Weather and Other Projects

Guest

How has the weather been up in Barrow, Alaska? In Belling ham to day it was over 90 degrees and humid.
Are there very many other research projects going on in the region near you, if so what are they?

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 74 Location: Barrow, AK

Hello, Brennan!
Yes, I have heard that it is very warm in Washington right now. It was warm today in Barrow also. Nearly 70 F if you can believe it! However, since I have been here, I would say the average daytime temperature was been closer to 40-50 F and usually a bit windy. We had one morning even when it snowed (flurries, but still!)
We have fog roll in quite a bit and it can happen within about 30 minutes. It seems to get foggy in the evening, or in the morning or sometimes all of the sudden in the middle of the day. Hmm, I guess that is pretty widespread . . .
At home, when it is foggy, it is calm usually, but here it can be very windy and foggy at the same time! Other than the fog, it is very dry here. Typically, less than 60 % humidity.

As far as other science, there is A LOT! I live in the "science camp" in Barrow (the NARL) and have met many other scientists and have even had a chance to work with some of them. Some of them I have talked about in my journals (I hope you have a chance to read them), but I can list a few here:
There are lots of people studying migratory birds, especially shorebirds, some of them are from the UW, even.
Michigan State University, has a group here that is studying vegetation on the tundra and does a lot of GPS work for other scientists as well.
There were the oceanographic scientists that came from the Laurier and stayed for about 2 days. Some went home, some got on the US Coast Guard icebreaker, Healy.
There are also a lot of people working at various scientific stations, here. There are the people who work for NOAA at CMDL (Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab). There is a station called ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring), which I think is another NOAA or could be a DOE installation. Throughout the areas around CMDL and the BEO you see small towers, white boxes, markers and other scientific equipment (some is stored in coolers, an insulated, watertight and inexpensive scientific box Smile

). Some of these are monitored throughout the summer and some just sit all year and are checked once or twice a year by their scientists.
Also, there is a large group of Wildlife people here, who either work for the US Fish and Wildlife, Alaska Fish and Wildlife, or the North Slope Borough Wildlife Department.
So as you can see, there are a LOT of other scientists here and we don't always know what everyone else is doing. Some scientists just pass through for a day or two or a couple of weeks, some are here for the summer and some are here year-round.
One of the places that we can learn about what other scientists are doing is the Saturday Science Talks or presentations that are given at the Inupiat Heritage Center. I have talked about some of those in my journals also. Tomorrow, I will go to one about Remote Sensing. Check out my post on Sunday to see what I learned!
Hope you are having a nice summer and finding time to get your solar panel measurements done! Smile

Mrs. N-O