Today we had the snow gear in better shape. We took two sleds (one for personal gear to stay warm and one for science gear). This worked out well because the sleds weren’t heavy and things were accessibly laid out. We went down line #4 with Jackie and Bruce coming behind us and then passing us. As we were learning, we found out that it was necessary to cover up the snow hole once completed to minimize topographic changes especially to prevent the build up of too much sastrugi along our line. We also discovered that it was best to follow behind Bruce and Jackie as they had less invasive instruments. The magnaprobe that Jackie was working left a small 1 cm hole that we could find at the stake. Since that measured snow depth, it was ideal to make the bulk density right on top of that hole as a cross calibration. We had improved in technique since the day before and were now moving at double speed. At the 400m line we called to command to let Bill Simpson know we were just about to do a snow pit. He came out with a binocular microscope that Matthew Sturm had loaned him and it was just super to see the ice crystals with this little portable microscope. The depth hoar was just lovely with big pyramid looking crystals as large as 1 cm that literally looked like diamonds. He also showed us the mid-layer which looked like storm trooper space ships with bullet crystals lined up in columns with capped ends. We entered a full stratigraphy including crystallography citing Bill’s expertise as the resource for that classification.
At the end of line #4 we finished the survey and looked at the lead which had formed at the very end of it. Pablo had put a buoy in there so we had a few minutes to look and enjoy. Katharine felt this was an appropriate time to make snow angels so we celebrated the end of the line doing that. Stephanie the cook arrived shortly thereafter and so we chatted with her. We wrapped up the equipment and all 4 of us walked back to camp for lunch. We transferred all the data from the note book to an excel sheet, weighed all the samples, and checked the data. It looked good. After lunch we set out again this time behind Bruce and Jackie and did Line #2. We finished and came back to camp by 5pm with time to spare for data logging and snow weights. We had our system down and hope to get the remaining legs done by tomorrow’s end.
The components for the ground penetrating radar arrived today, so as soon as the snow analysis is wrapped up, that is my next job. At a 5pm meeting of the PIs, Jen and I decided to plan a field trip for tomorrow out to the active region at the end of line #5. We will check the status of the buoys to ensure they are recording properly and then take a compass and tape measure to look at some finger rafting.
Things have slowly begun settling into a real science pace with one experiment following the other. Because we only get 2-3 days for each item, I have found it important to spend about a half day prepping that cargo we need to haul and then another half day doing one leg to get the procedure down. By the 3rd day we have it down but then it is over and time to plan the layout of the next experiment.
Never a dull moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment