, sunny weather. Today our luck ran out; there was to be no fifth consecutive Snow Day of fine weather for spending outdoors with roughly 80 ten-year olds.



Photographs of Snow Day at University Park Elementary School are limited to Kim, Marge and the Somers High School students, shown here posing in front of the mural by the front door of the school.

Fortunately, we were not alone out there with the kids. We had professional assistance with crowd control. Each group of students was accompanied by their teacher (Lois Heine, Cole Lehmann and Muffy Durst) and a classroom aide. Muffy was substituting for Ruth Kramer, the brains behind Snow Day, but she was unavailable today because she had more pressing business - defending her Masters thesis. I hope she was successful.

We survived the three outdoor sessions, one for each class of roughly 27 children, thanks to some lengthy breaks, including lunch – lasagne, garlic bread, salad, fruit and snowflake cookies provided by some parents. Thank you.

The final act was to talk to the entire group of students about where we have studied snow and ice, with an emphasis on Antarctica. The 4-minute Antarctic music video (Lou Reed - A Perfect Day), created by Mike Single and Jeanie Ackley after they had been in Antarctica with us in 1998, prompted a very lively question and answer session. Kids love penguins!

And then another Snow Day was over and we left for the nearby Alaska Coffee Roasting Company once again asking ourselves how teachers do it. How do they manage to spend the entire day, day after day, taking responsibility for educating other peoples’ children? A day with those children leaves us exhausted, but pleased that we have done something useful and perhaps made a small difference in the lives of the students.

Today’s most memorable moment was probably when, without being asked, one of the students showed me her bag of snow and pointed to the old snow crystals and the new snow crystals. She was correct because she must have paid attention and something she learned about snow from Kim had been implanted in her mind. Little episodes like this make education and outreach fulfilling and worthwhile.

The students we met on our first Snow Day in 2002 will now be in 8th grade. Diana Campbell, the Daily New Miner reporter, who came to observe and write about our fifth Snow Day asked if we have kept track of the earlier students and the impact of Snow Day on them. It’s a good question. The answer is no, because we participate in Snow Day because it is simply the right thing to do rather than because we want to assess the impact of our contribution. But still, it would be interesting to know if former students remember Snow Day and whether we have made a real difference.

Postscript added on Sunday 26 February: The Daily News Miner published an article - It's Not Your Average Snow Day - in the Saturday 25 February edition of the newspaper.  ¶ 7:30 PM 0 comments

  Walking On Water: Science On Frozen Aurora Pond On windy days like today I am reminded of a conversation that took place 21 years ago in a Malaysian Restaurant in Calgary, Canada. Kim and I were having dinner with Dr. Bill Sackinger, who was to become my post-doctoral mentor in August 1985, when we moved to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The meal was an opportunity for us to quiz Bill about what we could expect of life and work in Fairbanks; naturally, the discussion turned to the weather, the winter weather in particular.

As Bill told us that air temperatures could descend into the -40s and -50s (°C), he was quick to stress that there was nothing to be concerned about, as the wind didn’t blow in Fairbanks in winter. I have no doubt that that was true 21 and more years ago, but I am quite certain that Fairbanks winters are now windier than they once were. I have nothing more than anecdotal evidence for this, but other people who have lived here longer than me agree with this observation. We should look at the National Weather Service data some time to learn the truth.



The day began with a meeting with Dr. Roger Smith (right), Director of the Geophysical Institute.

The wind mattered to us today because we visited Aurora Pond in the afternoon to introduce the Somers students to ALISON measurements. Even though the air temperature (-3.25°C) was barely below freezing, the wind was sufficiently blustery to cause a light wind-chill that nipped at exposed skin, in this case my ears. It wasn't long before my fur hat was back on my head.

I hadn’t been to Aurora Pond since 13 November 2005, when I set up the study site with Deb Bennett and her son Jack. Deb and Jack were there today, along with Elizabeth and her daughter Sarah and son James. Sarah, James and Jack were to be instructors, showing the Somers students how to make ALISON measurements. Jack and his Mum are among the most experienced ALISON participants; they have been making measurements since February 2002 at Aurora Pond.



Sarah shows Jessie the finer points of measuring the snow depth and the temperature of the ice surface at the bottom of the snow.

Deb’s first visit to Aurora Pond, the visit that persuaded her that making lake ice and snow measurements would be a good activity for home-school students and parents, was on a chilly Sunday in December 2001. The occasion was an Observing Locally, Connecting Globally workshop for Alaskan teachers. I had been asked to talk about lake ice and snow studies, and decided that going outdoors to make measurements would be more effective than just talking about them in the comfort of an overheated classroom. Since the air temperature was somewhere in the region of -30°C, there was not universal agreement about the wisdom of my approach. But, among those who enjoyed the field trip, were Cheryl Abbott (Wasilla), Deb Bennett, Joyanne Hamilton (Shageluk) and Joan Jones (Minto, Hughes), all ALISON participants to this day.

But back to today. Our visit to Aurora Pond was a success. We all got to walk safely on water – 60 cm of frozen water with a 26 cm blanket of snow. Walking on the snow and ice of a frozen pond was significantly safer than driving on local roads, which are very icy due to rain on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

The road conditions are not so poor that we did not drive to the Bennett’s once we had finished at Aurora Pond. The roads and weather would have to be truly awful to keep us away from John Bennett’s excellent moose chilli and Deb’s wonderful baked salmon. Thank you both so much for once again hosting a group of Somers High School students.



Fairbanks, AK, and Somers, CT, students walking on water at Aurora Pond.  ¶ 8:26 PM 0 comments

  Somers Students Savour Shopping and Sunday Brunch We were told to expect snow last night, but there was no sign of new white stuff on the ground this morning. The sky certainly looks leaden, as if it will snow before too long. Meanwhile, the air temperature is hovering around 0°C, just like yesterday, which amuses the Somers students as they came all the way to Alaska to find the weather warmer than it is at home. It is supposed to be cooler by the end of the week, and then the students will probably be glad of the warm clothing and bunny boots that they picked up yesterday at Veco Polar Resources.

If it’s Sunday and you have visitors, a good way to introduce them to Fairbanks is brunch at the Pumphouse Restaurant, on the bank of the Chena River. The food is always good, and the restaurant is an interesting place to eat. Now a National Historic Site, the restaurant was once, quite literally, a pump house, extracting water from the river and pumping it over the hill into the next valley. There, it was directed into huge nozzles and the jets of water were used to erode the placer gold-bearing sediments around Ester.



Inside this rather unprepossessing building is one of the better places to eat in Fairbanks – the Pumphouse Restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant still retains much of its original industrial appearance, with numerous decorations and artefacts to soften the edges and make one’s dining experience more interesting. Outside, you will find a variety of much larger mining artifacts, including gold dredge and dragline buckets.



Marge, left, poses with the students in an old dragline bucket on the grounds of the Pumphouse Restaurant.

Brunch over, it was time to go shopping. Since food for the rest of the week was the most immediate need, the new Fred Meyer store in east Fairbanks was chosen. Driving there also allowed the students to see what a modern shopping metropolis Fairbanks is these days, what with Home Depot, Wal-Mart, PetCo, Old Navy, etc….. and a Barnes and Noble we are told will open any day now. Aren’t we lucky?  ¶ 3:53 PM 0 comments

  Somers High School Party Makes It To Fairbanks
Wonders never cease: Alaska Airlines flight 1 made it to Fairbanks only five minutes later than scheduled (4:20 pm), and Marge Porter and her five freshman students and their bags were on the plane. Marge has been to Fairbanks many times before to participate in the lake ice research project, but this is only the second time that she has brought students with her. The first occasion was February 2005, when seven students travelled to Fairbanks. You can learn about their winter science experience by reading their journals.

I have known Marge since 1994, when she joined us in Antarctica under the auspices of the NSF-sponsored program Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEA). We have continued to collaborate ever since, and she helped to open my mind and eyes to the idea of getting Alaskan teachers and students involved in the lake ice research project. That idea became ALISON - Alaska Lake Ice and Snow Observatory Network - a research and science education project in which K-12 teachers and students are my scientific partners making lake ice and snow measurements around thus huge state. Marge is currently the Connecticut Science Teacher of the Year - I am very fortunate to be able to work with her.

The week that the seven students spent in Fairbanks last year was so succesful, that we decided that we must do it again. Hence Marge's arrival today with five students - Christine, Jack, Jessie, Matt & Moriah. They have had a long day traveling from Hartford Connecticut to Anchorage via Minneapolis on Northwest Airlines, and then Anchorage to Fairbanks on the ever reliable Alaska Airlines (read that last bit with an ironic tone).

Once bags had been collected from the carousel and the rental vehicle found, we were off to the Veco Polar Resources warehouse to meet Matt Irinaga to pick up cold-weather clothing, and sleeping bags and mattresses (for later in the week when we visit Denali National Park). Thank you Matt for giving up some time on a Saturday to help us out. VPR's new facility is certainly a great improvement over their previous location.



Trying on bunny boots to ensure they fit well and will keep feet warm. Rubber boots and trapped air will keep your feet very warm in even the coldest weather.



Everyone has tried on their clothing and we’re ready to go to the hotel. That’s Marge second from the left.

At about 5:40 pm, two very full vehicles, full of people and luggage, arrived at the Springhill Suites hotel in beautiful downtown Fairbanks. Their journey over, they have a busy week ahead, full of indoor and outdoor activities aimed at educating the students about lake ice, snow and Arctic environmental change. Follow this blog, and the students' journals to learn about what we will be doing as we all work and learn together.
  ¶ 8:09 PM 0 comments

  A Note On The Entries Below
Each of the entries below is a journal that I wrote while travelling to set up an ALISON study site between early November 2005 and late January 2006. Sometimes I travelled alone, sometimes I travelled with Kim Morris. She is the ALISON Webmaster, data archivist and, like me, a scientist.

At the time the journals were written I did not have a blog, but the journals provided ideal material for me to experiment with creating a blog once I got around to it in early February 2006. Now that I know the basics I intend to continue adding to this blog as further ALISON-related activities and events occur, and I explore the use of blogs for educational purposes.

The next significant entries will be during 18-26 February, when Marge Porter and her five freshman high school students visit from Connecticut.
  ¶ 4:44 PM 0 comments

  Martin Visits Anchorage, 23-24 January 2006   ¶ 4:12 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit The Denali Foundation, 16 January 2006
It was a rather chilly -35°C when we left Fairbanks at 7:15 am on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It was a university holiday, but no day off for us; we had important business – visit the Denali Foundation to set up an ALISON study site on the Nenana River, the first ever ALISON site on river ice.



The frozen Nenana River from the Parks Highway bridge. The ALISON study site is a little further downstream just around the bend.

It was with some trepidation that we left for McKinley Village, the location of the Denali Foundation, where the Nenana River passes under the Parks Highway at Mile 231. Apart from never having set up a study site on river ice, just 33 days ago the river was wide open and flowing very fast when we drove home from Willow on 14 December 2005.

But we were assured by Willie Karidis, Executive Director of the Denali Foundation, that, apart from a few small leads (openings in the ice), the river was now completely frozen over. And so it was when we walked out on the ice at about 11 am. After drilling a few holes to check the ice thickness (55-60 cm) and satisfy ourselves that the ice was safe, we decided on a parallel-to-shore transect line about 15 m from the bank.



Kim and Willie making measurements in the shade on the frozen Nenana River.

The site doesn’t get any sun at this time of year and it was a brisk -27°C, but dead calm, as we followed the usual routine of setting up a study site. Setting up a site on river ice is really no different from setting up a site on lake ice; the only differences are running water below the ice, occasional rough areas where pieces of ice have rafted over each other, and those small openings (leads: rhymes with seeds) with that running water clearly visible.  ¶ 4:09 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit Willow, 14 December 2005
Today, Willow was a very different place compared to when we visited on Saturday 10 December: it was dry, cold (-10°C) and calm, and there was no question about going out on the ice to set up the ALISON study site on Willow Lake.



Look for the plane on the roof at Willow Air and you will find the ALISON study site on Willow Lake.

After a brief talk with Pam Horton’s kindergarten students, we were on the ice soon after 10 am. The study site was set up in much the same place as last winter: a short distance offshore from Willow Air. The ice thickness gauge was installed in 0.317 m of ice with a ~0.13 m deep snow cover. There was sufficient mass of snow on the ice that a little flooding was occurring along the line of wooden stakes.

We left Willow at noon anticipating that we would be home at about 5 pm. We actually arrived at 5:15 pm after an uneventful drive up the Parks Highway. There was an almost continuous ice cover on the highway between Willow and Cantwell, but the road was well groomed and we were able to zoom along safely at 60 mph. Once we passed through Cantwell, the road surface quickly improved and there was little or no ice.



Looking north from Broad Pass towards the moon rising over our route through the Alaska Range to the Interior and home to Fairbanks.

Because of the clear, dry weather , we once again enjoyed good views of the mountains as we drove north beyond Trapper Creek. Denali/Mount McKinley was shrouded in cloud, but the lower elevation peaks were visible and often bathed in sunlight. The mountains west of Broad Pass were assuming a pinkish hue as the sun descended quickly to the horizon at about 3 pm.   ¶ 4:05 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit Eagle River, 13 December 2005
The name Eagle River has real meaning: this morning, Tuesday 13 December, we saw five Bald eagles sitting in the trees just across the road from the Eagle River fire station on Eagle River Road. Later in the day we saw a porcupine in a tree at Camp Birchwood. This caused great excitement among the 5th grade class we were about to take out on Psalm Lake to make ice and snow measurements for ALISON.



Porcupine up a tree at Birchwood Camp.

We had set up the study site and made a full set of measurements on Psalm Lake in the morning with the help of Dave Kobersmith, who manages Camp Birchwood, and Joanna Hubbard, who works in Elementary Education at the Anchorage School District office. Joanna helped to recruit Craig Kasemodel (Central Middle School for Science, Anchorage) and Kim Bautista (Ravenwood Elementary School, Eagle River), whose study site we were setting up.

It was a beautiful morning to be on the ice: clear sky, no wind, a snow surface temperature of -18.3°C, and great views of the nearby mountains. The weather was a huge improvement over what it has been like since we arrived in the Mat-Su Valley/Anchorage region on Thursday last week. The ice thickness was 0.327 m at the location where we installed the ice thickness gauge, the mean snow depth was 0.046 m, and the mean conductive heat flow was -13 W m-2.



With the Chugach Mountains in the distance, Kim and Dave stand talking on the ice on Psalm Lake.

After coffee at the Sleeping Dog we went to Ravenwood Elementary School and had lunch before returning to Psalm Lake with 27 of Kim’s students. We were joined by Crystal Wrabetz who, like Joanna Hubbard, also works at the Anchorage School District Office, and Amy Armstrong of the Eagle River Star newspaper.

Along with Joanna, Crystal has been very supportive of ALISON but had yet to see measurements being made. Amy was also there to see the students making measurements, and learn more about ALISON, in order to write an article for the newspaper. Perhaps the Anchorage Daily News will wake up soon and show some interest in Kim and Craig’s extra effort to make science interesting for their students.

We returned to school to show Kim how to weigh the snow samples, and then enter the data into the Excel spreadsheet. By 4:30 pm we were back on the Glenn Highway heading just as far as Wasilla for the night. Tomorrow we will continue on to Fairbanks, with a stop in Willow to set up the study site on Willow Lake.  ¶ 4:03 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit Willow & Anchorage, 10-12 December 2005
Willow

As we left the Hotel in Wasilla on Saturday morning, 10 December, a light rain was falling. As we drove north to Willow the rain worsened. Adding a definite soaking from above to the possibility of a soaking from below by slipping and falling on the ice was not an attractive proposition, so we postponed setting up the ALISON study site.

Pam Horton, who is teaching kindergarten this year at Willow Elementary School, had assembled a group of interested parents and children to help put in the ice gauge and wooden stakes, and learn how to make measurements. I hope they weren’t too disappointed about or inconvenienced by not going on the ice, but I think we made the right decision for safety and personal comfort reasons. Since we weren’t going out on the ice, we sat in Pam’s classroom and talked for about 90 minutes about ALISON and related topics.

We agreed to set up the Willow study site on Wednesday morning, 14 December, when the weather is expected to have improved and we would be driving north to Fairbanks. Then we left for Anchorage. After a brief stop in Wasilla for another coffee at the Mocha Moose, we reached the hotel at about 2 pm.

Anchorage

I spent much of Saturday afternoon dealing with e-mail that had accumulated since Wednesday. The Anchorage hotel has easy Ethernet access to the Internet, unlike the Wasilla High School and hotel wireless networks that wouldn’t allow me to connect and check e-mail to see if anyone was demanding my attention on Thursday and Friday. After a productive afternoon, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Bombay DeLuxe Restaurant on Northern Lights Boulevard.

On Sunday morning we met Craig Kasemodel (Central Middle School for Science) and his fiancée, Diane, for breakfast at Snow City Café (another good place to eat). Later in the morning, Kim, Craig and I visited Eastchester Lagoon, Craig’s intended location for his ALISON study site. It is an ideal site for ALISON and for Craig (close to school), but conditions were not ideal for installing the ice gauge and wooden stakes.

The warm weather had created extensive overflow around the margins, and there was a large area of open water where Chester Creek flows into the lagoon. Commonsense prevailed and, rather than venture out onto dangerous ice, we agreed to try again in January when Martin returns to Anchorage for the American Association of Physics Teachers conference. Let’s hope that more wintry conditions return soon to Anchorage.

That didn’t end our visit to Anchorage. Soon after 8 am on a snowy Monday morning, 12 December, we were at Central Middle School to talk to the roughly 100 students who are taught by the team of teachers to which Craig belongs. The students were very attentive and asked interesting questions, and didn’t hesitate to answer my questions.

We also enjoyed seeing Patty Gallego, who took her students to make measurements at Horseshoe Lake, Denali Park, for two consecutive winters before leaving Tri-Valley School, Healy, and moving to Anchorage. We didn’t know that she was teaching mathematics at Central Middle School, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see her.

And then it was back out into the snow, of which 5-10 cm are forecast to accumulate today, with a further 2-5 cm overnight. The return of snow and lower temperatures will make it more interesting and increase the likelihood that we will be able to set up the study sites in Eagle River (tomorrow, Tuesday 13 December) and Willow on Wednesday 14 December.  ¶ 3:58 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit Wasilla, 8-9 December 2005
We have just returned from Lucille Lake (on 9 December 2006), the site of the Wasilla High School ALISON study site. It was very reminiscent of this time three years ago when Martin visited Mystic Lake (Amos Lakes) to set up a study site with Fred McElroy. Now, as then, the air temperature at Lucille Lake was well above freezing (~5°C), all the snow has melted, and there was standing water on the bare, melting ice.



Just installed, the ice thicknesss gauge sits on the wet, bare ice on Lucille Lake.

While it was bit nerve-wracking on the ice, we had little difficulty setting up the study site. There wasn’t much to do other than put in the ice thickness gauge and then drill twenty-one shallow holes for the wooden stakes. All this required some care to avoid slipping and falling over. You don’t really walk on the ice in melting conditions; you shuffle, because lifting your feet increases the likelihood of slipping and falling, and getting a soaking.

Cheryl Abbott (teacher at Wasilla High School, who is beginning her fourth winter as an ALISON participant) helped to set up the study site mid-afternoon, after we had spent the school day (7:30 am – 1 pm) in her classroom talking to five different classes. We covered a lot of ground, including: (1) what ALISON is; (2) changing snow, ice and permafrost in Alaska; (3) the Nenana Ice Classic break-up record as a proxy for climate change; and (4) weather and climate variation and change.



Cheryl and Kim walk gingerly along the line of wooden stakes that mark the study site on Lucille Lake.

Having set up the study site on Lucille Lake, we had to hope that the weather wouldn’t remain abnormally warm for too much longer, and the ice gauge and stakes would freeze in. We would really have liked the warm, moisture-laden southerly air flow to be replaced with something more seasonal as soon as possible. The very warm weather was in stark contrast to when we were here this time last year to set up the study site. Then, we spent a beautiful cold, clear and calm day on the ice with five different classes of students. Today was overcast and windy, as well as warm, and no students were allowed on the ice, by order of Mr. Pasco, the principal. Probably a sensible decision in view of what we experienced.

The vigorous air flow off the Pacific Ocean had made our drive down the Parks Highway on 8 December more interesting than we cared for. It was (1) very windy between Healy and Cantwell, where the air was being squeezed through the mountains, (2) snowing with poor visibility on Broad Pass, where three caribou crossed the road right in front of us, (3) raining at times on a slushy road as we lost elevation on the long, downhill approach to Trapper Creek, and (4) steadily drier (reletively speaking) as we approached Wasilla. Yet, because we left Fairbanks at 7:50 am, we still arrived at Wasilla in time to buy much needed coffee at the Mocha Moose before meeting Cheryl at the high school at 3 pm.  ¶ 3:56 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit Mentasta, 2-3 December 2005
After leaving Hughes late in the morning on Thursday 1 December, I was able to spend the afternoon in the office doing useful things before leaving for Mentasta on Friday 2 December. Shortly before leaving the office I checked my e-mail once more and there was a curious message from Kenna Dubois in Delta Junction - she, Barb and the students had visited their ALISON study site that day and found the ice fractured and hummocked and apparently collapsed into the lake.

Since the Delta study site is on the way to Mentasta we decided to investigate. So there we were at about 9:15, before sunrise, on Friday morning looking at a very odd ice cover that was all that Kenna had described. What seems to have happened is that the water level in the lake has fallen as the water level in the nearby Delta River has fallen, and much of the ice cover simply subsided as the water level fell. Very peculiar. We haven’t seen that before.

After coffee and doughnuts, and a quick visit to Delta Cyber School to chat with Kenna and Barb, we continued to Mentasta. Not surprisingly, it was windy between Delta Junction and Dot Lake, with snow blowing along the road surface. It was somewhat windy when we arrived in Mentasta, with gently swaying trees, but it wasn’t blowing too hard.

By about 2 pm we were on the ice at Mentasta Lake, where the wind was gusting occasionally very hard but also falling completely calm for a few enjoyable seconds. Since the air temperature was -23°C, the wind chill was an important factor and by the time we finished putting in the study site we were all a bit chilly, particularly Raymond, an 8th grade student, who was able to help us. It was good to have an extra pair of hands in those cold and windy conditions.



Looking back along the line of wooden stakes towards Benny Funk's cabin on the shore of Mentasta Lake.

The study site was placed in the same location as it has been for the past two winters – just a short distance offshore from Benny Funk’s cabin. The snow on the ice was about 23 cm deep with a respectable wind slab overlying softer snow. Breaking trail to run out the 100 m tape was not fun. The ice where we installed the ice thickness gauge was 0.55 m thick, but the “super saw” quickly cut through it and the ice thickness gauge was installed without any difficulty.

In addition to the ice thickness gauge, an ALISON study site has a line of 21 wooden stakes spaced 5 m apart. After walking backwards and forwards numerous times along that 100 m line in snow with an awkward consistency, and buffetted by the cold wind, we were each tired and ready to return to school. So, at roughly 3:15 pm, with the sun already having disappeared behind the mountains, we plodded back up the trail to the truck and a short drive to school, satisfied in the knowledge that another ALISON site, the 12th this winter, had been set up.



The sun has set behind the mountains in the distance, the Mentasta Lake study site has been set up and Kim is ready to leave the ice.

We left Mentasta at 7:30 am on Saturday to return to Fairbanks via the Big Delta pond and its subsided ice. We were there just as the sun was rising and were able to take photographs, and confirm that there is water under the by the ice thickness gauge. We also think that there is water under the ice at most of the wooden stakes. So, the study site is still viable.



The sun hadn't risen yet when we documented the deformation of the ice cover (that hummock, for instance) that occurred when the water level dropped and the ice subsided on the Big Delta Pond.

Wildlife count for this trip: six moose congregated in one place (a herd?); a handfull of ptarmigan; and, a few handfulls of spruce grouse, including three in a tree.  ¶ 3:50 PM 0 comments

  Martin Visits Huslia and Hughes, 28 November – 1 December 2005
Huslia

As the plane taxied away from the Warbelow’s office at Fairbanks International Airport, the pilot said something about low cloud at Huslia and perhaps not being able to land. The closer we got to Huslia the more nightmarish that option looked – the coffee I bought at the Alaska Coffee Roasting Company on Geist Road before checking-in at Warbelow’s had ceased to stimulate my brain and was now busily stimulating my plumbing. You can imagine my relief when the weather was clear at Huslia and we made a smooth landing.

We landed at about 10:20 am. The air temperature was about -30°C and the wind, thank goodness, was calm. By 10:40 am I was at Jimmy Huntington School and busy preparing equipment to take out to Richard’s Spring Camp Lake, where we would set up the ALISON study site. This is the same location as the study site in winter 2004-05. It is 1 year and 2 weeks to the day since I was last here for the same purpose.

Last year the study site was run by Sharon Strick. This year it will be run by Sharon’s colleague Jeff Johnson, who teaches mainly grade 9-12 science and mathematics. Before lunch I did a brief algebra lesson for Jeff’s students – calculating a snow temperature gradient, which seemed appropriate, since we would be making the necessary measurements in the afternoon. I was impressed with how sharp the students were as we went through the calculations – there was some nimble mental arithmetic going on.

By 1:30 pm, an assortment of snowmachines and sleds left school for Richard’s Spring Camp Lake, where we arrived at 1:55 pm. The weather was a little warmer than when I arrived this morning, but it was still a brisk -22°C. While some of us installed the ice thickness gauge (ice thickness: 0.407 m), another group quickly had a fire going on the bank. This subsequently provided entertainment for those students who didn’t find the science so compelling, and warmth for those who weren’t doing enough to stay warm. Another source of entertainment and warmth was the rope swing attached to an old spruce hanging over the lake edge. The rope broke while one student was attached and the 0.12 m thick snow did not provide much of a cushion on the hard, 0.4 m thick ice. Meanwhile, all the various activities were being recorded on video for a student movie project for submission to the iDidaMovie competition run by the Alaska Science and Technology Association.



A couple of students did most of the drilling to make holes for the 21 wooden stakes that mark the snow measurement transect.

We must have left the lake at about 3:30 pm, having set up the study site, made a full set of measurements and collected the requisite three snow samples. The drive back to school was quite gloomy - the sun had set and low clouds had rolled in since this morning. The school bell rang soon after we walked in the door and the day was over, for the students anyway. Since then I have been answering e-mail, writing this trip report, taking care of journal editorial responsibilities, showing Jeff Johnson how to enter data into the spreadsheet and talking about running an ALISON study site, eating dinner, and, of course, using the Worldwide Web to check on the cricket scores (Australia have just thumped the West Indies, and the Third Test between England and Pakistan has just begun).

Computers and the Internet/Worldwide Web never cease to amaze me. Here I am in remote, west-central Alaska using a school wireless network to take care of my e-mail, surfing the Web and following the live coverage of the England/Pakistan cricket match in Pakistan.

Hughes

After a good night’s sleep on the library floor at Jimmy Huntington School, I was ready to head upriver to Hughes, about 30 minutes away by plane. Just as there was some doubt yesterday morning about being able to land in Huslia, so there was some doubt this morning about being able to land in Hughes.



The sun had yet to rise when I took this photograph of the plane that would take me from Huslia to Hughes.

Before leaving Huslia I saw some de-icing equipment that I had not seen before – a rubber mallet and a piece of wood that looked like a sawn-off broom handle. I leave to your imagination as to how this de-icing technique works.

As we flew from Huslia to Hughes the sky was overcast and in places the cloud base was at the land surface. Snow was in the air, too, but there was no problem landing, and I had a very good view of Hughes and the Koyukuk River as we circled to approach the airstrip.



An aerial view of the Hughes on the far bank of the Koyukuk River. The village lies just below the bluffs in the centre of the photograph.

The Johnny Oldman School in Hughes is a stone’s throw from the airstrip so it was neither difficult to find nor did it take long to walk over there. I think I walked into Joan Jones’ classroom at about 11:15 am. Two hours later I was out at the pond that is now the location of the ALISON study site. The air temperature was -17.45°C and there was a very light wind.

The pond is a long, skinny abandoned channel, probably once a slough where water must have flowed but has long since ceased to do so. The water is also shallow – roughly 0.7 m where we installed the ice thickness gauge. I suspect that the ice there, already 0.51 m thick today, will freeze completely to the bottom later this winter. Judging by some of the temperatures we measured at the bottom of the snow, some of the ice might be frozen to the slough bottom already.

Just two of us set up the study site – Dylan Ambrose, an 8th grader, and me. By 3 pm we were back at school, having set up the study site, made a full set of measurements and taken the snow samples. I could have set up the site on my own, but first I would have had to find it and probably become lost without Dylan as a guide, and then I would have had neither company nor assistance. Dylan did both and I’m glad he was there. He did a good job and together we set up the site in much less time than if I had been there alone.



The ALISON study site at Hughes is on the skating pond. The buildings in the distance mark the southern edge of the village.

So the site is all ready for eight of us (Joan, six students and me) to visit tomorrow to make another set of measurements, take more snow samples and thereby be trained in obtaining and recording good data. In the meantime, I am to be treated to a second Thanksgiving dinner this evening, courtesy of Joan.

Dinner was delicious and the couch in the gym made a comfortable bed for the night. I shall be sleeping in the gym again tonight. I hadn’t planned to stay a second night, but the weather prevented the Warbelow’s plane from landing and taking me back to Fairbanks. These things happen when the cloud ceiling is at ground level. Let’s hope the cloud lifts tomorrow.

The most important thing I did today was to return to the study site with Joan, Cynthia (she assists at the school) and four students – Kylee, Tamara, Mariah and Dylan – for a demonstration of the equipment and how to make measurements and take snow samples. It was a great relief when we connected the battery to the ice thickness gauge and the resistance wire heated up and we could move it up and down in the ice. The weather was slightly warmer than yesterday (-14.5°C) and the wind remained almost calm.

The Hughes school also has a wireless network; consequently, with my wireless-equipped laptop I am able to check my e-mail and reply to those messages that demand attention. It will be nice to return to the office, hopefully tomorrow afternoon, and not face a huge backlog of e-mail messages.

The plane did land at Hughes and I did return to my office on Thursday. We landed at Fairbanks International Airport at about 1 pm, my cold (-20°C), not-plugged-in car started first time, I picked up the mail, bought good coffee at the Alaska Coffee Roasting Company, and then went to the office.

Before I boarded the plane I visited the study site once more to take some photographs. It was overcast and the sun had risen only shortly before I went out, so the light was very flat and my photographs are not as good as I would like. Nevertheless, they give a reasonable sense of the nature of the study site. Unfortunately, someone had visited the site before me and driven a vehicle along the line of stakes. You can imagine my state of mind about that. Joan subsequently had a polite word with the culprit.  ¶ 3:45 PM 0 comments

  Martin Visits Aurora Pond, Fairbanks, 13 November 2005
Putting aside the Poker Flat study sites, where we have worked since autumn 1999, we have visited Aurora Pond in the middle of Fairbanks more often than any other ALISON study site. This is partly for obvious reasons – we live and work in Fairbanks – and also because it is the longest-running ALISON site visited by an educator and students: Deb Bennett has been coordinating visits to Aurora Pond by home-school parents and children since February 2002. So, Aurora Pond is about to be subject to its fourth full winter of measurements.

Today, Sunday, I met Deb and her son Jack, who made his first visit to Aurora Pond in February 2002, at 1 pm on a bright afternoon with not a cloud in the sky. The air temperature was around -19.5°C, but the wind was calm and you could still feel a little warmth from the sun. By the time we left at 2:45 pm the sun was very low on the horizon and you could feel the temperatures falling fast.



Watched by his Mum, Deb, Jack drills a hole in the ice before putting in another stake to mark the line of the measurement transect.

Aurora Pond froze over completely only two weeks ago, and I was very curious to know how thick the ice would be, since we have hade so little snowfall since then. The ice was covered with a curious mix of hoar-frost and light dusting of snow, with an average depth of ~3 cm. Temperatures at the bottom of that thin, uneven blanket of insulation where around -13/-14°C, and the ice thickness was 0.224 m – very safe to walk on. Even so, the ice creaked and groaned mildly as we walked around because it has contracted so much in the cold weather.

Conditions were perfect for putting in an ALISON study site and in no time at all we had installed the equipment (two TWITTs and an ice temperature profiler) and the 21 wooden stakes, and taken a full set of measurements and snow samples. It will be interesting to see what the conductive heat flow was once Deb and Jack have entered the data into the computer. My guess is that it was around -10 W m-2.

By 3 pm I was picking up Kim at the Geophysical Institute, where she had been working on a project for a Web site design class, and not long after that we were at home enjoying a glass of wine before I had to take care of more mundane things – ironing pants and shorts to wear this week at the office.

Putting in the Aurora Pond study site concluded a busy and successful week of ALISON activities: North Pole High School site installation on Monday; Delta Junction site installation on Tuesday; ALISON parents night at Tri-Valley School, Healy, on Thursday; and Horseshoe Lake, Denali National Park, site installation on Friday. My next destinations are Huslia and Hughes immediately after Thanksgiving weekend.  ¶ 3:41 PM 0 comments

  Martin Visits Healy & Denali National Park, 10-11 November 2005
After spending the morning in a meeting of the advisory board for the MapTEACH project, and finalizing the budget for a northern river science education proposal in the early afternoon, I was glad to escape to Healy shortly before 4 pm. That gave me plenty of time to get there without rushing on icy roads to participate in an ALISON evening for parents of Tri-Valley School students who participate in the project.

Dorothy DeBlauw (teacher) and Kristen Friesen (Denali National Park education specialist) organized the evening to coincide with my visit to help set up the study site on Horseshoe Lake. The event was a great success, with a good turn out by the parents, a wonderful presentation by the students, who demonstrated how they make measurements at Horseshoe Lake, and home-made ice cream to conclude the evening. We made the ice cream ourselves in a practical demonstration of freezing-point depression by the addition of salt to ice. I must brush up on just how that works!



Dorothy DeBlauw, teacher (left), her students and some parents pose for Kristen Friesen at the end of a successful evening at Tri-Valley School.

Thanks to Kristen, I spent the night in a very comfortable visitors’ residence in the HQ area at Denali National Park. My wake-up call was a front-end loader clearing snow at 7 am. Not needing to meet Kristen until 10 am at the Murie Science and Learning Center, I enjoyed a leisurely start to the day.

We were on the Horseshoe Lake ice by 10:45 am. The air temperature was about -16°C and there was not a breathe of wind – it was delightful. With assistance from Kristen and Jared (just arrived from Fresno, CA, to stay with Kristen and her husband [his uncle]), the study site was set up quickly and we left with a full set of measurements. The average snow depth was 0.055 m, the ice thickness was 0.22 m and the conductive heat flow was -9.5 W m-2.



The Alaska Railroad runs along the top of those cliffs behind Kristen. She is standing on Horseshoe Lake.

After lunch chatting in front of the fire (it was too much for Jared – he fell asleep) at the Murie Science and Learning Center, I left to conclude my Healy/Denali National Park trip with a return visit to Tri-Valley School. I spent the last hour of the school day with Dorothy’s class talking about snow and ice. They’re very energetic and enthusiastic, and really know their ALISON measurements and procedures. I’m sure they will obtain another good data set to add to the two already in the archive. Later in the winter we will be writing about the Tri-Valley students and their Horseshoe Lake results for Alaska Park Science, a scientific journal published by the National Park Service-Alaska Region.  ¶ 3:38 PM 0 comments

  Martin & Kim Visit North Pole & Delta Junction, 7-8 November 2005
North Pole

After setting up our own three study sites at Poker Flat on Tuesday-Thursday, 1-3 November, we were ready to begin setting up other ALISON study sites in the Interior. And so, on Monday 7 November we went to school, North Pole High School, that is, to set up the study site on “Patriot’s Pond”.

We were on the ice by 3 pm with Tom Kinn, who will run the study site this year instead of Rob Sylvester, who is teaching biological sciences rather then the physical and earth sciences that he taught last year. Where we drilled a hole to install the ice thickness gauge, the ice was 0.27 m thick – very safe for three adults to be walking around on. There was just enough snow (2-4 cm) to make it worth taking the time to measure snow depth and snow top/bottom temperatures, and take snow samples to determine the density. The low air temperature (-18°C) and thin snow meant there was a respectable conductive heat flow of -16 W m-2.

While it was somewhat cool, it was also calm and we enjoyed the added bonus of being on the ice when the sun set with a very fiery glow. Soon after the sun set, we were back inside measuring the mass of three snow samples and showing Tom how to enter the data into the spreadsheet. And then we were back on the road and on our way to Delta Junction to set up a study site for Delta Cyber School.

Delta Junction

After an uneventful drive down the Alaska Highway/Richardson Highway (the name you choose depends on whether you live in Fairbanks [Alaska Highway] or Delta Junction [Richardson Highway]. As far as Delta Junction-ites are concerned, the Alaska Highway ends there while it is the Richardson Highway that continues on to Fairbanks. People can become agitated over such minor things.

Kenna Dubois kindly invited us to stay at her home and we enjoyed an evening chatting with her husband, Steve (wildlife/game biologist) and daughter, Kristy. It was cold and unusually calm by Delta Junction standards when we arrived at ~7 pm. When we left the house 11 hours later at 8 am it was a little warmer and much windier. We were not looking forward to being out on the ice in cold, windy weather. We needn’t have worried.

The pond that Kenna and her colleague, Barb Porter have chosen for the ALISON site is in Big Delta and it was almost calm there when we arrived at about 9 am. The ice thickness was about 0.15 m, somewhat thinner than at North Pole. Just the four of us set up the study site in no time at all and we were back at school soon after 10 am to meet the students who will be joining Kenna and Barb in making the measurements.

We spent the rest of the morning introducing the students (seven juniors and seniors, all young women) to ALISON: what it is; why we study lake ice; how we study the ice; what we are learning thanks to our growing network of K-12 teacher and student partners. Pizza arrived just as the discussion was winding down, and after we had finished eating we took the students out to the pond to show them how to make measurements. Once again we were lucky and there was only a very light wind.



The students pose by the pond with teachers Kenna Dubois (right) and Barb Parker (fourth from left).

Unfortunately, after working just fine in the morning, when the air temperature was about -18°C, the digital reader that we depend on for measuring the snow temperatures decided that it would be a good time to fail (later, Kim took it apart and found that a soldered wire had come adrift). So, we measured snow depth and took snow samples, and only simulated taking temperatures. We also demonstrated taking ice thickness measurements with the ice gauge that we had installed in the morning.

Once the practice session was over, we all went back to school. The snow samples were weighed and entering the data into the spreadsheet was demonstrated. It was a shame that the digital reader failed. It is always a little frustrating when something like that happens and the conductive heat flow can’t be calculated. Still, we have our first data for Big Delta and the Delta Cyber School is ready for its first winter of ALISON data collection.

We were back in Fairbanks by 5 pm, which meant that Kim made it to her Web design class in good time, and I was able to spend the evening working on a proposal until Kim’s class ended at 9 pm. It was a long but satisfying day.  ¶ 3:28 PM 0 comments