Early in Kangerlussuaq

Yesterday was the day that I flew to Kangerlussuaq with the Hercules, had a quick farewell to the camp and an even quicker packing. 

Becourse we in the CFA lab had finiched so much earlyere then expected and we had nothing to do, I was sent out of the camp. The brittle ice we were supposed to analyse was in such a bad shape that, when it was worst, we could only use 3% of the ice core for chemical analysis. The brittle ice is between 600-1200 meter down in the ice, so we had about 600 meters to analyses. In one 12-hour night shift I processed 200 meters and only found few usable pieces for the analysis. 

So now I am in Kangerlussuaq where I will help with ice core distribution. Some is going to Copenhagen, others to france and so on. I help where I can, and tuesday the 5th of July I am going HOME! I'm still getting payed to the 16th of July so that is good, and  there will be some work at the CIC when I get home.

See you  

The grand choice

...but not my choice!

The fact is that a lot of the camp is flying out tomorrow the 28th of
June, and it was expected that our measurements should have taken several
weeks, but the ice quality is so bad, and we so efficient that this morning
we are DONE!
There are still packing to be done before we, the CFA team, is truly done,
but it is all in the end the field-leader's choice.

I want to stay and say hello to all the guests that are coming in the next
weeks, the danish queen among others. But I also miss my girlfriend so I
will not complain loudly if I'm send home tomorrow (I will miss the full
pay tho)

On a off note, the birdy is still alive and have moved into the little
house.

A change of weather

The wind picked up to day and i started to snow a bit. It the first real
change of weather, until now it have been only nice weather. Not what I was
getting used to a Svalbard where storms were common.

Another strange observation - in this minus degrees I would expect so see
my breath but I don't. The air is to clean, you need aerosols in the air
for moister to condense on. Aerosols is small partikals in the air, like
dust or pollutions, so the ONLY place I have seen my breath is when I pass
the diesel power generator

An unexpected guest

A few days ago we had a very unexpected guest. A little bird had found it's
way into the camp. It have happened before last year, where it was a bigger
bird and they cough the bird and send it back with the cargo plane. But for
this little bird we put out some grains and Gunner build a heated
birdhouse.
But we have not seen the bird in days now, eater it is moved on or dead.
But it was good to have some animal life in camp :-)

Contact information

Since I don't seen your comment or question before I get back, I will ask
you to write me on my neem email adresse
"warming AT neemcamp.org"
where AT=@

Now where I'm in the routine of sleeping and working, I don't find so much
to tell... or I now take it for granted.

Work, work, work

So what do I do up here?

My day start at around 1700 where I wake up, do my mails and other stuff
and at 1900 there is dinner/breakfast and then from 2000 to 0800 (night
sift) I work as a helper in the CFA lab.
I prepare ice cores in the science trench, witch is 8 meters below the
surface. It is about -20 degrees Celsius down here. We use a 3.5cm X 3.5cm
X 110 cm piece of the ice cores witch I log breaks, length, remove cracks
with drill liquid and clean the ends of the core pieces. Then I load the
pieces into a holder and places the holder on a melt head. From here we
melt the ice from the bottom up, and the melt water is analysed in the CFA
lab (Continues Flow Analysis). Here we detect different chemical signals
and I try to detect drill liquid in this complicated CFA system. Drill
liquid will make havoc in the system, that is why we are careful in
cleaning the the ice cores.
This goes on until 0800 where the day shift take over and we eat
breakfast/dinner, have a beer and then go to bed.

This should be a standard day - especially after I'm finally is feeling
okey. Altitude+jetlag(changing to nightshift)+an upset stomach really
played a number on me.

Ice dessert ind the ice desert

I'm staring to get used to the life in camp and the altitude. Being so fare
from civilization, this is very civilized. We have a awesome cook that
treat us with good food and loads of cake.

I sleep in "Red dome 2" witch is a huge round tent/structure where there
are room for 8, but we are only 3 sleeping there now. The only real
reminder that we are away from civilization is the toilet facilities. There
are 3 small tents where there have been dug a deep pit under. A flag is
raised so others can tell that the tent is in use.

Yesterday we had "Saturday" witch is a party day, half day of work and
half day of partying. The last ting that I had expected in the middle of
the ice-sheet was a dessert of ice-cream (coffee/Kalua) with strawberry's
among other fruits. Is was heaven!

Today I'm getting ready for the night shift. In the CFA lab where we melt
a pice of the ice and analysis the water for chemical traces, I am on the
night sift, 12 hour shift, so 1900 (7PM) is going to be 0700 (7AM) for me.

The weather is, so fare, been grate. Low winds and temperatures between 5
to 13 minus degrees Celsius. It is actually a problem for the drillers
since the temperature difference in the drilling trench and in the ice core
they are getting up is so big that the core quality is low. The have tried
to cover the drilling tent with snow to increase the albedo.

You can follow progress at camp in the field diaries:
http://neem.nbi.ku.dk/field_diaries/
Pictures and more on
www.neem.dk

Altitude sucks!

We had a epic trip in a Hercules plane - you know, they look bigger in the
films?! The look of the landscape as we passed it was breath taking, so
beautiful - I'm in the right line of work.

Anyway arrived safe and sound at the NEEM camp, offloaded the plane, and
some left as we arrived. A lot of hello's and goodbye's - and then lunch.

The altitude sucks! I feel out of breath and a bit nauseas. I'm toled it
should pass in a day or so. A trip to the loo, also did me a world of good.
The loo is a small tent, where you raise a flag when it in use, and then do
you businesses into a deep hole into the ice. The biggest problem in camp
is when people forget to take down the flag after they are done.

I'm taking it easy the rest of the day, and will not push it the next few
days - then I should be fine.

I'm really sad that I cant shear pictures with you, it is so stunning this
icy wasteland.

An adventure isn’t idle

After lunch, me and tree others borrowed a car and went to the Russel Glacier. It should have been a 15km drive, ~ half a hour back an forth, but taking a wrong turn and getting stuck in a sand dune a few times, extended the trip a bit.

But it was worth it!

The road it self was a love child between a roller-coaster and a bumbercar, a few times I had to say "av, the sealing hurts". But wow the glacier was beautiful, carving blue ice in front of us. And the weather, it is 19 degrees, we were standing in shorts and t-shirts in the burning sun, only the cold air from the inland ice could raise the hairs on our arms.

I took pictures, but due to the data limitation up here, they will properly fist be showed when I get back to civilisation.

Arrived safe and sound

After a 50 min wait in the Copenhagen air port, the plane took off and the flight was nice and easy. A bit bumpy at the end, but nothing serious.

Plans have changed and I'm only in Kangerlussuaq for one day instead of tree. The American Hercules plan have to go back to the US for maintenance due to the Icelandic ash cloud.

The time difference here is 4 hours, +3:00 UTC, so I left at 9:00 in Copenhagen and arrived 9:30 in Greenland.