Hi Heidi! Merry Very White Christmas and Happy New Year :) As I was reading your journal about your tent city, I wondered what the tent temperature was like in the "morning" and was surprised to hear you say that it was warmer! How so? If I read correctly, you have no heater...brrr. I read all about all the layers under and above you, is that what insulates so well? Hard to imagine what that would be like to be out there for that length of time- so cool! Question: I know you were out on the WAIS last year as well- are you drilling in different locations? If so, how different do you expect the ice cores to be? And, what kind of biology is expected in the cores? Keep that smile on your face! Lollie :)

Heidi Roop

Lollie, Thanks for the questions. As far as my tent warming up, it warms as a result of my body heat and the insulative nature of the tent. I am currently monitoring the temperature and hope to post those data soon. It might be cool to explore those data with your students. We recently had some really warm days (+25F) and people were measuring temperatures in their tents as high as +94F!!!
As far as the drill location, we are drilling in the same spot each season. The drill arch structure protects our work space and equipment so we can come back to the same hole. We also keep the borehole open using drill fluids, allowing us to visit the same borehole year after year. Since we are drilling so deep, we need to keep the same hole open or we would never reach our goal depth of 3,330 meters. Additionally, several years of research go into choosing the best drill site. Site selection began around 2002 and we are still drilling in 2011! It is quite a long process to get these ice cores!
Happy New Year's!
Cheers,
Heidi