We arrived safely in Barrow, the northernmost city in U.S., on Sunday night. After a brief tour through town, we got settled in our huts. Despite the cold outside--it's currently 10˚F--the buildings are remarkably warm because of the local infatuation with space heaters. The sun is up almost all the time, just circling around in the sky; even when it goes down, it never gets dark here this time of year. By May 10, Barrow won't see another sunset for several months. We are doing our best to acclimate to the constant daylight and maintain a regular sleep pattern!
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| Our airplane and a truck that won't be going anywhere for awhile |
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| Nearby towns and attractions |
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| Home sweet home for Craig and Amy. Susanne and Andy are staying at the hotel on campus... it's not as fancy as it sounds. |
Today, our first full day here, we met with the UMIAQ staff (the logistics support of the station) to go over general info and sampling plans. We then visited the staging area, from where we will depart via snowmobile for our sea ice excursions.
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| Our rides |
We spent most of the day setting up shop in the brand new lab building.
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| Super shiny science building |
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| Postdoc Craig Aumack at one of the microscopes in our lab |
While shopping for groceries, we found that the prices here are out of this world: a gallon of orange juice for $16, a pint of strawberries for $8.
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| Cereal with two scoops of raisins for $8.29... what a deal! |
Tomorrow we'll be venturing onto the ice for the first time with all our field equipment, learning how to drive the snow mobiles and drill ice cores, scouting out sampling sites, and keeping an eye out for polar bears. We'll be sure to dress very, very warmly!
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| Looking out over the ocean (really!) |
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