18 July 2011 Day 21: Summit!

Journal

Today's teacher commentary

Submitted by Jakob (Greenland)

Home sweet home...tent city at Summit...where scientists sleep. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011

After a good night in the tent with minus 150C, we were ready for the day program. We started at 0730 with breakfast while the station manager told us about the activity on the station to day.

After breakfast we talk to Brian about station life, and after that we went with Nate Miller to see and hear about his atmosphere project, were he looks at clouds and have it affect the temperature on ground (the ice sheet), snow crystal, snow temperature and snow structure. He shoved us this cool snow pit, were you can see the different snow layer!

Robbie shows the layers of snow in the backlit snow pit. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011.

Kurt examines snow crystals under a microscope. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011.

After this we went to see have the mechanic Luke and Dave run the station – make water, make energy and building and fixing different thing – the men who keeps the station alive.

After lunch Chris toke us on the skiway to look at snow density. For the plane(C-130) to land or take off we need high dens snow, and this form on cold days, so we hope for a cold night because we are supposed to go to Kangerlussuaq tomorrow!

Measuring snow density on the skiway. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011.

Sylvia, Avaruna, and Kris measure snow density. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011.

The last thing we did before dinner was to see what Brandon, Kevin and Hanne were doing away from the field station. They were looking at have aerosol’s in the atmosphere interfere with the sunlight (radiation) to and from the ice sheet, and have it interfere with albedo and snow structure, when it land on the ice sheet. This is done to understand more about have this aerosols interact with the whole Global Warming thing.

Taking turns measuring albedo. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011

Today's student commentary

Submitted by Vince (USA)

Vince Ader, author of today's commentary (Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011)

Living at the Summit station is simultaneously exactly what you would expect and the unexpected. We eat, sleep, and work in a remotely arctic environment. Considering it’s about 9 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s not unbearable, but the ice cap surrounding us entirely makes it quite an environment to see. The Big House being our main place of congregation and where we eat is comfortable and we get to eat the best food made by the chef here. For dinner we had gumbo, jambalaya, creamed corned, rice and black beans, and cheesecake.

Cheesecake on the ice sheet (Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011)

Sleeping in tents was interesting, it was cozy, but bright yellow, and takes a while to fall asleep, but I assume it becomes comfortable as living at such a high altitude is considerably tiring. However, everyone here has convinced us that living here and the antartic is one of the most addicting activities, and I can see why. The atmosphere just brings people together and the camp becomes a community.