Search

The last bell rang on June 8th this year, the earliest since I started teaching 21 years ago. This was partially due to the fact that our system got rid of traditional snow days, casualties of the new tech world that swallowed our school system due to COVID-19. Goals for summer included travel

Fogged in Today we made a valiant effort to go out to the fjord. After a late brunch we got out in the boat around noon, but had to turn back as a thick bank of fog shrouded the glaciers. It’s just not safe to go out in the fog, given the dangers of icebergs, falling ice if you get too close to

Saturday hike Saturdays here in Ny Ålesund are a little more relaxed. Instead of breakfast and lunch they serve a brunch from 10-11. The weather forecast was also dicey, so we planned to start our field work late, after brunch. Xander, Kelly and I decided to get up early anyway and do a hike

Swapping sand for snow Well, the COVID pandemic has again derailed my narwhal expedition, but never fear! I'm still learning and doing some traveling this summer! Instead of going to the Arctic, I spent a few weeks studying in Boulder City, Nevada, in >110° degree weather - it was one of the

Data Collection Continues Both yesterday and today we spent long and productive days on the fjord. The weather was gorgeous today! It was around 8°C (46°F) with very little wind and bright sunshine. We spent most of the day doing bathymetry (mapping the seafloor) which is very slow work, but with

The past few days have been very busy, so I haven’t had much time to create a blog post. So I’ll catch you up on what we’ve been doing since Friday. ##Evidence of Ice Retreat The sonar bathymetry equipment (for mapping the seafloor depth) is finally working, so we spent the days slowly driving lines

Data Collection, Full Steam Ahead The past two days have been productive days with our data collection. We made several CTD casts and water collection. Sometime in the next few days we will discuss more about how the CTD works and why it is important for our research questions. We need to collect

Ending the Experience but not the Momentum It’s been three weeks since my Alaskan expedition ended. On Friday, June 25th, I made my way down the Dalton back to Fairbanks (a quite uneventful trip down the Dalton, might I add) where I then began my journey home the next day. Two long flights and a

A windy but successful start Today we had a full day out on the fjord. Our main objective was to test out the CTD, water sampler and velocity meter. I also got a chance to do more drone flying. As we drove the boat out towards the glacier face the wind really picked up and the waves seemed too

Well, since my last journal entry in December, my project has changed. Because Jim Thomson's CODA (Coastal Ocean Dynamics of the Arctic) cruise was the last in the grant cycle, I will not be accompanying him on an expedition (Information about their preliminary findings can be found in the 2020