The strong winds this week
have made outside work more difficult. The wind has changed the snowdrifts
around our tents and almost buried some of our equipment stored
outside.
A day-old boot print
creates a mini snow bank after the wind blew away all the loose snow
around it. The hard-packed snow makes a squeaky sound when we walk
on it.
Some scientists from
Environment Canada have joined us on this trip. They have come to
the Arctic to study how much mercury is in the air and in the
snow.
Mercury is a pollutant
that is easily transported in the atmosphere to remote regions such as
the Arctic. Air samples were collected in specially coated tubes in
order to determine how much mercury is in the air over the frozen Arctic
Ocean.
Freshly-fallen snow is
collected from a Teflon-covered table set up outside the air pollution
monitoring station at Alert.
The scientists
collect snow samples in bottles from different layers within deep
snow banks. They will bring back these snow samples to Toronto in a cooler
packed with snow to keep the samples from melting before they can be
tested in the lab.
We set up an experiment that
will help us to interpret satellite radar images of Arctic shorelines.
Big aluminum 3-D corners that we set up on the shoreline will reflect
radar brightly, and will act as reference points in images from RADARSAT,
Canada's Earth observation satellite.
When we
returned a week later to check the corner reflectors, we discovered that
several had been knocked out of position. There were teeth marks in the
corner of one, and polar bear tracks all around it.
By the end of the week, our
experiments have been completed, and we must start packing all our equipment
into bunyans, large shipping containers which will be sent home by Hercules
aircraft.
Back at Alert,
preparations are being made for our departure. Since the runway at Alert is
a gravel base topped with hard packed snow, Canadian Forces personnel fix a
rut in the runway by dumping snow into it, and then smooth it out.
Some of us are staying behind
to pack up equipment, but many of us leave this week to go home. We have
grown accustomed to living in the Arctic environment, and it will be a shock
to come home to warm temperatures and dark nights. We have worked hard over
the last month and are anxious to see our families, but sorry to leave the
friends we have made at Alert.
