17 July 2011 Day 20: Do we make it to Summit?

Journal Entry

JSEP group arrives at Summit (Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011)

Today's teacher commentary

Submitted by Jakob (Greenland)

Jakob Moller Bach - author of today's commentary (Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011)

We are going to the Summit Station to day – YES

We went from Kangerlussuaq to the Summit at 0700 with a C-130 from the US Air Force, it was really expedition.

LC-130 waiting for take off from the world's longest ice skiway. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach

The Summit field station was established in 1989 by the US NSF as Greenland ice sheet project 2 (GISP2) ice core drilling site – location the highest point on the ice sheet!

We will stay here from the 17. -19. And then who knows?

Since we have travelled from 20m above sea-level to a height of 3243m, we all fill a little high sickness because of the low pressure – 680mbar, but the stations medic man is helping us!

We were welcomed by the station manager John Fomseca, who also toke us for a ride in this cool thing

JSEP group grooms the skiway in the Tucker (Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011)

After that we went with Nate Miller to send up a balloon for weather analyses – this is done to times a day and the data are used for weather models.

Tom Lane has shown us his mobile robot which can analyze landscapes by it self for up to 2 years.

Tom Lane explains how the Cool Robot works. Photo by Jakob Moller Bach, 2011.

We have also sent of a scientist and her mountain guide for 2 month on the ice to messier snow density.

We ended the day with a presentation from Brian Vasel from the NOAA, who talk about his job with measurement CO2 levels in the world and combine this data with global warming.

A nice day – and we have to sleep in tent to night on the ice cap!

Today's student commentary

Submitted by Emil (Denmark)

Emil Staermose, author of today's commentary (Photo by Laura Lukes, 2011)

We finally got to go to Summit!

We got Shuttled in cars to the airstrip where our C-130 was waiting for us.

After a few hours we arrived at our destination on the great white plateau. With complete cloud cover it seemed as though we were inside a great white chamber. The horizon was actually impossible to see, only the buildings and the numerous flags surrounding the station indicated that there was actually a hard surface below us.

Thomas from Dartmouth showed us his robot, and we also got to help launch a weather balloon. The biggest thing Sunday was experiencing The Big House. It is the main building where all meals are eaten, all the movies watched and all the board games played.

Highlight of the Big House was the food. The meals here are surprisingly delicious. You would imagine that researching in a remote location like this, would have to demand a compromise regarding food freshness, and with the freshness and abundance, or lack of same, in Kangerlussuaq, one would imagine the situation to be much worse up here. Yet the salad is fresh, the fruits are fresh and delicious, and I can safely say that the food here is way better than back at our respective homes. The day ended with a cocktail of scrabble and the movie the Thing.

Sleeping was quite the adventure, we each have our own tents, and because of the color of the tents, and the constant sunlight, the tents have a weird yellow glow going on inside, making it hard to sleep. Monday will be our one full day here, and hopefully it’ll be filled with exciting science stuff.