Permafrost outreach 2008

The University ofAlaska EPSCoR program, NASA IPY and NSF IPY, Thermal State of Permafrostprograms are conducting an outreach effort in conjunction with it's research focuson permafrost and infrastructure. The outreach effort has been termed the"Permafrost Health" program and consists of installing permafrosttemperature monitoring systems!

Tunnel Man Episode 1 almost finish!

We are exciting to anounce "Tunnel Man" EP1 will be available to see on July 25!! You can access this web page, youtube, teachertube etc. We will anounce the sites address very soon!

Also we start filming Episode 2!! This will use RAP and very fast story! Here is sample video!!

UAF Summer Courses

Understanding the Role of Permafrost in a Rapidly Warming Climate

Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) in Fairbanks next week

Live Webcast of Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP)
Sunday 29 June 2008 - Thursday, 3 July 2008

For further information, please go to:
http://www.nicop.org

Webstreaming will be available at:
http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/video/NICOP/

--------------------
The Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP), hosted by the
University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), will be held in Fairbanks, Alaska,
from Sunday, 29 June through Thursday, 3 July 2008. International
Permafrost Conferences are held every five years under the auspices of
the International Permafrost Association (IPA). The IPA was officially
organized in 1983 during the Fourth International Conference on
Permafrost. NICOP will celebrate the 25th anniversary of IPA and the
125th anniversary of the International Polar Year with special IPA
emphasis on the thermal state of permafrost throughout the polar
regions.

The following sessions will be available via live webcast at:
http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/video/NICOP/

Sunday, 29 June
11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m.: Opening Ceremony
2:15 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.: Opening Plenary
Monday, 30 June
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Plenary Thermal
Tuesday, 1 July
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Plenary Engineering
4:45 p.m. -5:45 p.m.: Public Lecture
Wednesday, 2 July
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Plenary Hydrology
Thursday, 3 July
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Plenary Mountain
3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.: Closing Ceremony

For further information, please go to:
http://www.nicop.org/

Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) UAF Summer Courses

The following courses are offered in conjunction with the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP). There are two offerings of Introduction to Permafrost and Frozen Ground Engineering (one at the undergraduate level and one at the graduate level) and one offering of Understanding the Role of Permafrost in a Rapidly Warming Climate.

Introduction to Permafrost and Frozen Ground Engineering (1 undergraduate credit)
June 23-26
CE F495P-F01
CRN: 51624
9 am to 1 pm, Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs.
Duckering 344
Instructor: Yuri Shur
Email: ffys@uaf.edu

Introduction to Permafrost and Frozen Ground Engineering (1 graduate-level credit)
June 23-26
CE F695P-F01
CRN: 51625
9 am to 1 pm, Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs.
Duckering 344
Instructor: Yuri Shur
Email: ffys@uaf.edu

Understanding the Role of Permafrost in a Rapidly Warming Climate
June 25-27
ED F595P-F06
CRN: 51743
9 am to 5 pm Wednesday and Thursday
9 am to 1 pm Friday
Akasofu (IARC) 417
Instructor: Kenji Yoshikawa, Larry Hinzman
Email: lhinzman@iarc.uaf.edu

You can register for these courses using the Summer Sessions Secure Registration Site. If you are not a U. S. citizen and do not have a social security number you can enter zeroes in that field.

Finland!

Kenjivisited Helsinki, Finland this week for meeting. Finland is located almost theother side of Alaska that has 11 hours time difference. But many similarities,native people still have Reindeer and snow country. Kenji met his friend (Prof.Matti Seppala) at University of Helsinki.

Hehas other special code name “Dr. Palsa”! He is studying for Palsa in northernFinland over 40 years. Palsa is frozen mound usually developed thicker peatarea in discontinues permafrost regions. One of the our discussion was the siteselection for our Finland Permafrost Observatory. He is definitely best personto ask permafrost condition and villages for northern Finland. He gave me two potentialsites where are Kevo and Kilpisjarvi. We will most likely install Kilpisjarvi, hopefully thissummer! During meeting banquet, we visited small island, that have disply famasGerman Sub “U-boat”. This looks still good shape! More than 50 years!

Emmonak flooding!

Water hasoverflown the banks of the Kwigkuk River in the bush village of Emmonak onFriday afternoon. Villagers watch the water rise during break-up of the frozenice on the river. The flooding started behind the AC store and in the downtownhousing area of the village and covered the main road by 6:00 pm. The road tothe Emmonak airport has been closed and families are moving from low-lyingareas to higher ground. They have been on flood alert for two days since theNational Weather Service warned of large amounts of ice coming down the YukonRiver from Mt. Village are headed for the Yupik village. (Photo and reported by Diana DeStafeno, Emmonak)

AppleMark

Our hero Henry (principal “Bill’s” son) save dataloggers from this flooding event! Heand his mother Diana searched instruments at borehole site on Thursday (May22). He found the sensor/datalogger and wiring in the field. They had to gothrough about 1 foot of water around the ground temperature monitoringsite. Henry did great job andcontinoe to support our program!!

Thank you Henry!

AppleMark

4:30pm on Friday, May 23, 2008

Eagle

Vlad(Vladimir Romanovsky) and Kenji left Fairbanks midnight of May 13 for Eagle. Weplan to look for Tom (Osterkamp) ‘s borehole, to drill permafrost monitoringstation hole and giving lecture at school one day including 16 hours drive!This is a little bit big day for us. That why we decide to leave town previousday (midnight). Vlad drove most of the portion until morning. At 9am, we are atEagle. The Eagle area has been thehistorical home to Han people since before the arrival of Europeans inAlaska. The first structure in present-day Eagle was a log-trading post called"Belle Isle," built around 1874. In the late 1800s, Eagle became asupply and trading center for miners working the upper Yukon River and its tributaries. By 1898, its populationhad exceeded 1,700. In 1901 Eagle was the first incorporated city in the Alaska Interior. It was named after the eagles thatnested on nearby Eagle Bluff. A United States Army camp, Fort Egbert, was builtat Eagle in 1900. A telegraph line between Eagle and Valdez was completed in 1903. The gold rushes in Nome and Fairbanks lured people away fromEagle. Judge Wickersham moved his court from Eagle to Fairbanks in 1903. By1910, Eagle's population had declined to its present-day level (below 200people). Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911. Present-day Eagle is home to mostlypeople of European descent, but Eagle Village has a small population that is about 50percent Gwichʼin. The town enjoyedsome notoriety as the location of the popular John McPhee book "Cominginto the country" which was published in the 1970s (from Wikipedia).

Atfirst we looking for borehole. Tom with DOT drill 1985 near airport. This datais very important for us. At that time permafrost temperature was -3.6dC. So weexciting to check today’s permafrost temperature. About hour later, we cannotfind any “ordinary” borehole except ¾” copper pipe. This looks not Tom’s normalinstallation. But we cannot find other than this, we think maybe this. Also capwas open and refreeze inside of hole! We will bring steam system for thawingnext trip.

Afterthe cruising around tundra, we back to school to find science teacher (MarlysHouse). They play baseball beautiful city ground next of Yukon River. River isalready open to see mighty power even half mile away from shore. We setschedule for the class 12:40. Until then we go back to natural forest/tundra toinstall permafrost monitoring station.

Afterthe installation, we quick back to school and lecture permafrost to thestudents. Students are extreamly good and well knowledge. We had a great time,but we have to leave soon. Road is waiting another 8 hours drive back toFairbanks!

May 10, 2008

Fairbanks

We are back in Fairbanks. Weather is completely different from Bering Sea!It looks already summer here. We made many progress in this spring trips. Totalover 60 villages had permafrost station (red dot) now and additional 16 villages having frost tube or water monitoringstation (yellow dot). Thank youfor your support! We are approaching to edit our annual report and permafrosthandbook for villages as well as Tunnel Man movie. Stay tune fartherinformation!

More St. Lawrence island (May7, 2008)

Kenji gave a talk at Gambell school. We had to leave the island after this talk. Kaji was busy preparing toleave and packing. Outside of school was still winter looking with stormy wind!However, farther west of sky near Russian coast see dark gray “water sky”indicating open water.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

We gave three classes (3hours) this morning at Savoonga. During Kenji’s talk, Kaji run to the borehole site to download data, fixcap etc. At 12:10pm, class was end, and we eat quick lunch for moving to Gambell.

Gambell is another village of St. Lawrence island located west end. We are almost same as Russian ChukotkaPeninsula for longitude. After we met teacher Jessica for tomorrow’s classschedule. We hit big problem about permission! IRA does not want to give thepermission for drilling. Teacher and Principal help us to explain more aboutpart of school educational program. But it does happen. So we cannot do anything, even we haveall equipment and pipes with us!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Kaji and Kenji went to Kiana School this morning to meet students. After30-minute talk, we all go out to see frost tube and datalogger. After thedownload data, we went to airport for Nome. Pilot (Dave) just got in runway at10:00am, good timing. Three of us arrived Nome around noon. We enjoyed lastlunch for three. Dave would leave for Fairbanks this afternoon, and Kaji andKenji leave for Savoonga (St. Lawrence Is.). Cessna (single engine) cannotcross ocean, that why we took scheduled flight for Savoonga. Thanks Dave fortaking care of us 6 days! After the lunch at Airport Pizza, we visit Nomepermafrost station to replace loggers. Flight forSavoonga was smooth but almost whiteout. We met Doug Finn (Science Teacher) and he took his snowmachine and sledfor drill site. Three of us working two hours to establish permafrost station.Once we install logger and frost tube, we back to school.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

It is beautiful morning in Teller. We eat fresh pike at breakfast from Jay!Cessna try to approach Wales after Teller but we could not by weather. We head east to Backland (acrossthe Seward Peninsula). Backland is beautiful weather and principal Terri andbrother Tim help us to install permafrost station. Especially Tim stay to helpmost of the time and give us fresh seefish! After Backland, we went to Noatakto repalace logger. But, we could not find station by heavy snow. Stan(teacher) call Ezra (one of the excellent students helps us our program) tocame looking for this. Once he came ten min. later, he found immediately!Thanks Ezra!

We moved to Kiana to stay John and Mahsa’s apartment. We had a wonderfuldinner with John’s family and principal Sue.

Saturday, May3, 2008

It is marginal condition at Unalakleet this morning. We decide to go northinstead of going St. Michael and Stebbins. We change pipes at Koyuk, Golovinthen fly to Teller. Teller school principal “Jay” pick us up at airport. Oncewe are in Teller, we start drilling. It takes two hours to drill and establishpermafrost station. When we finish installation, Brian (science teacher at Brevig Mission) visit to Jay. Itis great timing for us to go Brevig Mission. Brian and Kenji use Jay’s machineto Brevig Mission. When kenji fix borehole and replace datalogger, kenji driveback to Teller.

Friday, May 2, 3008

We stay nice place at Galena Charter School housing last night! The schoolis located big and comfortable former Air Force base place. Teacher Shayneorganized nicely for us. We meet student 9am and replace dataloggers using bigvan.

After 10:15am we go to airport to catch Dave’s Cessna 206 to move Kaltag.There are still a lot of snow inKaltag. It not easy to find logger site! After a few shoveling, we find andreplace dateloggers.

Afterreplace, we move to Unalakleet. We have been here last month but we cannotdrill here for shipping reason. We get drill permission from city and talk to students. After 3:30pm, Kim driveto the site for us! We drill 3hours to establish site. After the establishpermafrost station, we eat pizzaand rest.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

It is Beautiful day! in Fairbanks. We fly to Stevens Village. School helper“William” drive to runway to pick Kenji up. Kaji and Dave fly to Beaver forreplace datalogger. Kenji meet Genie and Dora (only two teachers in school),who met at Arctic Village last year! Kenji immediately start drilling and onehour later, Meeting students for permafrostlecture. Two hours later, Air plane back to Stevens Village and Kenji is justdone here.

We all move to next village “Huslia”. About 1hour and 50 min. flying. Weare at Huslia, Teacher Geoff and many high school students pick us up at runwayand drive around town to find drill site. End up, we decide drill near air portis better! All students and us drill and quickly finish because warm sunnyweather and sandy materials! After install loggers we move to Hughes. Hughes isKoyukuk River village and old mining activities. We cannot find good spot todrill! Princepal Bob is great teacher but we decide not drill here and alsoweather getting marginal. We decide to move for Galena.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It is snow! I expect beautiful spring day but NOT!

Kenji and Kaji stand by airplane in the morning since 7:30am, Finally Dave(Wright Air pilot) call us to go by twin engine plane” aroud noon. This is great decision!Single engine can not fly up cloud but twin can. We are going to Venetie thenKenji off plane to start drilling. Kaji and Dave continue to fly for Arctic village. At ArcticVillage, Becky pick him up and tobring to school. Kaji replace datalogger since last year and return to Venetie.When the Kaji and Dave back to Venetie, Kenji is almost done drilling. We tell to teacher Carmen datalogger andfrost tube. After the establish site, we move to Ft. Yukon. Time is running out quick, after 5 pm,no one can hold in Ft. Yukon. Kenjiand Kaji walk to the Ft. Yukon permafrost site replace loggers. Kenji need abit time to fix cables by chewing animals. The weather is getting bad here inFt. Yukon too at 7pm.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Thankyou for your support for our 2008 snowmachine trip. We were safely coming back toFairbanks. We really enjoy meeting many teachers, students, local communitypeople... During three weeks of trip, we run total 1450 miles, visited 24villages. We just made short 3-minute movie for this trip summary.
Ifyou have a chance, try following address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63otvsYatwQ
or our web site
http://www.uaf.edu/water/projects/permafrost/sm2008/sm2008/smtrip2008/bigcontry.htm

We have planed thefollow-up trip next week to download data, fixing pipes etc using Cessna 206.You will be able to see “Where are we flying ?” everyday at our website www.uaf.edu/permafrost .

Our detailed scheduledepends on weather. It will be hard say when we are where?!

However, If you check ourblog. You can find out where we are! And see a lot of pictures!

Expected date for visiting schools

April 30:

Eagle, Circle, Chacktiak, Ft.Yukon, Arctic Village, Vinetie,

May1:

Beaver, Stevens Village, Tanana, Allakaket, Hughes, Galena

May2:

Huslia , Kaltag, Unalakleet, St. Micheal, Stebbins, Kotlik,Emmonak,

May3:

Koyuk, Golovin, Teller, Bravig Mission, Wales

May4:

Backland, Pt.Hope

May5: Noorvik, Kiana, Noatak, Kivalina, Nome

May6:

Savoonga, Gambell

Friday, April 25, 2008

We are preparing follow up trip by using Cessna 206. Wright Air support forthis one week continue village trip. We had a bit cargo problem for our snowmachine trip last month. Especially earlier schools were not enough materialsto set up permafrost monitoring station and also some of the village was onlydrill hole without meeting students because of arriving weekend. So idea ofthis trip will be complete instrumentation and meeting students, but alsoestablish new schools too.

Here is challenge part!

We try to visit as many as possible villages between April 30 and May 6. Youwill find out how many villages we can do via this web page. We will alsoupload a lot of aerial photos of beautiful part of Alaska! Stay tune!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Wewere back to Fairbanks. Our 2008 snow machine trip was over. It was nice massivefocused three weeks. Four of us worked hard everyday straight. Total 1450miles,we run across the western Alaska visited 24 villages. Many students and teachers did support our program. Wedeeply appreciate all of them. Our final active report will post our web site shortly. You can see our 3minutes summarized movie at You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63otvsYatwQ) or our web site (http://www.uaf.edu/water/projects/permafrost/sm2008/sm2008/smtrip2008/bigcountry.htm). Please check this movie "The BigCountry"!

Finally,I remained Fridtjof Nansen’s message. I always find out dreams andgetting energy for the future exploring from the last paragraph of his FarthestNorth (1897).

The ice and the long moonlitpolarnights, with all their yearning, seemed like a far -off dream from anotherworld - a dream that had come and passed away. But what would like be worthwithout its dreams?

Sunset (Kotzebue Sound)

Thank you!

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