Updated:
June 28, 2009

19 April - May 1 2009: Field Campaign

There were two phases to this year’s spring campaign.  Phase one began at Imnavait Creek from 19 – 24 April where we had the whole gang working.  The usual suspects were on hand for phase one.  Matthew (the boss), Sveta, Stephanie, Chris, and Art of the SnowNet team were joined by eager volunteers.  We were joined by two members of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC), Mark Serreze and Drew Slater, and also by Tom Douglas of CRREL. Each are by no means strangers to the ways of the magnaprobe.  Tom was working on his own research project in the area, when he had some down time, he didn’t shy away from lending a hand.

Some milestones were met while at Imnvait:

*Mark set a new personal best of 3001 magnaprobe points in a single day.  You are the man!

*Over 17,000 magnaprobe points were collected in the 1km grid. That’s a lot of walking!

*Art and Chris (the two Lidarians) collected well over 150 million LIDAR data points.

*Last but not least, Chris was able to wrestle out 42 high quality ground elevations from Trimble Geomatics Office (TGO)!  Way to go Chris!

Phase 2 began on April 25 with Matthew, Chris, and Art flying over to Barrow from Deadhorse, AK.  There, they were joined by Doug Kane and another eager volunteer, Jessica Lundquist.  Jessica is with the Mountain Hydrology Research group at the University of Washington and she wanted to see how things were done in the Arctic.  Although we couldn’t introduce her to the typical Barrow weather, we had unbelievable warm weather, temps in the upper 30's with little or no wind. However, she did learn the ways of the magnaprobe, we'll have to invite her back for more practice.  This phase ended on 01-May and with nearly not as aggressive field campaign as in Imnavait.  The top priority was to conduct LIDAR scans of the tundra site and two study areas out on the sea ice. Well over 100 SWE samples were taken, at least 15 snow pits were dug, and LIDAR scans were completed from the wyoming gauge down to the weir.

A message from the boss:

Dear All:

Thanks for all the hard work at Imnavait and Barrow.  I especially appreciate our hardworking volunteers from Boulder and Seattle.

Matthew

Below are some of the many pictures that were taken during the two weeks.  There are more photos that can be found in the photo sections

"Ha, Ha, Ha....I bet those guys wish they bought covers!". As heard over the CB radio on the drive to Toolik Lake. (photo by Steph)
"Don't dis the puffy". The only thing Drew is missing is his bling! Careful you don't get the coat too dirty Drew! (Photo by Drew)
Matthew and Jessica pose with their magnaprobes, this would make a great PR photo for Snow-Hydro! (Photo by Chris)
Sometimes it takes two to get a core sample. Here Tom and Steph wrestle with a SIPRE core barrel. (Photo by Drew)
Sveta is taking a break by sitting on the Imnavait snow fence. (photo by Steph)
Serreze is pointing out the lines he probed to reach his new milestone of 3001 points in a single day. (Photo by Drew)
Doug is caught with a smile while finishing up a SWE measurement. He's going home soon, little did he know that Alaska Airlines had other plans in mind.(Photo by Chris)
The SnowStar sled is pressed back into service. The LIDAR is mounted on top allowing Art to operate the scanner inside.(Photo by Chris)