The PAGE21 project has now been officially closed. The four years of research came to an end on October 31 2015, leaving only...
PAGE21 project was featured in a plenary session "Permafrost in the 21st century" at the 2015 Arctic Circle conference in Reykjavik,...
Monday, 9 July 2012
After having completed the last part of our journey to Samoylov, I can now write again. But right this time: Tomorrow we´ll go! And this time really all the way to the Samoylov island, where we will spend the next two months of our research expedition.
We have been hoping for several days now of being on the island already and doing our work for this summer: setting up measuring devices, taking samples or performing other tests. But without expedition cargo or catering, there was little point getting there.
Instead, we had thought about a small alternative program for the small northern Siberian city of Tiksi. In addition to fighting against jet lag (we are currently eight hours ahead of Germany) and refreshing the knowledge of Russian, we used the time to advance the understanding between Russians, Yakuts, Germans and Americans a bit. We played a football match against local youth team and lost, despite some outstanding offensive play. On the following day in the Tundra's 375-year friendship between the Republic of Yakutia and Russia was celebrated. There were various competitions held; for the best traditional costume and the best local specialties. And we were promptly invited to sit together with local representatives and ministers from Yakutsk at a table together to enjoy the festival.
Yesterday morning we received the message: "The cargo plane from Irkutsk is on its way!" after having waited for days for the right weather conditions for the plane to transport our expedition cargo as well as some Tiksi goods (such as food).
The arrival of the aircraft meant mainly work for us: duffel bags, boxes and cartons from the truck to be carried to a warehouse and sacks of potatoes, onions, cabbage and other vegetables to be weighed. We will be about 20 people on the island for the next two months, and we all want to eat something.
Tonight or tomorrow morning, we will load the cargo out of the warehouse into two helicopters and, finally, we leave to Samoylov, in order to begin our work.
Greetings from Tiksi and see you soon on the island,
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Friday, 13 July 2012
After a few days on the road, I would like to write short note, to explain better where we are. For most German people the name Lena brings back the Eurovision Song Contest few years ago. But this place here has not so much to do with the signing Lena.
The Lena in this case is a river over 4000 miles long running from south from the shores of Lake Baikal to North to the Laptev Sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is thus one of the longest rivers in Russia and even in the world. About 100 kilometers from the North end at the Arctic Ocean the river divides in to some large and many small arms, forming the largest delta in the Arctic coast.
The entire Delta as a whole is about as large as the Netherlands. But this comparison is somewhat misleading, since at the mouth of the Rhine lives almost 17 million Dutchmen and here, besides of a couple of fishermen, there is mainly only reindeer. Although in the area just around the Samoylov Island everything seems to get lost in orange in the summer, like the satellite image shows.
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
After a few days on the road, I would like to write short note, to explain better where we are. For most German people the name Lena brings back the Eurovision Song Contest few years ago. But this place here has not so much to do with the signing Lena.The Lena in this case is a river over 4000 miles long running from south from the shores of Lake Baikal to North to the Laptev Sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is thus one of the longest rivers in Russia and even in the world. About 100 kilometers from the North end at the Arctic Ocean the river divides in to some large and many small arms, forming the largest delta in the Arctic coast.
The entire Delta as a whole is about as large as the Netherlands. But this comparison is somewhat misleading, since at the mouth of the Rhine lives almost 17 million Dutchmen and here, besides of a couple of fishermen, there is mainly only reindeer. Although in the area just around the Samoylov Island everything seems to get lost in orange in the summer, like the satellite image shows.
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Monday, 16 July 2012
At least for the next few weeks, and after a few days on the island, I feel a bit at home.
The first hours and days, of course, are the most impressive. I don't know exactly where to start. InTiksi I thought I had already got used to the polar night. But here at Samoylov Island during the night, in the open countryside, watching the sunset it becomes clear, that it can be even more impressive than I had thought.
Even the helicopter flight from Tiksi to the island was a special experience for me and the other expedition newcomers. Especially because here they do not use those comparatively small helicopters you usually get to see in Germany. A whole truckload of our cargo disappeared in to the large tailgate of the Russian Mi-8, before we got to our seats by the front door. Although tight and loud, we could enjoy the stunning views of the Lena delta and the adjacent mountains, while we flew to our destination.
After landing, we dedicated ourselves to the clearing of cargo, and the outfitting of the station. After all, we had food for two months and wanted to find all kinds of equipment and materials for our research right a way.
On the island, it has been mostly sunny and summer temperatures between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. For us these are pleasant temperatures, except that we share them with millions of mosquitoes. Especially when working outside, it can not prevented that a little skin is visible. A fact that the mosquitoes take advange of immediately. They even bite through T-shirts or thin clothes. The only thing that really helps is wearing a shirt with a mosquito net window in front of the face. Otherwise, a strong wind gives a little peace for working - without the ubiquitous hum of mosquitoes.
During the first few hours we took an overview of our permanent monitoring stations. Fortunately, almost all seemed to have the desired data reliably recorded over the past winter. Now we will begin to build our test projects for this summer. We report in more detail in the coming posts.
In addition to the blog, we will be writing weekly Reports about the expedition, which are traditionally written over the summer months by our team member Guenter Stoof. You should thus follow, in addition to our blog posts, the main source of information about the island (in German), the Homepage of the Samoylov station.
Regards,
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
At least for the next few weeks, and after a few days on the island, I feel a bit at home.
The first hours and days, of course, are the most impressive. I don't know exactly where to start. InTiksi I thought I had already got used to the polar night. But here at Samoylov Island during the night, in the open countryside, watching the sunset it becomes clear, that it can be even more impressive than I had thought.Even the helicopter flight from Tiksi to the island was a special experience for me and the other expedition newcomers. Especially because here they do not use those comparatively small helicopters you usually get to see in Germany. A whole truckload of our cargo disappeared in to the large tailgate of the Russian Mi-8, before we got to our seats by the front door. Although tight and loud, we could enjoy the stunning views of the Lena delta and the adjacent mountains, while we flew to our destination.
After landing, we dedicated ourselves to the clearing of cargo, and the outfitting of the station. After all, we had food for two months and wanted to find all kinds of equipment and materials for our research right a way.
On the island, it has been mostly sunny and summer temperatures between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. For us these are pleasant temperatures, except that we share them with millions of mosquitoes. Especially when working outside, it can not prevented that a little skin is visible. A fact that the mosquitoes take advange of immediately. They even bite through T-shirts or thin clothes. The only thing that really helps is wearing a shirt with a mosquito net window in front of the face. Otherwise, a strong wind gives a little peace for working - without the ubiquitous hum of mosquitoes.During the first few hours we took an overview of our permanent monitoring stations. Fortunately, almost all seemed to have the desired data reliably recorded over the past winter. Now we will begin to build our test projects for this summer. We report in more detail in the coming posts.
In addition to the blog, we will be writing weekly Reports about the expedition, which are traditionally written over the summer months by our team member Guenter Stoof. You should thus follow, in addition to our blog posts, the main source of information about the island (in German), the Homepage of the Samoylov station.
Regards,
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Friday, 20 July 2012
It has been a bit more than a week since we landed on Samoylov and started our field work.
Most days it has been over 20 degrees Celsius and under the mosquito shirts, it has been almost as warm as in our Banja, the Russian sauna. Every day we load our expedition sled with construction materials for our snow measuring station and drag it to the center of the island. Snow measuring station and sleigh in summer at 20 degrees Celsius?
No doubt, in the Arctic, there can be extreme weather phenomena, but even for snow at the moment it is also too hot and we don't expect snow before late September. We use sleds in the summer to transport heavy things across the tundra. On the damp peat that works almost as well as on snow and is much more comfortable to use than something on the back.
But why does a snow measuring station will be built in the summer and what it has to do with the permafrost?
Snow consists of a very loose structure of ice crystals and includes a lot of air. Like all porous materials such as foam, snow is a very good thermal insulator and prevents the cooling of the soil in winter. The ability of the snow cover to protect the ground depends primarily on the snow depth and the thermal properties of snow. This sounds simple but is very difficult to measure. Depending on wind strength and direction, there can be found piles of snow behind small hills, whereas in wind exposed areas there will hardly be any snow. The insulating properties of snow are highly variable, because snow crystals change over time and form distinct layers in the snow. With our measuring instruments, we try to capture many of these factors. With the help of a 15-meter-long skeleton, we want to measure ultrasonic sensors, the differences in snow depth. In addition, we have built an instrument with which we can, using long sensor bands throughout the winter, capture the changes in snow density. The snow temperature is measured with thin needles to various depths. If our instruments are ready, we need only wait the snow to fall in the winter. If nothing breaks, we can collect the data the next summer and learn more about the snow during the winter and how the permafrost was affected.
Greetings,
Moritz
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
It has been a bit more than a week since we landed on Samoylov and started our field work.
Most days it has been over 20 degrees Celsius and under the mosquito shirts, it has been almost as warm as in our Banja, the Russian sauna. Every day we load our expedition sled with construction materials for our snow measuring station and drag it to the center of the island. Snow measuring station and sleigh in summer at 20 degrees Celsius?No doubt, in the Arctic, there can be extreme weather phenomena, but even for snow at the moment it is also too hot and we don't expect snow before late September. We use sleds in the summer to transport heavy things across the tundra. On the damp peat that works almost as well as on snow and is much more comfortable to use than something on the back.
But why does a snow measuring station will be built in the summer and what it has to do with the permafrost?
Snow consists of a very loose structure of ice crystals and includes a lot of air. Like all porous materials such as foam, snow is a very good thermal insulator and prevents the cooling of the soil in winter. The ability of the snow cover to protect the ground depends primarily on the snow depth and the thermal properties of snow. This sounds simple but is very difficult to measure. Depending on wind strength and direction, there can be found piles of snow behind small hills, whereas in wind exposed areas there will hardly be any snow. The insulating properties of snow are highly variable, because snow crystals change over time and form distinct layers in the snow. With our measuring instruments, we try to capture many of these factors. With the help of a 15-meter-long skeleton, we want to measure ultrasonic sensors, the differences in snow depth. In addition, we have built an instrument with which we can, using long sensor bands throughout the winter, capture the changes in snow density. The snow temperature is measured with thin needles to various depths. If our instruments are ready, we need only wait the snow to fall in the winter. If nothing breaks, we can collect the data the next summer and learn more about the snow during the winter and how the permafrost was affected.
Greetings,
Moritz
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories