Getting into the swing of things

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 72

I am starting to get more comfortable with camp life now, at least partly because the winds are no longer howling like crazy. It was nice out today, about –18 degrees, but the winds were much calmer. It sure made getting around much easier!

The plane that was supposed to land yesterday finally made it in today. It brought equipment for some of the researchers. I got put to work- dragging a sled of equipment to the greenhouse!
http://archive.arcus.org/TREC/downloads/movie3.mpg
DOWNLOAD - Movie 3 (On a PC, right click - "Save Target As..." or on a Mac, right click - "Download Linked File As..." )

After making that delivery, I went out to the skiway to watch the plane take off. I got to drive a snowmobile out to the skiway! That was the first time I’ve driven a snowmobile, and it was fun! Plane takeoff was really cool. I have attached a video. If you look closely, you can see rocket boosters on the side of the plane. They need to use these sometimes because on a runway made of snow, it is difficult for the plane to build up the speed needed to take off without them.
http://archive.arcus.org/TREC/downloads/movie4.mpg
DOWNLOAD - Movie 4

I then took a walk out to the satellite lab to check on the science. I spent some time talking with a couple of researchers about their particular experiments. Here is what I learned, but you need to keep in mind that I am only beginning to learn, and these are extremely simplified explanations of what is going on:

Andreas is doing an experiment that collects air samples from inside the snow. He injects those samples with a chemical which helps him to detect how quickly air is moving through the snow.

Eddie is freezing ice pellets with a chemical that helps to detect how much OH (- this chemical is a good one- it is known as a “cleaner” of the atmosphere) is being created inside those samples.

After talking with Andreas and Eddie, I went outside to see what the sun shading experiments are all about. In this experiment, a shared probe is stuck into snow that has not been disturbed. There are many sensors connected to this probe, some measuring chemicals like formaldehyde, nitrous oxide, and hydrogen peroxide. The idea is to see if they can figure out how much sunlight affects the amounts of these chemicals produced in the snow. What they do is to take many samples, taking turns allowing the sun to shine on the probe, and then blocking the sun out. The data they have collected definitely shows a direct correlation between sunlight and an increase in the production of these chemicals in the snow pack!

This is a picture of the shading experiment setup. You can see the testing probe, and that in this picture it is protected from sunlight.

On the left side of this graphic, you see levels of sunlight (colored lines marked in the box). The kind of puffy purple is the level of Nitric Acid (this is a chemical that comes from pollutants). You can clearly see that as the sunlight increases, so do the amounts of NO!! (Look at noon, when sunlight is its strongest for example).

It is a lot to learn about, and I am only beginning to scratch the surface.

This afternoon we had a teleconference with Kewaskum Elementary 4th graders from Mrs. Rose’ class, and then had two teleconference sessions with my 8th graders. I think all of the sessions went well, and I hope everyone else does, too. I hope that my students are working on coming up with thoughtful questions for next week Tuesday’s session!

The day ended with a meeting to discuss the rest of the science team’s time at camp. They planned out many of the final experiments, and also scheduled who I will be visiting with and learning from for the rest of my visit. I am looking forward to the rest of my learning experience, and will relay everything to you.

It was a busy day, but I think things are now in full swing!

Nikki