Images of

THE ARCTIC

Summit Science

Photos © 2004 Seth White

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The green house - second largest building on station. Inside are two berths, a TV room, three lab areas, a kitchen, and a bathroom, and under the building is a frozen food storage area. The green house is the location of the brand new shiny BSI SUV-150B spectroradiometer instrument, yessir. The building is composed of three modules, one in the center and two on the sides. The center module was constructed on-site by assembling the various prefab panels, but the two side modules were shipped here whole since they could fit inside a C-130.

Another one of the green house, but from another angle on a snowy day. The partially buried pipe on the left side brings in water from the snow melter, which is attached to the nearby shop/generator building. The partially buried pipe on the right is the sewer line, which goes to an outfall. Yep, sometime in the distant future, a nice brown section of the Greenland ice cap will be revealed to some presumably horrified sightseers somewhere on the coast.

So without further ado, here is what you have been waiting for: a picture of the stuff Jim and I have been working on. There are a computer, electronics racks, and other scientific hardware down below, but this is the cooler-looking stuff. On the little plywood/unistrut shelf, there are several auxilliary instruments: a temperature sensor, a GPS receiver, a BSI-manufactured "GUV" instrument (ground ultraviolet) and an Eppley-made "PSP" sensor (precision spectral pyranometer). To the right, the hatch houses the optical collector for the main instrument, the SUV-150B spectroradiometer. This instrument performs the same function as the SUV-100 I've been working on in the Antarctic, however it is the new-school shizzle. Many significant design improvements and upgrades have been made. Even the control software has been overhauled. A lot of work went into the redesign of this instrument, and it shows (I actually mean this - I'm not just sucking up to my wonderful, amazing, and downright awe-inspiring employers...although I do love them and I want to have their babies). The installation has gone very well overall, and we're nearly done. Just crossing t's and dotting i's right now. It's Thursday August 12, and we're supposed to leave Summit on Tuesday the 17th. We'll be leaving Kangerlussuaq on the 21st...which is excellent. We'll have a couple days to check out the surrounding areas and will also be able to attend the end-of-season party. Oh, and if you are dying to know more about BSI's brilliant and astonishingly fabulous instruments of science, click here - I'm getting $0.50 each time someone clicks on this link :-).

A while ago I went out to the RAMAS hut with Sven to see what was inside. He is a Ph.D. student from the U. of Bremen, and is here getting this system operational and ready for winter operation. The hut itself was shipped here whole.

Another look at the hut itself.

RAMAS stands for Radiometer for Atmospheric Measurements at Summit. The idea is to observe microwave-level radiation coming from the stratosphere and deduce information about the amount and altitude of the compounds that give off this radiation. In particular, their measurements will include nitrous oxide, nitric acid, ozone, chlorine monoxide, and other compounds. There is nothing like this instrument at McMurdo or Palmer, however there are numerous microwave instruments at South Pole. The main reason for this is that water vapor in the troposphere attenuates the microwave radiation (think water molecules being excited by microwaves inside a microwave oven). So it is optimal to do these measurements at high, dry places. And if you're studying ozone loss, you gotta do it in the polar regions. Ergo, Summit Camp: a high, dry, year-round Arctic research station. The field of view of the instrument is actually directly out the window on the left. There is a liquid nitrogen system to cool the detector, some extremely high frequency electronics, and an array of precision optics on the bench. This is the most sophisticated system at Summit, no doubt about it. If your curiosity has not yet been satiated, click here for the official RAMAS webpage.

Here is Sven, LN2 ice cream maker, DJ, Risk player, and overall good guy, with the instrument. There was supposed to be another person here to help out, but unfortunately this didn't work out and he's been putting in a ton of work getting the system running and automated.

About 1/4 mile from the big house, the Swiss Tower sticks out of the snow. This tower is used by Eidenossische Technische Hochschule, aka the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. It used to be 50 m tall but was seriously damaged during a severe winter storm. At the close of this summer's season it is 38 m tall, but it will be extended back to the full 50 m next season. There are currently a few anemometers and temperature sensors attached near ground level, and the plan is to install more up to the top of the tower. It is used to study snow-air interactions in the low boundary layer.

Another one, looking up the tower.

The base of the Swiss Tower - temp sensors on the left and anemometers (wind sensors) on the right.

More instruments operated by the Swiss: two downward-looking radiometers. These, presumably, are monitoring the albedo (reflectivity) of the snow. The albedo is directly related to the amount of heat absorbed by the snow, and it can be affected by the age of the snow, its density, and other factors.

Nearby, there is another Swiss setup - a set of solar tracking instruments. The setup is designed so that the sensors will point directly at the sun, following its azimuth and zenith angles.

A photo of the Two Towers - one for Sauron and one for Saruman. The shorter one is the Science Tower, which used to be the tallest thing around until the Swiss Tower was built. I don't know exactly what types of instruments are installed on this tower, but there are quite a few. No doubt they are studying, among other things, chemical interactions between the snow and atmosphere, which as it turns out, are quite important in the study of global climate change. Scientists are realizing that the Greenland ice sheet is of major importance to the world climate, and Summit Camp is an ideal place to do research into the exact mechanisms. Both the science tower and Swiss tower are located in the clean air sector. Like South Pole, there is a definite prevailing wind direction at Summit Camp. The clean air sector is located upwind of the station, and is home to numerous ongoing projects. For much more click here. I have been meaning to read through the research section of this site and get a better understanding of what's going on here, but haven't done so yet. And it's now 12:30 AM...so I'm heading to my tent pretty soon.

I tagged along with Katie (hep sista and current science tech) on her rounds last week, and we visited a number of sites around the camp. Interestingly, as we were walking along I could have sworn I heard this "swish" sound coming from the snow around me. I figured it was my imagination, but then I heard it again. I asked her what the heck that was, and she told me it's the top layer of snow settling down. Evidently, the top layer gets fairly unstable if it sits undisturbed long enough, and the vibrations of your feet are often enough to trigger a collapse in the snow nearby. Sometimes a wide area of snow will collapse, and the sound will last for a while. She was actually at South Pole in 02-03, and told me that you can get some pretty awesome sounds if you happen to walk by the right patch of snow at the right time. I walked out to the end of the runway a few days ago and heard some more of these cool sounds. I can't believe I never heard this before now. Anyway, here is the science tower again, with the entrance to the "science trench". For obvious reasons, having a hut close to the science tower is very useful. However, an above-ground structure would disrupt wind flow and alter the chemistry of the immediate atmosphere. So a trench was dug into the snow and various data recording systems, communication devices, and sampling systems were installed.

A view down into the trench.

Another view, but this time looking back up the stairway from the bottom.

This passageway really reminded me of the tunnels underneath the South Pole station.

This is the science trench itself. The white box in the middle is being used by a beaker from INSTAAR (at CU Boulder - it's amazing how many ice people have Boulder connections...both because many ice people tend to be "Boulderite" kind of people or because they are associated with some research organization there). Anyway, the project in question concerns ground level ozone. To the left of it are all the cables and tubes coming in from the science tower. There are several other pieces of equipment here, including electronics for a seismometer located a ways out in the ice, gas sampling equipment, and a noose hanging from the ceiling (in case of emergencies). There are quite a few more science projects going on at Summit than I thought, and in fact there are actually two science techs. Summit is a little strange, however, in the fact that having technical training or background is not a requirement for being a "science tech" here, as evidenced by several of the past science techs and one of the new techs who just arrived for the next 3-month phase (although he's very experienced on the ice and seems like a really good guy). This is astounding, considering the large amount of science that is being done here, especially the sensitive and sophisticated BSI instrument (OK, I'm biased) and the RAMAS system. However, the other science tech for the next phase is pretty savvy about science and technology.

As an afterthought, here is the "before" picture of our corner of the green house, as it was when we arrived.

And this is the "after" shot, i.e. how it looked the day we left. One ACME spectroradiometer with all the bells and whistles, furiously collecting UV data. The white box attached to the wall houses the main body of the instrument - the monochromator, the PMT, calibration lamps, various optics, heaters/fans, etc. The grey cable coming out from the black tube on the right of the box is the fiber cable which goes to the optical collector mounted in the roof hatch.

The collector cylinder itself.