We're Off!

Today we are leaving Barrow. Our plane leaves in about 3 hours. We are all packed and ready to go, and we somehow have more cargo to send home than we brought up here.

We will miss all of the new friends that we have made here in Barrow; the BASC crew, the other researchers that we have met along the way, and other random people that we have run into for various reasons. We have talked alot about the things that we really miss from home (chicken wings, indian food and beer, for starters), but there are also many things that we will miss here in Barrow (the quiet, no traffic, it's not hot, snowmachines, and the people seem so real).

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we have had an amazing experience here, one that I will certainly never forget, and if I ever get the chance to return to Barrow I plan to take it!

I will still be posting occasionally after I get home, especially once Phil gets his film developed and we see what photos he got that I wasn't around for. However, I do intend to take a couple of weeks of vacation when I get back, while waiting for the cargo to arrive.

Thank you so much for reading the blog, and sharing some of the experiences we have had here.

Aubrey

POLAR BEAR!

We have been flying the balloon quite frequently over the last two weeks or so (almost every other day), and on Friday we flew our last flight and deflated the balloon in order to ship it back to Indiana. Unfortunately, the camera was a little too cold to operate very well during that process, as there were people rolling on the folded balloon, trying to push the remainder of the helium out of it. It was really quite amusing to watch!

I made a small box to house our digital camera that we hung under the balloon, and I got some aerial photos. Eventually the battery would get too cold and the camera would stop taking photos, but if you click on the link below there are a few shots from the balloons perspective.

Saturday was our last day of collecting data at the KBRW shed. We finished moving out of the shed yesterday, and all of our cargo is now piled up in the theatre.

Today I was working on packing some things here at BASC when we heard that there was a polar bear out near the runway. We got the camera and headed out there and got a few photos. Now that we have seen a polar bear we can truly say that our Barrow experience is complete!

CLICK HERE for the latest photos of the balloon and the polar bear.

Busy times in Barrow

Well, things have been super busy here in Barrow the last couple of weeks. There have been many researchers here working on a project called LEADEX, and we have done 3 balloon flights to date (the fourth one will be tomorrow, weather permitting).

We have purchased our plane tickets to go home, and will be leaving Barrow on April 16. In the meantime we will be flying the balloon as often as possible, and working on getting the last important pieces of data from the instruments.

CLICK HERE for the latest pics of the balloon and LEADEX.

Picture time!

I know, it must have been a big couple of weeks to have two posts from me on the same day! Things have been really crazy around here, between Dr. Shepson being here last week, and then my parents were here for 5 days. In between all of that we have been trying to get some work done! We are working on a couple of ideas of things to hang under the balloon so that we can get it up in the air and get some data from it, so I hope to have some photos of that soon.

CLICK HERE and enjoy the latest round of pics!

Alaskan librarians conference

On Thursday (March 10, 2005), we were asked to address a group of librarians from all over the state of Alaska regarding our work here in Barrow. Adam put together a presentation in which he did a good job explaining some of the basics of the chemistry we are interested in studying, and why we chose to do this work in Barrow. I have decided to post a copy of the presentation and some of his notes here. Hopefully this will answer many of the questions that some of you have emailed to me in regards to some of those details. CLICK HERE to open a pdf of the presentation (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this file, which you can download for free by CLICKING HERE).