SummerAtSummit

Been a few days of coping for me, just trying to keep things running for another week or so before shutdown.  I’ve remarked to a couple people that the data coming out isn’t looking that great in my opinion, but I have to remember that it’s important that there is still some being generated.  Speaking of generated, the main power supply for camp has been an unwelcome contributor to all the air measurements going on for much of the last week.  Sat Camp is located to the south of the working portion of Summit, where there is a diesel generator and some heavy equipment that put off a lot of exhaust and fine particles.  In a typical year (whatever that is), winds around this part of the globe tend to be from the south…you may have correctly supposed that it is not so in 2008.  In fact, we had had north-northeast winds most often and that means camp air drifts right over the “clean sector”.  The forecast is for winds to slowly shift to the east and then southeast over the next 30 hours, so hopefully that will come to pass.

I have set up a time to go dig a snow pit (about 5 hours from now), but I had to stay up late and try to get the Gray Box running smoothly so now I’m in a bind of 2am sunshine and fatigue.  It seems that the best thing for me to do is post a few things that I’ve learned during the past month since I need to do something while having a snack.

–>First off, I’m a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t notice that one usually can’t see one’s breath when exhaling.  I just didn’t think much about it and there are times when it’s visible, but in most cases there aren’t enough particles for the water vapor to condense on…as one who has spent his winters in northern climes, I think that it is “cool” to experience this.  Luke, a particle guy from UNH, mentioned it to me…I’ve found it to be a way to see how much camp air is drifting over the science area at Sat Camp.

–>An odd thing about the science people that I’ve met while up here is that most are from the southern half of the country.  There are researchers/students from Georgia Tech, the University of Houston, University of California-Irvine, and San Jose State (CA)…in fact, the only other northerner I can think of is Craig, the teacher from Montana.  I suppose that more pollution and worse air quality is a good reason for atmospheric chemistry to be focused in those areas.  I do enjoy seeing some of them experience a little cold.  One student really enjoyed shoveling, a couple others have the heaters turned up way too high, and the gear that some of them are sporting is quite intense.  There’s a lot of North Face and Patagonia gear that won’t see much use after next week…then there’s me, who is probably the only person up here with a winter coat that has a busted zipper and a hiking boot that broke a hook (now being held on by a zip tie):

No hardship though, since they still serve their purpose.  If my grandpa were around, I know he’d get a kick out of it.

–>I’ve had an appreciation for the difficulty that asthma brings to a person’s daily life, especially during those times when my mom is really suffering.  Still, it is quite another thing to feel similar discomfort myself.  I didn’t have it too rough at first and managed to avoid getting a headache or other altitude-related symptom, but the diminished oxygen is something one can’t avoid.  It’s been a month now and I feel pretty good, but there are still times when I slow my breathing down too much and have to work to get O2 back into my system.  This is particularly true when trying to fall asleep at night, but even walking out to Sat Camp can lead to a couple gasps if my breathing’s off.  I have worked myself up to jogging the path…slowly improving from a gasping 4:30 for the 1/2 mile distance to under 4 minutes.  May not seem like it, but that’s pretty good given the conditions and that I’m wearing hiking boots and a winter coat.  (yes, it did cross my mind that I might be a little too active for the type of footwear I have and that may have been a big part in the rivet failure).

–>It’s late, even for me, so I’ll wrap up by saying that there’s a lot more for me to learn during the next week.  I was planning on making this longer, but I still haven’t gotten around to all the little places in camp because I’ve been busy with my own stuff.  I’ll fix that in the next few days.  I’ll throw out a couple pics from the pit and some shots of the other instruments that are toiling away in this extreme environment.  In the meantime, here are a couple recent photos as I bid you good night.  -Jeff

Bonnie and Katrine, a couple of those wacky southerners really getting into the snow/ice removal from the Sat Camp doorway

The closest thing I’ve seen to a sunset in the past month

The logistics for this beer run would probably make any story you have pale in comparison.  Needless to say, Craig’s a happy guy that it worked out.

Lastly, a different Craig prepping a radiosonde for launch.  He was kind enough to let me have the honors, but unfortunately my camera’s video file is not a type that I can post here.  You’ll either have to ask to see it in person or just take my word for it  : )

So it looks like all the things are up and running smoothly, so there won’t be any more headaches for the next 4 weeks. (yeah, right) The bulk of my time spent working revolves around use of ion chromatography to determine the concentrations of certain species in various types of samples. The main focus is air samples, but analyzing firn air (at about 10 cm depth) and aerosols (i.e. really small particles in air) are also part of my job description. Yesterday I posted a couple photos of the interior of “Sat Camp” and one of the IC systems, which is the building in the distance of some previous images. The building is where I spend most of my time, thankfully not always working on that apparatus. Here is an interior shot:

The pen in front is for scale. A liquid sample is placed in the small brown bottle to the left of the pen, drawn into the system by a syringe pump at the back of the box, and then sent through either an anion (negative charge) or cation (positive charge) column. Fortunately it isn’t as complicated as it looks and I won’t make it sound too technical. Luke, the other UNH student who is up here for a few weeks and training me on everything, summed it up to me by saying that we are basically glorified plumbers. In a sense it’s accurate, since my biggest responsibility is to get the liquid from one end of the system to the other. The internal pressure is generally from 1500 – 2000 psi, so leaks can and do happen, but I don’t have to worry about making integral parts.

Here are a couple more pictures to fill out this post.

Here’s the view out of the back door of the building after most of the drifting was done. I’ll leave you with a cool shot from outside so those of you sweltering in summer heat can cool off for a bit.

I see now that it’s around 2am, so that should be it for me…as usual, there will be more to come. -Jeff

Made it through the big storm today. Forecast worked out alright with high of 21 (guessed 23) and peak wind of 28 (guessed 30). As promised, I will get into a little what I’ve spent my time doing up here…first, a couple shots of my home away from home away from home:

This is the larger building that you can see in the distance from ‘The Big House’ (as seen previously). I get to hang out in the lower right-hand corner of this frame. Here’s a direct shot of one of the ion chromatography systems that has been confounding me:

I’ll get a shot of the innards tomorrow…

The other spot I spend most of my time is a little way beyond this building. Here’s what it looked like through the back door this evening:

It’s the “building” on the right. In case you were wondering, it was as cold as it looks in this photo. In fact, I almost got frostbite on all 10 of my fingers tonight. Part of my job description is to collect surface snow samples twice a day. This requires using 2 pair of thin poly gloves, scraping up snow using a sqaure of plastic, and using a funnel to put in in a 175 ml bottle that I washed a couple months ago. Well, those glove are not very warm and after handling and filling 3 bottles tonight (doing this in the ‘clean’ area), I ran back indoors and used anything I could find to warm up my fingers. They were all purple to the second knuckle, but 3 hours later only 2 are numb. I would have taken a picture, but at the time I just couldn’t make the camera work. (Sorry Mom, I’m not trying to scare you:)

Here are a couple more shots of the conditions today:

This is another one of my patented ‘where is the horizon?’ photos

A prof from the University of Houston and a HS teacher from Billings, MT planting flags out by where they fly the tethersondes

One of the more athletic people who can get around on skies that he brought. The rest of us who work out at “Sat Camp” walk back and forth a few times each day. It was pretty challenging tonight since there was a strong headwind and the path was hard to see and had plenty of drifts. Some of the weaker ones had to stop for some refreshment on the way:

Just to impress everyone who thought my thoughts about the mild 12 degrees was cool, here’s what my hand looked like after I walked back to The Big House (about 1/2 mile) drinking a brew…between the cold and the low pressure, it was kinda foamy and my glove looked like this:

Now I’ll sit back and wait for the comments on what’s in my hand…

So after a handful of calm and foggy days it looks like a storm will bring some wind and snow to camp.  I don’t have much to say, but wanted to let people know that I’m still here and working away.  Like I have said previously, I will get some pics and descriptions of a typical day on here…soon.  In the meantime, here’s a fogbow:

You know what?  I think that photo is good enough to stand by itself.  Assuming my “forecast” works out, I’m expecting to have a few minutes on my hands this weekend so there will be more later.  -Jeff