SummerAtSummit

For reference, any times stamped on wordpress sites are in UTC time.  I may refer to local time or UTC time in future posts, so keep in mind that Greenland is -0200 UTC and New Hampshire is -0400 UTC…meaning that noon at Summit will be 10am in NH, 9am in MN…etc.

I’ll be on the road tomorrow afternoon, with an overnight stay in scenic Schenectady, NY. We need to be at the air base around 5am Monday for our flight out later in the morning. The flight is supposed to take about 7 hours, with us landing at Kangerlussauq, Greenland. The flight to Summit will be Tuesday, and that’s where I’m scheduled to sit for about 6 weeks. On the way back I’ll fly from Summit to Kangerlussauq on July 10, then back to NY on July 12. That’s not such a long time, is it? To fill some of my down time I will be bringing a few books and some cds for entertainment (though my effort to finish wading through The Federalist Papers may not qualify as entertaining). I’m sure I will also spend some time each day just quietly soaking in my surroundings, remembering winters in Grand Forks, and enjoying my first trip abroad.

Remember, comments and e-mails are and will be greatly appreciated. This is a free service I’m providing to you, so you owe me! Besides, some of you might also get a kick out of the image of me reading your messages from my perch atop the ice sheet. Next post will be from Summit!!

Getting one more thing crossed off my list right now by setting this up. A week from today I will be en route to my summer home for 6 weeks, which is hard to believe since this has all been about 15 months in the making. Everything has gone smoothly as far as prep work is concerned and I made it through my first year back in school, so I’m still happy to be going down this road. If you haven’t heard or don’t remember where I’m headed, here’s a map for you:

http://www.polartrec.com/gallery/maps/2007/greenland-snow-studies/summit.jpg.html

Summit is located at the top of the Greenland ice sheet, ~3200 meters above sea level. From an air base in NY, I’ll go to the Canadian coast and on to Kangerlussuaq. I’m told that from there it’s just a quick plane ride to Summit, which is located on a plateau that is the highest point north of the Arctic circle.

While up there, I will be collecting/analyzing snow and air samples to build upon previous research performed by my advisor (Jack Dibb) and a host of other scientists. During the time I’m at Summit I will be around a lot of people who are very knowledgeable in their respective disciplines, so it should be a good learning experience. Here’s a little video that explains things in some detail (there’s a part 2 if you want to see more, but I won’t post it here)

Looks like fun, right? It should be a good time and definitely a unique way to spend a summer.

-Jeff