4.1.07Wind 17.9 mph from the East.
Air temperature -23.8 C, -10.8 F
Wind chill -34 F
Latitude: 73--15.706N Longitude 145--08.679W 6:10 am Alaska daylight time.
Camp Chefs Victoria and Stephanie.
It is 6:10 am, the camp chefs Victoria and Stephanie have coffee made and breakfast is at 7:00 am. It is cold and blowing. Cathy and I will be setting a series of six 1 Km transect lines from a center pole. We will use a 25 m tape. Each twenty five meters we will put a survey flag. At 100 m we will mark the spot with a stake. At 500 m and 1000 m we will use a pole and a flag. At the end of the even lines we will put the number of red garbage bags (odd = green) filled with snow, so the helicopter can identify the line from the air. Or at least that is the plan. Since the ice and camp are moving slowly and spinning, using GPS isn’t accurate. By setting out this transect, we will have a reference for the entire camp to use as they make their measurements and collect data. It will also allow the scientists to compare measurements with different instruments made at the same stations.
Transect Center Pole
Reality is staring us in the face. With the wind blowing, it is cold! The tape measure is acting as a small sail. Some of the spots are on ice, so we are drilling into the ice with a cordless electric drill for the survey flags and shoveling snow around them. For the stakes and poles, when we are on ice, we are cutting a hole using a gas powered ice auger. As we are going along the transect line is taking us across flat first year ice, up over the broken blocks of the rubble and pressure ridges and through the ice mosaic that makes up the multiyear ice. The snow is drifting and the footing varies between glare ice, drifting powder, and hard packed powder. We are towing our equipment behind a snowmachine in a sled. We drive out 100 m, get off, measure and mark the line. Then we go out the next 100 m and repeat. With the wind it is slow going. We are able to get 500 m finished by lunch.
Transect Line
We went back into camp for lunch, regrouped, talked about how we are doing things and brainstormed the problems. Then we head out to finish the transect line. We are moving a little faster now and we get the line done, with time to spare before the 7:00 pm dinner. So we headed back to the center pole and set up the first 100 m on each of the transect lines as reference points.
Mess Hall
I was happy to head back to camp for dinner. Victoria and Stephanie are doing a terrific job. We have had pesto salmon, marinated steak, and one night selected Mexican entrees with rice and beans (Tabasco sauce is on all of the tables). Each night the Chefs make a special desert. Good food is important in a field camp; it helps to keep morale high. Each meal one member of the science crew signs up to wash the dishes. We get drinking water by going to a large piece of multiyear ice and using a pick ax; we mine the ice, melt it and drink it.