After a short introduction about fossils and the previous climate, we started our activities with a visit to Danish MeteorologyMeteorology is the study of the atmosphere, weather and weather conditions. Institute (DMI). The Danish meteorologist Trine Pedersen gave us a lecture about the entire Greenlandic weather system. It is surprising how much the institute is responsible for; a lot of people are dependent on this system, for an example all the incoming airplanes have to know the weather situation, or else they are might not able to land, which could cause a great deal of difficulties. We got quick a look on some of the weather predictions that told us that the chances of a “warm” sunny day were relative high.
For once the predictions were true. When we left the Institute the sun was shining down on the magnificent Greenlandic landscapes and in the horizon we could see the splendid river surrounded by the big hills. The view was almost too good to be true.
Exhaustion is beginning to set in, but science waits for no one. After the fossil hunt and Danish Meteorological Institute, we drove to Kellyville which greeted us with a population sign that read, “Welcome to Kellyville---An Incoherent Community, Population: 7.”
After a short photo op, we made our way to the Sondrestrom RadarA method of estimating the distance or travel speed of an object by bouncing high frequency signals off the object and measuring the reflected signal. Facility where we learned about the Aurora Borealis and various radars and their functions from the wonderful scientist, Eggert Gubmundsson, a Senior Research Engineer at the SRI Institute.
Magnetic fields are the reason that the phenomena of Aurora Borealis occur. Most of the northern lights occur around or above one hundred kilometers above the surface of the Earth. During a solar storm, which is a large release of energy from the sun, the aurora can come down to a mere sixty kilometers above the surface of the earth.
The colors from the northern lights originate from when solar winds meet different types of particles. For example, oxygen emits a greenish color. When Gubmundsson mentioned this one of the JSEP students commented that most of the time the northern lights were green, which did not make sense because there’s a significantly greater amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Gubmundsson explained that oxygen is much more reactive than nitrogen, which explains the usual domination of green and yellow in the night sky.
In addition to the ionosphere measurements collected by the monumental radar in front of science facility, there was also a wonderful radar known LidarMeasuring system that detects and locates objects using light from a laser. which uses wave propagation which is the use of light to excite particles until they emit energy (which is expelled through either light or heat).
Personally, my favorite instrument was the ELF/VLF Receiver. This magnificent machine is a noise spectrogram which records lightning sferics (verticle lines) and quesi-periodic modulation of the .5-1.4 kHz background. In English, this means that radio is recorded from pole to pole and that any lighting striking anywhere around the world is recorded and makes a clicking sound through the blue metal doors. Engineering is truly a magnificent feat.
After attempting to process all of the science and engineering from researches that devote their lives to the sky and the universe, we bumped back along the road to our building.
Tonight was a work night for us. JSEPers finished up blogs, botanical identification, sediment measurements, water discharge, and various data processing.
Let it be known, we sleep as well as fossilized fish heads. Sweet dreams.
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