Those who watched movies in the 80s might recognize the title as a catch phrase from the movie “Short Circuit”, the 1986 film about a robot struck by lightning who sets out to explore the world. In many ways, this is a fitting depiction of my 5th trip to Oliktok Point, which started today (you… Read More
Our final day at Oliktok Point was a fairly quiet one. As the forecast predicted, the winds kicked up to around 20 mph this morning, and didn’t get any better from there. Doug and I made an attempt to get a plane up this morning, but a combination of wind, visibility, and aircraft issues… Read More
One thing that the Arctic is known for is stratification. This is when the atmosphere is organized into a number of layers, with little mixing between layers. For example, often the Arctic surface cools very effectively through radiation but the air that blows in overhead is from areas that are warmer, causing a temperature inversion… Read More
Today was a beautiful day on the North Slope! Low clouds formed over Oliktok Point, replacing the clear weather we’d seen yesterday. This set up a very interesting scene, with the clouds supported by an air layer that was not the same one as was being observed at the surface. A perfect reason to deploy some… Read More
When we first arrived at Oliktok a week and a half ago, it was strangely summer-like. No snow, no ice, just bare tundra. However, the last few days have dropped some snow, and last night as we were completing our last flights, things started cooling off. With the clouds disappearing and the sun only… Read More
It was another fantastic day of flights at Oliktok Point! With the weather continuing to provide opportunities for flight, Doug and I took full advantage and completed another six flights. While six flights might not seem like a lot, several of these were starting to push 45 minutes in length. In addition, the rapidly… Read More
Winds were down this morning, as forecast. I have to admit, when I first got outside this morning I wasn’t nearly as excited as I should have been given the low winds. Instead of winds, we had freezing drizzle and fog, and if there is one thing that is harder to fly in than… Read More
Arriving in Northern Alaska in October and not seeing anything white was quite a shock. Having it stay that way for a week was even more amazing. But today we finally started to get a taste of winter, with slightly colder temperatures and snow! To be honest, the team couldn’t be happier to… Read More
Watching the winds this morning was torturous. For the past few days, the forecast has painted today as the day that things would begin to calm down. That was not obvious this morning, as winds were still in the 25+ mph range, with gusts to 45 mph. Was the forecast a bust? It’s quite painful… Read More
Matt Shupe signing on to the Oliktok blog for the first time, and looking forward to some great days here on the North Slope. I’ve been to the Arctic many times, under many conditions…. and it never stops providing amazing experiences. The science has been pretty slow around here, with high winds keeping the tethered… Read More
