September 5, 1997
Ice Station SHEBA, Fact Sheet 3: Opportunities for reporters to visit in spring 1998
Flights from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ice Station SHEBA are scheduled about every three weeks next spring to rotate crew and scientists. Organizers with the project office at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory say it should be possible for reporters to catch flights to the station around March 11, April 1, April 22 and May 13. (Dates are subject to change).
Flights will occur during three- to-five day periods around those dates. Reporters could catch one of the early flights out, stay for several days and then catch one of the last flights back. Or, reporters could visit for a three-week stretch between flights in March and April.
Reporters should alert Sandra Hines or Lynn Simarski if they are interested.
Icebreaker frozen in the ice
By April, the Canadian Coast Guard’s vessel Des Groseilliers will have been frozen in place for six months. By early May, the expedition will cross the half-way point of its (expected) 13-month stay in the Arctic.
Reporters will have berths on the Des Groseilliers along with the ship’s crew of 15 and about 30 researchers. (Science parties range in size from 10 to 40.)
SHEBA work
Large science parties of 25 to 30 researchers will be at the station. Work includes:
( Along with numerous stations measuring sea ice and snow cover on the SHEBA ice floe (three- to -five-km wide) researchers also will haul an amphibious sled in treks up to 20 km (two or three days) from the station between April 1 and May 13 (measure changes in ice thickness, heat conduction and salinity of the ice, radiative properties of the ice and snow cover including the albedo, physical properties of snow including soot and contaminants; Principal Investigator Don Perovich, U.S. Army/Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab).
( Researchers are scheduled to use an ultralight aircraft on skis starting April 22 and fly over an area approximately 25-km wide (measure atmospheric and surface parameters on a scale between what can be collected at the station and what is collected by large aircraft and satellites; Principal Investigator Steven Brooks, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
( Flights will include: C-130 research aircraft flights May 1-26 (to measure atmospheric turbulence, temperature and the humidity structure, and physical properties of clouds; Principal Investigator Judith Curry, University of Colorado); Canadian Atmospheric Environment Service Convair 580 research aircraft flights April 7 – May 7 (similar to C-130 work; Principal Investigator George Isaacs, Canadian scientist); NASA ER-2 High Altitude cloud research aircraft flights May 15 – June 7 (operating visible-, infrared- and microwave-radiometers that will ultimately go on satellites; FIRE 3 researchers); and University of Washington Convair 580 flights May 15 – June 7 (measuring physical and radiative properties of clouds and the ice/snow surface; FIRE 3 researchers).
( Twin otter flights ferrying people to and from the ice station also will be an opportunity to gather data (surface temperature and ice morphology; Principal Investigator Ron Lindsay, University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory).
( Ship-board atmospheric measurement equipment includes:
Cloud radar and LIDAR (comprehensive measurements of cloud geometry and physical properties; Principal Investigator Taneil Uttal, NOAA Environmental Technology Lab).
Laser ceilometer (determine cloud ceiling; DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Project).
Sky radiation measurements (spectrum of radiation incident on the surface; DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Project).
( Radio Sonde with Wind Measurement balloon launchings (RAWINSONDE balloons take vertical profiles up to 10 km of temperature, humidity and wind; Principal Investigator Dick Moritz, University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory) occur twice a day.
( Scientists studying the structure and turbulence in the ocean beneath the ice (Principal Investigator Miles McPhee, McPhee Research Co.).
Ancillary (non-SHEBA) research in spring 1998
Includes a study of the movement and diet of polar bears and looking at how the nutrient content of the upper ocean waters relates to plankton growth.
Weather in the spring
( Early March temperatures can be 30 to 40 degrees below freezing. Snow can fill the air (although whether this is new snow or snow that is blowing around is something SHEBA scientists hope to discover). Daylight lasts 12 hours or more in late March.
( The snow in early spring is generally cold, hard and wind packed. Melting and the resulting areas of open water, soft snow and melt ponds get started in May and June.
( In April being outside can be “pleasant,” although it can be 25 to 30 degrees below zero it is often sunny. There is light around the clock in April.
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