Phase 2: Leaving Terra Firma

Today (Saturday) is the final transfer for Cathy and Robert, to Deadhorse AK on the Northern coast of Alaska, from where they are taken to the ice camp by airplane. Colleagues of theirs had already made the trek to the camp and found out that some equipment had not yet been delivered, but that problem was apparently solved.

The attraction of Deadhorse is its airport. The village is next to the commercial Prudhoe bay oil extraction facility (which in turn is the starting point of the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline). See google maps for an overview. Note the blurring of the image at the coastline (...).

Cathy and Robert had an event-filled week. The outing to Fort Yukon, AK, was a success and an educating experience for all (see many details in Robert's journal, and through Cathy's e-mail at a second blog). While Fort Yukon has great telecommunication connection to the rest of the US, Cathy tried the satellite phone nevertheless. It is from the Iridium satellite network. It is an experience (just as described in the link), because conversations are more than 1 second latent (puts a serious damper onto spontaneity), and the voice spectrum is pretty mangled that the listener assumes a serious case of laryngitis - which was not the case, by the way. But it is better than nothing, and this will be the type of device with which the researchers at the ice camp can keep in touch with the homebases. Since Cathy is involved in remote sensing (satellite imagery), it is planned to physically carve a daily data DVD and shuttle it (helicopter/airplane) to and from the ice camp to Deadhorse and Fairbanks. One aspect of the experiment is to make use of the near real-time satellite ice field assessment to plan, alter, and execute the ground measurements.

Note added a few hours after the original post: I was the lucky recipient of the first Iridium call from the ice camp. Cathy and Robert made it right up, with almost no layover in Deadhorse. They are well, and excited, and things at the camp are going well. They are basically unpacking and setting themselves up. With such a wonderful instant feedback from the polar cap, I vow to not speak negatively again of the Iridium system ... !

The caller ID stated "out of area."

The weather is nice, some wind, and -20F; the Sun is low in the sky. The flight was interesting, and so was apparently the landing. But details of that will have to wait to when a DVD or CD makes it out of the camp, and the info to me.

Almost a week ago an array of GPS buoys was deployed and anchored to the drifting ice. The deployment occurred in a strategic pattern that will allow to assess the fundamentals of sea ice motion; see the track picture below and the location overview at this link. When the science portion of the ice camp gets under way, another set of stress/strain measuring devices is going to be deployed.
Caption for figure above: Location tracks of the moored ice buoys. The diameter of the outer formation is roughly 200 km. The formation participates in common drift, but also in subtle changes in relation to each other (stress/strain/divergence).