Kevin's Arctic Adventure

The Finale!

2009-03-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Igloo - 0 Kevin - 1

2009-03-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Sleeping in an Igloo while a blizzard brews outside with wind chill of -50? No problem.

The igloo was warm and toasty with an internal temp around -9C (15F) and I snored the night away. Today I decided to take a nice hike around the area while it was a nippy -53F outside. my coldest excursion to date, and I'm glad I was able to get it in before the end of the trip here.

As an aside, i realize I haven't posted anything about the Aurora Borealis. We were lucky enough to be treated to displays 4 nights in a row starting on our first night here. It was truly magnificent. Get a load of these pictures..

An expert on the sun and sky has been staying here with us at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. He is Roger Woloshyn, otherwise known as Starman. He gave a lecture last night about the Northern Lights and how and why they appear so brillantly in the skies here.

The Northern lights are a natural light display usually seen best at night and at the polar region. The sun is a constant star that makes energy all day. There are sunspots on the sun that are getting rid of energy in the form of high speed electrons known as the "solar wind". These particles are shot off the sun and hit earth's atmosphere creating the northern lights when conditions are just perfect.

Igloo Time

2009-03-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder how to build an igloo? Well here is a quick demo clip, and a photo of the completed building. I haven't slept in it yet - but will be sure to let you know. I think tonight might be the night!

Completed structure with Julie, one of the teachers here, by the entrance.

Why the Pits?

2009-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

So - the last video clip I posted talks about what we do when we dig our snow pits and also take core samples of the snowpack. This next clip is of Carly Basler, a research assistant here, talking about why we dig them in the first place.

Want to learn more? Visit this website about the importance of snowpack in Canada. Interesting to note here, given the topic of the website linked above, that Canada has the worlds third largest supply of freshwater.

Diggin' The Pits

2009-03-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

So - we have been digging snow pits for the last few days now. This is a picture of one of my roomates, Dan, in a snowpit over 6 foot deep.

below is a video that describes many of the things we do while in the field. You will hear two words in the video which you probably don't know, Pukak, and Depth Hoar.

Yes they do sound funny, but they are actually two different names for the same type of snow. The former is Inuit and the latter, is well, just misguided. Both terms describe the snow normally found at the bottom layer of the snow pack which have deconstructed their original crystal structures, and have reformed in a larger, ice-like faceted structure.

Want to learn more about snow crystal types? visit this guide to snowflakes.

Into the Field!

2009-03-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

So, not much of a post right now - but this is a fun video so I wanted to share it. Given that we are out on the tundra, with snow drifts in tree zones easily over 6 feet deep, snowshoeing is not much of an option for us. So when we need to get way out from the study center what do we do?

We ride the Quamatuks!

I hope to have another video like this detailing what we are actually working on once we have taken our ride out into the field each day.

Starman also predicts some fantastic "Auroral Displays" tonight, so be on the lookout for some photos.

Stay Tuned!

My Arrival, and First Day

2009-03-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

Im here! And it only took 3 hours on this plane to get here!

After a long odyssey beginning at 3:00 am yesterday, and about 6 hours of sleep last night, I have just completed my first full day here at the Churchill Northern Studies Center. Everything here is well heated and so its super comfy when we are indoors. Also the Polar Bears are out on the Hudson Bay Ice right now eating all the seals, so not too many worries about them lurking around outside.

Anyways, today we spent most of the day inside cutting, measuring and weighing branchlets from trees in the region. We are doing this in order to measure the dessication rate of each sample, to infer the impact that climate variables have on the tree populations.

First we would label the data trays

Clip the Branchlet off of the tip...

Watch out for Nubbins...

Dip it in the Wax...

And weigh the sample...

One of the first people I met at the research center was "Star Man". Star Man, used to work at the local observatory, and is here with a group from Elderhostel teaching them about the Auroa Borealis. I was too tired to check it out last night, but am dedicated to staying out and catching a display from the Aurora tonight. Keep on the look out for some pictures.

The Impending Igloo

2009-02-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

Many of you have asked me about the ostensibly silly claims that I was going to "sleep in an igloo" for a night. Granted, I had no experience to tell you that what I was claiming was not, in fact, insane, here is some proof!

An Earthwatch teacher currently on the expedition writes:

"Yes, we survived our night in the igloo. My teammate, Oonah (a college student from Wales) and I stayed toasty warm; but the smallest member of our team, Eunice (a doctor from Australia) was a little cold all night. All in all, it was a successful night. The temperatures outside were in the mid -20Cs with windchill of -35Cs. Of course we did not have to deal with a windchill since we were in the igloo and the great insulating properties of the snow probably kept the temperatures inside around the -10Cs."

See? Internal temp of -10Cs, that's no biggie. I mean, that's what like 14F? A walk in the park!

The -35Cs (-31F) external temp makes those thick globular snow walls pretty impressive eh?

Wonder how to build on for yourself, read more here.

Big Picture

2009-02-18T17:54:00.001-08:00

So, Ive taken stock of all of my long underwear, hats, gloves, sweaters, and other warm sounding things. I like to trick myself into thinking that all of that fabric will make me comfortable.

I have fielded many questions about the purpose of the research I will be supporting in Churchill. For those of you looking for some more detail you can visit the recently added Arctic Team Landing Page to read more about the project and the scientists working there. You should also visit if you would like to check out the blogs of the teachers I will be working with.

So this upcoming adventure got me thinking about many of the larger concepts that are easily tossed around in daily conversation. It's simply amazing to think that the fact that the fuels we burn and the commutes we make to work impact ecosystems the world over. While that is inherently a "heady" concept - I will hope to bring some simple real world examples of what "Climate Change means" to each of you through this blog. Please comment on my daily posts with your own questions and insights.

That is in fact, what this adventure is all about. How else can we understand or own home, if we do not understand the global ecosystem it depends on?

The Beginning

2009-01-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

So, a day at the office doesn't get much better than when your boss asks if you "want to go to the arctic for a couple weeks". Just so you know, the answer to that question if anyone should ever ask, is pretty much always YES.

I am a sucker for adventure; A couple weeks at a climate change research station at the end of February bodes well for adventure. But I wont pretend to be oblivious to the fact that being anywhere near the arctic circle at the peak of winter is at best uncomfortable, if not down right painful. But it's OK, I have been watching the various cold weather episodes of Man Vs. Wild. All studied up then. Although some of you might hope for it, I do not plan on airdropping myself into the tundra like Bear Grylls.

So on a more serious note, I will be the Facilitator for a team of about 12 Earthwatch volunteers, many of them teachers. Each of the teachers on my team has been awarded a "Live From the Field" Fellowship with Earthwatch Institute, and will be teaching their students from the research station with the rest of the team.

Learn more about Earthwatch's fellowship program
Learn more about the research our team will be supporting

Here is where I will be: