11 June 2008 Data Processing Day 1

June 11, 2008 – Data Processing Day 1

Hard to believe I have been gone for 10 days now. I seems like I just left home!

Today was data processing day. Not much instrument work or setup, just plotting and graphing data, so we huddled inside the warmth of Sat Camp and stared at laptops all day. The data and graphs were needed for a team science meeting at 4:00pm this afternoon. All of the members of the "Halogen” team talked about how their experiments are working and talked about interesting things that people are finding. The Mercury folks on the team (Steve Brooks and Chris Moore) were the most excited as they may have found something previously unobserved: a correlation between Mercury levels above the snow and air temperature!

The sun fought hard to peek through the layers of clouds that blanketed camp last night. The flags in the distance show areas where ongoing research projects are taking place in the snow.

Because it is data processing day, I thought I would feature one of the instruments we are using. It is called the "Snow Bird”. Barry Lefer (scientist from University of Houston and the one who allowed me to join the expedition) says it got its name because one cold summer at Summit Camp, a bird was using it as a home because it is warm (the instruments and internal computers keep it operating at a pretty high temperature).

Barry Lefer works to calibrate the Snow Bird at Sat Camp before he drags in off into the distance to look at sunlight shining into the snowpack.

The "Snow Bird” measures the amount of sunlight that makes it into the snow. It has fiber optic sensors that get buried inside the snow at different depths. The fiber optics send any incoming sunlight toward a prism inside the box where it is broken up into the colors of the rainbow (and ultraviolet light…the stuff that gives you a sunburn). The "Snow Bird” then analyzes the light and tells Barry how much photochemistry is going on in the snow.

This information is used to help determine how sunlight breaks up gasses stuck in the snow pack which helps scientists analyze climate change issues! If you have questions about the instrument you can ask Barry directly at the "Ask the Team” part of the site: http://www.polartrec.com/greenland-atmospheric-studies/ask-the-team (I know what you are thinking…that was a shameless plug for the website!).

The "Snow Bird" looks for light making its way into the snowpack. Here Barry Lefer checks the instruments computer screen to ensure it is collecting valuable data as the moon watches overhead.

Get ready for this food update; I actually had to get a pad of paper and pencil at meal time to write these down so I wouldn’t mess up the names!

Lunch: Greek Day! Greek Salad with feta cheese, Gyro meat, homemade pitas with Tzasiki sauce and humus, Tobouli, Felafel and cookies!!! Without a doubt it was the best Greek food I have ever tasted! Most of the other Summit Campers agreed!

Dinner: Ziti with spicy Italian meatballs (Ziti is a tube pasta) with a meat marinara. Caesar salad with handmade croutons, fresh Italian (again…homemade) bread and dessert (we were late to dinner because we were working so I have no idea what wonderful dessert was served).

Stay Warm!!