{"id":115,"date":"2016-10-20T04:45:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T04:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/?p=115"},"modified":"2016-10-20T04:45:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T04:45:23","slug":"beginning-to-feel-like-the-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/2016\/10\/20\/beginning-to-feel-like-the-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning to feel like the Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The near-shore sea ice environment — we spent quite a bit of time flying over this at low altitude this afternoon!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we first arrived at Oliktok a week and a half ago, it was strangely summer-like.\u00a0 No snow, no ice, just bare tundra.\u00a0 However, the last few days have dropped some snow, and last night as we were completing our last flights, things started cooling off.\u00a0 With the clouds disappearing and the sun only reaching very low angles in the sky, it doesn\u2019t take much to let the temperatures plummet.\u00a0 This morning when we got in the truck to head to the AMF, the thermometer read near 10 F, and it finally felt like the Arctic!\u00a0 With the clear skies, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and a big, though not quite full, moon.\u00a0 Once the skies were painted with an array of pastel colors, it was time to get the DataHawks and tethered balloon out and get to work!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Arctic

Arctic sunrise!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Doug

Doug gets things ready to go in the (cold) early morning.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In total, we completed seven flights, summing up to just over four hours of flight time!\u00a0 Many of these flights were focused on profiling the lower atmosphere to monitor the evolution of the stable lower atmosphere as the sun and some thin clouds interacted with it.\u00a0 These profiles give a great time series of the subtle changes that occur under these conditions.\u00a0 Additionally, they provide necessary context for the balloon measurements that were being made today \u2013 focused on turbulence and aerosol properties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"An

An evolving stable lower atmosphere as seen by the DataHawk. These flights were taken over the course of the day to monitor how things were changing over time.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Al

Al Bendure monitors the airspace as the DataHawk and tethered balloon do their work overhead.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The tethered ballon as it is launched from the runway.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In addition, we completed another low over-water flight to monitor fluxes from the relatively warm surface (though there is more and more ice visible!) to the atmosphere.\u00a0 Repeating these flights under different atmospheric states and ice conditions should provide a really nice dataset for evaluating the lower atmosphere in an environment that is otherwise really difficult to sample.\u00a0 Larger aircraft don\u2019t want to fly at 10-20 meters above the water surface, and it is challenging (and expensive) to put towers and\/or ships in this broken ice environment.\u00a0 These DataHawks provide a very unique perspective in this regard.\u00a0 Additionally, we flew the camera-equipped DataHawk to get a perspective on things from above.\u00a0 All in all, a busy, busy day!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Doug

Doug closely monitors the DataHawk as it flies over the icy near-shore environment at low altitude.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

A beautiful cold day in the Arctic, as seen from a\u00a0DataHawk heading offshore.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

One other interesting thing to note \u2013 the clear skies and colder air seem to have spurred the wildlife into action.\u00a0 It\u2019s been pretty quiet, generally, but today we saw tons of caribou, with many coming very close to our operations on the beach and runway.\u00a0 Additionally, we\u2019ve seen seals out on the sea ice, some Arctic foxes, and some of the red foxes that also inhabit the area.\u00a0 It was nice to see all of the animals out in what otherwise is a pretty industrial and desolate landscape!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Caribou

Caribou grazing on the tundra between the beach and the runway. The tethered-ballon crew can be seen in the background.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tomorrow is supposed to be another good one for flights, so it\u2019s time to rest up and prepare for another full day ahead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When we first arrived at Oliktok a week and a half ago, it was strangely summer-like.\u00a0 No snow, no ice, just bare tundra.\u00a0 However, the last few days have dropped some snow, and last night as we were completing our last flights, things started cooling off.\u00a0 With the clouds disappearing and the sun only… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 09:28:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/alaska-unmanned-3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}