trip to Atqasuk

Guest

How was your trip to Atqasuk? is it very different from Barrow, and do you like it more or less than Barrow? are you only going to be taking the one kind of measurement there, the UNISPEC, or are you going to be taking others?
Hope you are having a good time!

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

Hana
My trip to Atqasuk itself was very cool. The small plane let me see a lot on the ground (of course, looking at the tundra is fairly much the same, but it is surprising how much you can see down there, like I saw some tundra swans, gulls and other birds flying around.) On the way back, the plane goes by Wainwright, which is near the Bering Strait, so we will see more of the ocean and hopefully some whales or polar bears.
Atqasuk is somewhat like Barrow, but very much smaller. There are only Kirstin and myself here as far as scientists go, so it is very quiet. The town is SO SMALL, that there is nothing to do or anywhere to go, and our responsibilities are fairly limited (open the portal at 1 pm and do yesterday's data). So in that way it is different than Barrow where there are lots of scientists and two towers to maintain. But in many ways it is the same. It is primarily Inupiat in population and the people are fairly reserved and keep to themselves. You don't see many people outside, but we did meet some little girls on their bikes on the way back from dinner last night and they showed us the tricks that they could do, like pop a wheelie and ride with one hand. They were very sweet.
On Monday, when Kim comes down, we will do a full set of field measurements, thaw depth, soil moisture and UNISPEC, on the transects near the tower. So it will be the same in that way, but my responsibilities will be the UNISPEC this time, so that I can learn a new instrument.
Thanks for the great questions!