A weekend of catching up - and some first quick looks from CryoSAR

 

Days 5-6: Rest, run, read, walk, work and general catch up. After an intensive week of travel and flight survey activity, the weather was less cooperative and so we had a quiet couple of days. Here is a run down (in no particular order) of activities over the weekend:

  • Looked at the weather forecast (if you’ve not checked out the app called “Windy” do so – it’s a must for the aviation sector and flight planning)
  • Walked to the grocery store to re-stock provisions (although it is generally 1/3 more expensive than Ontario food prices, the costs will likely increase more as we head to Resolute Bay and Cambridge Bay).
  • Looked at the weather forecast (again)
  • Watched a couple of football matches (via internet) :(.  (don’t ask!)
  • Caught up with emails (well, to some extent)
  • Went for a run around Inuvik (Richard is signed up for the Ottawa Marathon at the end of May – how's that training going Richard?)
  • Looked at the weather forecast (again)
  • Went for a walk around Inuvik
  • Reinstalled the corner reflector target ready for Monday and Tuesday’s flights (see banner photo at the top of this post)
  • Discussed with various groups about next survey locations (e.g. Cambridge Bay, Devon Ice cap)
  • Looked at the weather forecast (again)
  • Discussed with Alan the pilot about flight plans for the next couple of days (tried to stave off waypoint issue before they happen – we think this is now successful)
  • Wrote emails notifying several ISED licensees that we will be flying tomorrow and Tuesday and activating our radar (we have to notify other licensees of our plans)
  • Managed to see some quick looks from the radar demonstrating success with acquisitions (this required sending large volumes of data to Wei at UW who provided some rapid processing of the CryoSAR data - awesome work)
  • Backed up a *very* large amount of data onto storage drives (from 4 instruments -this is a non-trivial task)
  • Started a customs list for the group who will head on from Canada to Greenland and Svalbard.
  • Welcomed a new first officer, Kyle, to the team. He will work with Alan for the onward flights.
  • Went to the aircraft hanger to organise scientific and aircraft equipment (flying around these remote places requires significant planning and organising, especially when crossing international borders)
  • We cooked dinners!
  • Looked at the weather forecast (again)
  • ….there is more, I am sure, so this list may grow

The photos below illustrate some of these activities – but guess which one is missing!

 

 
View from the upstairs window (-11C and cool)

 
Towards the MacKenzie River

 
Driving out of town to collect the corner reflector

 
Expert culinary prowess being demonstrated by our fearless leader

 
Out for a run around town

 
The Western Arctic Regional Visitors' Centre

 
All your needs from here

 
Looking east to the airport road

 
West towards the ice road
 
A run around town

 
Out of town to the corner reflector

 
Re-installation of the corner reflector
 
CryoSAR quick look L-band Cross Pol image of the region around our calibration target. This is super exciting that we are getting encouraging data from the L-band
 
CryoSAR quick look Ku-band Co-Pol (VV) image of the region around our calibration target. This data set is always challenging to process but the scene looks promising (although it is a bot rough and ready.
 
 
Two junior sous chefs trying to emulate the main chefs from the previous night, one of whom is looking downwards with trepidation/disbelief at what he sees.

Tomorrow: TVC survey flight #2.




 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to the Arctic 2024 campaign

Image
Welcome to the Icebird and CryoSAR Canadian High Arctic 2024 campaign blog. We are group of scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (or AWI) in Germany, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada, interested in the science of snow and ice. Our expertise lies at the interface of geophysics, physical geography, physics and engineering and our science has implications for our understanding of the cryosphere (all places where water is frozen) and its impact on climate change. This campaign, called Icebird-CAN24, focuses on observing snow and ice using remote sensing observations mounted on an aircraft. The photo above is the Polar 5 AWI research aircraft , a reconditioned 1943 DC-3 which is used for Arctic and Antarctic observation science. The goal of this campaign is to observe the Arctic cryosphere at different places in Canada from the Polar 5 using state of the art measurements: AWI's wideban
Read more

Yellowknife to Inuvik

Image
Day 2: Yellowknife to Inuvik Today was a travel day 2/2 to get to Inuvik. Canadian North fly from Yellowknife directly to Inuvik via Normal Wells, also on the Mackenzie River. We met up with the AWI and FMI team members in Yellowknife since their flight from Edmonton was the one we would join to get us to Inuvik. The flight was easy and uneventful and we arrived to see that the Polar 5 had already made it there before us. The crew took about 19 hours to fly from Muskoka to Inuvik, stopping at Thompson (MB) and Yellowknife (NWT) en route.     YZF – YVQ - YEV Jobs for the day: - Get to Inuvik :) - Help unpack (done by the fantastic flight crew) :) - Help sort out the gear – we are able to make use of the Aklak Air hanger to get our gear sorted and stored. :) Martin, one of the AWI team members is an absolute genius at all things logistics (among many other skills he has). Before After -
Read more

A welcome break - no flying today

Image
Day 11. A weather day at Cambridge Bay (CB). Today was a welcome down day and an opportunity to catch up with a few things. It also provided an opportunity to chat with the team working on the IVORI project and on the MOACC project. We were also given a fascinating tour of the CHARS facility by Dr. David Hik, the President and CEO of the CHARS facility. First up, the CHARS building is an impressive federally funded building, about 10 years in the planning and making and a central part of Polar Knowledge Canada . It is a core part of Canada's Arctic research capacity and is home for scientists and researchers for short or longer periods of time. It has a staff complement located in CB but also in other parts of northern communities who help and assist in its operations.  The building itself is a LEED Silver designated building, no mean feat given the remoteness of the site. It facilitates research by providing infrastructure and logistical support for funded projects but it is also
Read more