Random updates

No big news to report, but a few tidbits. The met tower and profiler from the field study (pictured above) have been taken down and the campaign is officially over. There are a few lingering things to do, but mostly now its get everything back to the lab and help Dea with data analysis.

A couple days ago these two critters livened up my drive to school. Good thing I turned left to check the PO box! They just strolled along like it was their own backyard, pouncing on each other and peeing on things like two dogs with no human to report to.


So that's Julie, and that's a weather balloon. She is doing some research on inversion layers in Fairbanks (they can become very strong around here). In order to track the inversion over the course of the night, she launches a balloon every few hours. They record temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and location via GPS. With this a whole slew of things can be calculated.

This computer program tracks the balloon's progress and location, takes in data, and spits out a bunch of calculations.

So Julie let me launch this one. Its big and buoyant. I imagine it swelled to a huge size at high altitudes. Ready? Release! We even got clearance from the nearby FAI Control Tower.


Let the balloon go and let it yank the radiosonde (little white box with all the instrumentation in it) right out of my hand. The computer program recognizes an immediate change and kick starts the data collection. Cool. I think I'll always have a soft spot for meteorology.

I'm off to Homer, AK for the Thanksgiving weekend with Oliver and Brittany. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Snows and skis

The snow is stacking up these days, turning Fairbanks into a true winter wonderland - complete with temperatures well below zero. The other night my car thermometer registered a -22F in the lowest part of Goldstream Valley! Lucky for me, I am at a slightly higher elevation.


The snow falls so slowly and steadily that it can balance on just about anything. Its even a surprise when the wind blows. Here the branches have caught snow well beyond their size and are feeling the weight.

All this snow means it is time to hit the trail! I've been doing some classic cross country skiing on trails around campus for exercise. Last weekend Oliver, Brittany, and I trekked out on a trail only about 30 miles out of town. But as you can see, it doesn't take very long to isolated...

Here I admire the master winter fire-maker at work. Those Norwegians know how to do winter!

One pair of socks wasn't quite enough at -5F, so I had some warming up to do. Also pictured is Oliver's pot of campfire hot cocoa (stirring with a stick). Pure awesome. Like I said, Norwegians know how to do winter!


The angle of the low winter sun make for some spectacular lighting. This is about mid-afternoon. The above photo is my favorite winter shot yet. You can click on it to see a larger version.

Meh, it's only zero

I was hesitant to inhale as the hot, humid air hit my face and engulfed the rest of my body. A little sniff through the nose brought a tingle to my nose hairs. "Relax, and take a deep breath," I told myself. "Your lungs have to like this more than the cold air out there." Sure enough, the hot, moist air rich with the scent of citrus oil was nothing but pleasing, relaxing the lungs and enriching the skin.
We sat in the hand built, cedar sauna for a couple hours. I listened to the veteran hang glider pilot and the young, but experienced, paraglider pilot swap stories. Stories of soaring above the clouds, looking down on storms, drives to the middle of nowhere, and the feeling of slicing the air in a turn as if you were skiing. I sat back, gulped water to try to cool down, but had to learn to accept the heat. "Oh yeah," I thought. "This is what it feels like to be hot."
I quickly came to the point where I didn't think twice to stand naked outside. It was a welcome chill. With my body core temperature well above normal I came to embrace the frigid break to watch the snow slowly drift to the ground.
Afterwards, I insinuated I was ready to leave for the evening and stated, "Pretty cold out there, gonna have to warm up the car for a while?" He took a quick glance at the thermometer out the window. "Meh," he replied, "it's only zero."

Mom, Dad, and Sky

Now that I am somewhat settled and into a groove of things, it was time for a parental visit! Mom and Dad came up for the weekend, last weekend, just in time for a drop in temperature. It was wonderful to see them, and they enjoyed their visit.
Winter is here, and so is a halfway decent snowpack. There was no wasting time when they arrived. We went straight from the airport to Creamer's Field were I got to try my hand at skijoring!
Pictured at right is Dan, he was kind enough to let me get hitched up to his dog, Sky (front and center). Sky was hyped up and ready to go!
Myself being quite the newbie, Sky got tired pretty fast. The idea, when you're good, is that you skate ski along and the dog assists by pulling. I, however, didn't get to skating much and Sky pretty much pulled me all around the field.
The rest of the Mom and Dad visit consisted of coffee shops, showing them around the school, and my cabin.
Mom and me out front.
The outhouse was hit. They handled the dry cabin livin' like champs!
We also took a drive out to the infamous hut. This is where all my research is currently going on. I haven't really blogged about it, since part of an outreach program is a blog of the research! This can be found here: http://n2o5.blogspot.com I'll link it from my page. It is mostly upkept by Dea, but I post every so often. Let me know if you have any questions!
Chugging right along up here. It will be Christmas before you know it. Also, I should be switching cabins (same property, just an upgrade) in the next week or two. Hope all is well with everyone.
Patrick

Denali Hwy

Not to be confused with the Park Road that goes into Denali National Park, the Denali Highway is a beat-up dirt road that runs ~130mi from Cantwell E-W along the south side of the Alaska Range. This makes it ideal for driving till you feel like stopping, getting out and hiking away. Oliver, Brittany, and I did just that.


This sign greeted us on the trip. Scary, yes, but its there to stop ill-prepared people from getting into an ugly situation in winter time (blowing snow, -40F, deep powder). Considering we still had not gotten our real first substantial snow-fall, we were okay.

Oliver taking in the scenery with his d40. He taught me a valuable lesson: always bring your nice camera! The water in this shot on the right is part of the most elaborate beaver dam I have ever seen. Multiple ponds, dams wider than a house, tons of water.

It was a bit frosty in the morning, but this view and hot cup of coffee is hard to beat.


So just how big is a moose? Well, they like to chew on trees to eat the bark and the stuff right underneath. Its common to come upon a tree like the one pictured here, gnawed down to the wood just above head level. So put the moose head where you see the bare part of the tree - and there's your scale. Moose are really big. We ended up seeing 1 browsing around in the morning, 2 on the hike out, and another 2 crossing the road on the drive out.

Oliver snapped this one.