Teachers at The Meade River School have been moving back to Atqasuk this weekend. Two teachers, Terry and Maryellen, wanted to join us so we brought them along into the tundra to show them what we do. Today was a special day, not only because Terry and Maryellen joined us, but also because today we got to see Sergio fly the kite.
Sergio is studying the same NIMS grid that the ITEX team is. NIMS stands for Networked Info Mechanical Systems. The NIMS grid is a 50 meter by 2 meter transect. We are estimating the plant species and percentages of each species within the NIMS grid. Sergio is also estimating the plant cover; however, he is doing it from the sky. He attaches a Panasonic Lumix waterproof camera to a wire apparatus that dangles from the kite and hangs about one hundred meters over the NIMS grid and then he remotely snaps photographs using a handheld controller that looks like a remote-controlled car thumb-opperated remote. The left joystick controls both the vertical 90 degree tilt and the horizontal 360 degree panoramic view so he can take picture of both the ground below and of the surrounding landscape. The right joystick takes pictures. Since Sergio cannot see through the view finder, he takes about 400 pictures of the transcript and then he lines them up using grid markers as a guide. Sergio also developed a way to fly the kite without having to hold it, since his hands are busy with the remote control. He hooked the kite string up to a climbing harness and a caribeener. Sergio flies the kite up to three times each week in both Barrow and Atqasuk to observe and compare the changes in color, structure, and vegetation. He will compare these findings with the other measurements he takes on the ground: albedo (how much energy is absorbed or reflected by the vegetation), soil moisture, and soil tmeperature. He will also compare his grid composition anaylisis to what the ITEX team finds and then he will try to apply it on a satelite level for ground cover estimation.
Sergio raises the camera and apparatus into the air using the kite to keep is aloft in the sky. He will use this camera to take pictures of the NIMS grid.