The Arctic Scenes for Stargate Continuum (now on DVD) were filmed at the APLIS '07 ice camp, before the SEDNA scientists arrived. It is interesting to read about the experiance the film crew and actors had on the Arctic sea ice, just before the scientific crew arrived.
Here are some links.
Articles about Stargate Continuum
Behind the Scenes Continuum (Pt 1)
http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=88
Behind the Scenes Continuum (Pt 2)
http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=92
I have created some Photo Stories of my PolarTREC experience. They are available under Resources.
Epilogue
Dr. Geiger and I arrived home at the tail end of the spring break. We had four days to reacquaint ourselves with our families, and then on Monday I was at school standing in front of my classes, and Dr. Geiger was in her office back at work. It was great to be back at Hartford High School (www.hartfordschools.net) with my students and colleagues, sharing my experiences on my expedition to the SEDNA / APLIS Ice Camp.
My students were unfocused after 3 weeks with a substitute teacher and it took sometime to round them up, gather the strays and get them headed in the right direction. (I guess you can take me out of the west, but it is hard to take the west out of me.) We had fun as we headed into the final weeks of the school year. I was constantly mentioning things that...
Jenn Hutchins and Pat McKeown helped Cathy and I gathered our gear and then saw us off at the airport for the 1 am flight to Seattle. I slept on the plane. In Seattle Cathy took advantage of the lay over to nap in the airport.
Cathy gets some shut eye.
We caught our Seattle to Boston flight and I took advantage of the time to journal and read. Flying to the east we lost time with the time change. When we arrived in Boston it was night time.
Cathy arrives in Boston.
Cathy and I gathered our gear and caught the bus. We left Boston
Leaving Boston from South Station.
and were on our way to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and the Upper Connecticut River Valley. As the bus ride continued and we got closer to home the anticipation of seeing our families began to build. We arrived at...
After two wonderful days with Joanna Roth and John Bost, Cathy and I met up with Jenny Hutchins and Pat McKeown who had just come off the ice. We stayed at their place on Coyote Trail and took a couple of days to square away gear and take care of data. Cathy spent time working at UAF (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) and I spent time trying to organize my photo gallery at ARCUS (polartrec).
Eating ice cream in Fairbanks.
On the afternoon of the 17th Jenny and Pat pulled Cathy and I out of the offices. We spent the afternoon just toodling around Fairbanks. We had ice cream at Hot Licks, stopped at Creamers field to see migratory waterfowl, saw newly born reindeer at the UAF experimental farm.
Baby Reindeer at UAF Experimental Farm.
It was definitely past breakup and into spring...
4.14 Leaving the ice camp or up in the air again (Part 2).
Caravans used for flights out of camp
We flew to Prudhoe Bay at about 500 ft so that we would have a good view of the ice. The ice looked like a flat white egg shell. An egg shell that had been torn apart into pieces and then the pieces slammed together and reattached. Mile after mile, the ice looked like a rubble field of pressure ridges, with a few open leads. The ridges and leads were chaotic zigzagging all over the place.
Sea ice from plane.
About an hour into the flight, roughly 20 minutes from Deadhorse, we started to notice 2 parallel straight lines. The lines seemed to have a purpose and were going somewhere. Sometimes the lines crisscrossed with other lines. If you looked closely enough you could make out...
April 14: Leaving the ice camp, or up in the air again.
Wind 6.9 mph
Air Temperature -18.0 C -0.4 F Wind chill -13.7 F
Latitude 73—11.603 N Longitude 146—41.920 W
Cathy and I leave the ice camp today. I am all packed and placing the last photo emails from camp through my laptop computer and satellite phone link, before I put it away and take the antenna off the outside of the communications hut.
Stephanie at the ice camp.
This morning at breakfast I had a long talk with Stephanie about New England and home. The field camp has gone by quickly. I felt like I had just gotten into the rhythm of the camp when it was over. Stephanie and I were nostalgic. Neither one of us knows when, or if we will ever get the chance to revisit the arctic ice in this way. It...
April 13: Friday the 13th-- a bittersweet day.
Wind speed 3.6 mph
Air Temperature -14.8 C 5.4 F Wind Chill -11.1 F
Longitude 72—11.238 N Latitude 146—36.642 W
Today is Friday the 13th, and a bittersweet day. We have all worked very hard to get to this Ice Camp, experience the Arctic environment, and get the scientific measurements done. Now most of the science has been completed and today the first group of scientists is leaving with their equipment. Cathy and I have been doing some packing and then said goodbye to the group of scientists to leaving the ice camp on the 9:30 flight. We spent the rest of the morning mapping the building locations in the camp using a GPS unit, and taking stereo photos of the perimeter. Mani...
April 12: "IPY Live", the EM-31, and Snow.
Wind speed 10.5 mph
Air Temperature -14.8 C 5.4 F
Wind chill -11.1 F
Latitude 73—11.238 N
Longitude 146—36.331 W
After breakfast Cathy and I prepared for our"Live from IPY" event. A conference call and slide show to schools from the ice camp. During the call we talked with a number of people.
Peggy Foletta, CA, Grade 10 Honors Biology, 25 students
Bandon Gillette, KS, Grade 8 Earth Science, 25 students
Jo Dodds, ID, Grade 9 Earth Science, 27 students
Linda Cassassa, AK, Grade 7-12, 23 students
Geoff Haines Stiles, NJ
Hans Mueller, NH
Lollie Garay, TX, Grade 5 science, 28 students
Tania Giberyen, Luxembourg
Kirk Beckendorf, TX, Grade and # students unknown
Toward the end of the talk a plane from the Danish Space Agency, carrying a...
April 11 GAVIA swims or problems solved!
Wind speed: 2.5 mph
Air Temperature: -21.4 C -6.9 F Wind Chill -13.2 F
Latitude: 73—11.460 N
Longitude: 146—41.714 W
Morning: Stereo photos.
This morning our objective was to take photos that could be used to create a stereo picture. Cathy and I took a snowmobile and moved around the perimeter of the leads and ice ridges around the transect lines. Many of the stations we stopped at were Jackie Richter-Menge and Andrew Robert’s. These sites were visited by Jackie and others during the ice class tour. The photos were taken with identical cameras focused on the same spot and separated by 1 meter. The digital images from the left and right photos are then combined using a computer technique...
Wind speed 5.4 mph
Air Temperature -23.2 C -9.8 F -22.6 F
Latitude 73-11.439N
Longitude 146-41.908W
Today, as part of the education that is continuing during the ice camp, a group of graduate students and post docs (11) set off with Jackie Richter-Menge, one of the principal investigators (lead scientists), on a tour of the ice ridges and leads around the camp. They stopped at a number of spots and discussed (lectured) about the unique characteristics and features that could be observed at that spot.
Ice Class
While the tour was going on the dive team suited up. The dive team was transported to the dive hole by snowmobile.
Divers Arrive
Keith Van Thiel, the lead diver (blue line), was going to investigate the underside of a pressure ridge. Doug Allan, the Discovery Channel cameraman...
April 9, 2007
Wind 11.2 mph
Air Temperature -19.5C -3.1 F
Wind Chill -19.6 F
Latitude 73 11.56 N
Longitude 146 42.29 W **
Yesterday morning I helped Andrew Roberts set up several photo stations along an ice ridge. The flags are set 10 meters apart and a photo is taken with a reference pole. The photo stations are visited periodically and photos taken with the pole to see how the ridge has grown or decreased. We used the EM-31 an instrument that uses a magnetic field, like sonar, to measure the ice thickness at several of the stations. Part of the morning was also involved in surveying the ridge for new stations and revisiting old stations. This involved a long snowmobile ride on a pleasant day.
In the afternoon Jeremy Wilkinson from the Scottish Association of Marine Science was...
April 8, 2007
Wind speed 14.5 mph
Air Temperature -19 C -2.4 F
Wind Chill -22 F
Latitude 73-12.62 N
Longitude 146-38.33 W
There are several things that are different when living in the ice camp. Besides dealing with the cold, and going to the bathroom in an unheated outhouse, taking a shower is also difficult. Freshwater is limited. So in order to shower the first thing that you need to do is take a trip to the ice mine.
Ice Mine
At the ice mine you shovel the snow off the ice and then use the pick to break up the ice. As sea ice freezes the salt gets pushed out. So ice that has been frozen a couple of years is very fresh. We shovel the ice chunks into buckets and take them back to our hut to melt.
Melting Ice
After the ice melts, we warm...
April 6, 2007
Latitude 47-39.35N
Longitude 122-19.00W
Wind 16.6 mph
Air temperature -12.5 C 9.5 F
Wind Chill -8.6 F
Breakfast is fairly quiet. We have oatmeal, sausage, eggs and pancakes or French toast to start the day. Generally the morning conversation is on what work needs to get done, who is going to do what and what equipment we need to gather up. After breakfast the thirty-six people break into different groups, gather their equipment together and then head off to get their work done.
Breakfast
Yesterday I was up for breakfast and then at 8:00 I set out to set up a new transect line with Nick, Katherine and Adrian. The line went in fairly quickly and we had a kilometer line finished by 10:30. We returned to camp, had a cup of coffee and then set off down line 3 to do snow...
4.4.07
It takes a large number of people to put scientists into the field. The amount of planning and logistics is immense. Planning to purchase or build equipment, airplane flights and hotels, shipping the equipment. Mani Thomas (from India) and Melanie Engrams provide important support to Cathy Geiger in her work. Analyzing data and supplying different kinds of information products, such as maps and satellite photos.
The ice camp is truly an international effort. The scientists work together to accomplish the various tasks. Andrew Roberts, an Australian, has been checking the medical and survival kits in addition to his scientific duties.
*
Andrew Roberts
In setting up the transect lines Nick Hughes, a research scientist at The Scottish Association for Marine Science, was...
4.1.07Wind 17.9 mph from the East.
Air temperature -23.8 C, -10.8 F
Wind chill -34 F
Latitude: 73--15.706N Longitude 145--08.679W 6:10 am Alaska daylight time.
Camp Chefs Victoria and Stephanie.
It is 6:10 am, the camp chefs Victoria and Stephanie have coffee made and breakfast is at 7:00 am. It is cold and blowing. Cathy and I will be setting a series of six 1 Km transect lines from a center pole. We will use a 25 m tape. Each twenty five meters we will put a survey flag. At 100 m we will mark the spot with a stake. At 500 m and 1000 m we will use a pole and a flag. At the end of the even lines we will put the number of red garbage bags (odd = green) filled with snow, so the helicopter can identify the line from the air. Or at least that is the plan. Since the ice and camp are...
3.31 Heading north to the ice camp!
Up at 5 am load the car and head to the university. It is a lovely spring morning in Fairbanks and the temperature is -5 F. At the university Cathy downloaded into her laptop the latest version of the data analysis and satellite maps that Mani Thomas, Cathy’s graduate student from the University of Delaware, had generated for transport to camp. 7:30 am we arrived at the Fairbanks airport, checked in the bags, and I got my first cup of coffee. We left Fairbanks at 9:00 am, crossed the Brooks Range, and arrived in Barrow at 10:25 am.
Sea ice leads and pressure ridges.
The sea ice near Barrow was showing stress and strain. There were many pressure ridges where different pieces of ice had pushed against each other. The process is much like how...
Cathy Geiger firing a shotgun during bear training.
One of the potential hazards in the Arctic is running into polar bears. To be prepared, I went to a four hour class covering bears and firearm instruction given by Joe Nava. I had met Joe 20 years ago and it was fun saying hi.
The primary rule around bears is give the bear space, and leave the area. Don't run away because that may trigger a predator-prey response in the bear. When working in bear country assign one person to be on watch. Make noise so the bear can hear you. You don't want to surprise a bear. If you do run into a bear, stand tall, talk loudly and slowly back away.
If the bear should happen to attack, one of the recommended counter measures is pepper spray. The bear repellant spray is for the bear not for you....
I have met a number of very talented teachers with some incredible backgrounds and we were going through this intense orientation. I was really enjoying the people and learning a lot. But with the change in time zones and jet lag I was falling to sleep "early" by Alaska Time and getting up early too. I hadn't been outside the Hotel for two days. So on Friday after class was over we went downtown to an Italian restaurant. I was elected to drive, since I had lived in Fairbanks before, twenty years ago. Thank heaven for maps. We had a nice dinner and then went to the ice park.
The ice park consisted of many ice sculptures carved from blocks of ice that were cut from a nearby lake. Sculptures had come from around the world. We saw designs from ice artists from Russia and China, as...
Your body is a furnace using cellular respiration to keep you warm. Because it is a furnace it needs to burn fuel that you take in as food. The amount of energy in your food is measured in calories. 1cal = the amount of energy needed to raise 1g of water 1 degree Celsius. 1 Cal = 1000 calories. How many Calories are in a jelly doughnut?
Sedentary people: Weight(lbs) x 14 = Cal/day
Moderately Active: Weight (lbs) x 17 = Cal/day
Active People: Weight (lbs) x 20 = Cal/day
Active and Cold: Weight (lbs) x 26 =Cal/day
How many Calories do you burn hanging around the house? How many would you burn if you were active? How many Calories would you burn if you were active in the cold? How many Jelly doughnuts would that be?
On the Beaufort Sea Ice.
Since a lot of the energy that...
Survival Training.
During the PolarTREC orientation we spent a day on survival training. Our instructor was named Tuck Brouhard from LTR Training systems. The class was called "learn to return”. In the survival class we were shown many ugly pictures of people with frostbite and badly broken bones. The idea was to make us aware of hazards, so that we could take responsibility for our own self protection. It worked.
Survival training had 3 major principals:
Bad things happen to good people.
Smart people plan ahead.
Nothing beats experience.
Accidents, when they happen, are a loss of control. Accidents happen when people are
tired hungry cold dehydrated angry
bored in a storm rushing unsure untrained
When accidents happen they are a...
In the morning Ms. Jones, Cathy and I caught the schools bus and rode into school. At 10:00 Cathy talked to the students about her work on the ice. I also presented, talking about Hartford High and the kinds of activities that we do there. I also showed the PolarTREC website and invited the students to interact with us on the ice.
Cathy Geiger Presenting to Students
After school Nancy, the village elder, honored Cathy and I by taking us to meet with two other village elders, Hannah and Annie. We had a nice talk and visit. They offered us some dried salmon and moose meat to eat. It was very good. After our visit we went to watch the crowning of the Spring Carnival Queen and her court. We arrived at the tribal meeting house with three elders (wicked cool!).
Spring Carnival Queen and...
3.27 On the way to Fort Yukon
Kathy Geiger Bording Plane
We got on a small turboprop Beechcraft 1600 operated by Frontier air for the 30 min flight to Fort Yukon. Fort Yukon doesn't have any roads going to it. The only way in is by airplane or in the summer by boat up the Yukon River. Supplies like oil, gas, cars, food and snowmachines are barged up the Yukon River in the summer.
When we arrived the bags were put on the tarmac for us to pick up and take inside the airport buildings.
Robert at Ft Yukon Airport
Other people met the airplane and picked up freight.
Ft. Yukon snowmachine
There was no one to meet us at the airport. The teacher that invited us Ms. Brenda Jones had broken her leg falling on the ice. We called the school and found out that Ms. Jones was there. We were...
The time change has thrown my internal clock off. I bounded out of bed this morning ready to go at 2:00 am Alaska time. My body thinks it is 6:00 am.
Today (8:30-5:00) was spent in a series of workshops and meetings that gave us an introduction to Polartrec and what our job requirements are in the field and in the classroom. After sitting in a plane for fourteen hours yesterday, I am having a hard time sitting and listening to presenters lecture. I know the information is important, but I have to stand in the back and take notes.
There are 15 teachers from all over the United States here getting ready to travel with research scientists to either the Arctic or the Antarctic. We are all feeling very excited and happy that we were selected. The research expeditions are planned so...
Journal Entry 21 March 2007
Note: As a way to use this Journal, you may want to copy the journal entry into a word file and highlight the parts that you want to share with your classes.
Welcome to spring! Ever since the winter solstice on Dec 21 the amount of day light has been increasing in the northern hemisphere. On March 21 we reached the spring equinox, the suns rays were most intense at the equator and the official first day of spring.
This is a great day to take a trip! I am very excited to be going to Alaska and the SEDNA ice camp in the Arctic Ocean. But first, Dr. Cathy Geiger, an ice scientist, and I need to get there from White River Junction in Vermont. We went...
