Over the weekend I left Barrow and the arctic coast behind and arrived in Fairbanks. All of the Birch, Aspen and Spruce trees were a welcome sight after being on the arctic ocean for several days! The weather here is a little different than what I was experiencing in Barrow. The wind isn't blowing and the temperature is already in the high 20's F. It is a bit overcast, but still sunny out today.

Hajo Eicken works at the Geophysical Institute, which is on the University of Alaska-Fairbanks campus. So, our expedition follows like that of a research scientist from fieldwork to lab work. This morning, I met up with Hajo at his cold lab. The cold lab is quite interesting. It is basically a large walk-in freezer (like that at a restaurant or supermarket) that is built within a regular lab facility. There is a band saw, a microtome, a microscope and a bunch of electronic equipment. They can regulate the temperature inside the cold lab from right at 0° C to -40° C. The electronic equipment is actually hooked up to the microscope and once they have what they want to look at underneath the microscope they leave the cold lab. Outside of the cold lab they have computers and imaging software that enables them to sit in a nice warm lab and look at the ice samples on a computer screen. That sounds much better than peering into a microscope when it is -40° C!!!

Hajo showed me some amazing pictures of brine pores, that make quite beautiful photographs. He also showed me some pictures of diatoms trapped within brine pores. You can take a look at some examples in the posts in the discussion and the photos associated with today's lesson.

Tomorrow we meet with Hajo and we will be discussing the impacts of climate change on our local communities. See you tomorrow for our final adventure on the Arctic Alive Expedition.
Patrick