Today's student commentary
Submitted by Rebecca Skov (Denmark)
Today we all started by waking Rebecca up with a birthday song because it is her birthday. It is a Danish tradition.
Rebecca's birthday, celebrating the Danish way. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.
Then Paul, a pilot, told us about how it is to land and take off from the ice and what kind of complications there can arise.
Paul Bernasconi teaches us about flight in polar regions. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.
Paul Bernasconi teaches us about airplane physics. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.
After that we drove to two scientists (Asa and Colin) who have a camp near the ice cap. They taught us about how to measure how much melt water that is coming from the ice with a measuring instrument that was more precise than the wood we throw in the river the other day.
Scientists Asa and Colin explain how their instruments collect data about rivers. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.
JSEP students measure the size of the stream channel. Photo by Laura Lukes.
After that we drove home where some of the students made a Danish birthday cake which is a kind of a layer cake and then we had Thai food.
In the evening we had the birthday cake while Rikke told about how to find out how high the water level has been by analyzing water from lakes in different altitudes and the fossils.
Rikke taches about dating sediment layers using fossils and carbon dating. Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011.
Today's teacher commentary
Submitted by Rikke Jorgensen (Greenland)
I arrived yesterday from Denmark, so today was my first experience with the students in the field. The day started of with me getting all the stuff I needed for the trips to NEEM and Summit. Then breakfast, and later Major Paul Bernasconi from the Air National Guard came and told us about his job as a pilot flying in the arctic, and what we could expect on our trips.
We brought our lunch with us, and we met up with Asa Rennermalm from Rutgers University at her fieldsite close to the glacier front. Here the students helped measure the water discharge from the glacier and Asa explained how they do all the measuring and what they use it for. When we got back the Kangerlussuaq, Robbie came by and gave us an update. Sadly, the temperatures at NEEM make it impossible for the planes to leave, and the trip might be postponed. After dinner I got a chance to tell the student about the research I did for my thesis, witch hopefully gave the student an idea of how you can correlate data from the ice with data from a lake in Denmark. When I was done Robbie came back and told us that the trip for NEEM was postponed until sunday, and “Darkness fell over a place where the sun shines all day” qoute: Emil. But that Greenland, you never know. It’s been a really good day today, and I’m sure that the students had a good time with Asa in the field and hopefully they learned something from Paul, Robbie and I.
Agenda Highlights
1) Pilot Paul Bernasconi from the NY Air National Guard (109th) enlightens us with the unique flying conditions and physics in the Arctic and Antarctic regions
2) Fieldtrip: Rutgers University field site to learn about glacial discharge (comparing it to discharge observed near Kangerlussuaq)
3) Robbie Score briefs us on flying on Air National Guard flights and logistics for our flight to NEEM
4) Teacher/Geologist Rikke Jorgensen's lecture on her work dating sea level events in sediment layers in Denmark
5) Going to bed early...6am scheduled flight!
Today's Experts
Paul Bernasconi
Asa
Colin
Robbie
Rikke
Vocabulary
Kangerlussuaq (Greenlandic) - big fjord
Sermersuaq (Greenlandic) - big ice (ice cap)