TRANSATLANTIC SCIENCE WEEK

The speakers in my session on Marine Technology.

There was a successful pick up Monday evening of colleagues from Norway at San Francisco airport.  After about an hour we made it to Berkeley for a quick dinner at the Claremont Hotel.  This historic 1915 hotel was crowded with not only the Science Week attendees, but also a few hundred people at a launch of a new vodka, which made things quite lively!  A shuttle took us to the conference center and the opening remarks commenced soon thereafter.  The surprise (for me) was the presence and entrance of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway.  The audience rose in silence and then sat after Haakon was seated.  He spoke about the upcoming week and shared his enthusiasm for the event.  With a focus on energy, marine technology, genomics and space science, he emphasized the importance of the event for addressing many issues facing humanity.  He was also excited to be back at Berkeley where he received his BA in 1999.  His impressive remarks were followed by those of two ministers that sponsored the event; Tora Aasland the Minister of Education and Research, and Trond Giske, Minister of Trade and Industry.

Crown Prince Haakon addressing the Science Week attendees.

The break was followed by a number of talks, including the plenary talk which was particularly interesting and ominous.  It covered humanity’s current energy needs, and future projections of energy, food, water and population.  There are so many daunting tasks and it really hit home as the population passed the 7 billion mark this week. What was clear to me though was that the people in that room ARE the people that have the skill, potential and obligation to alter the current trajectories.  My talks were in the late afternoon and were received well (click here for talks).  Specifically, I highlighted the technical details and educational framework of the 3-year collaborative program with Norway called NORUS.  We had a number of success stories in the program, so highlighting them in the talk was fun.  After a short break, we then went to the reception dinner for good food, conversation, and another set of talks.   The following day was highlighted by the Kavli Lecture given by James Angel on using his breakthroughs in telescope materials science and engineering for development of new solar energy technology.  Again, I was left with a sense of urgency about addressing these global issues.  Sessions on Education and Genomics ended the day. 

Colleagues enjoying chowder at Fisherman's Wharf.

Sunset over Palo Alto.

Harbor seals basking along the coast at Cal Poly's Center for Marine and Coastal Sciences.

We then drove via downtown San Francisco and Fisherman’s wharf to SFO again for a meeting with a colleague and stayed there the night. The following day we drove to Palo Alto and Stanford University where the conference ended and then off to San Luis Obispo for more meetings with students, technicians and fellow colleagues.  That night we had a dinner out on the beach, which was a great way to wrap up the week. 

The sun disappearing to the south during the flight north.

Picture of the week: Spitzbergen's peaks through the mist on the approach.

Gusty conditions at Longyear airport.

Chistmas came a bit early this year.

I have spent the last 30 hours travelling back to Longyearbyen and am doing well with the time change. As I flew north, the sun dipped below the horizon and we landed in a blustery twilight.  It was great to see Nicole at the airport. I knew about 7 people in the airport, either leaving or there to pick up others, and it felt like I was coming home.  I felt like Santa, handing out the suitcases filled with requested bounty from the States.  After finishing this, I will try and tackle the Norwegian I missed these past 10 days….

TRAVEL WEEK



Picture of the week: lunar craters across the fjord.

As Transatlantic Science Week, the US-NORWAY annual conference to highlight science cooperation between the two countries, is in San Francisco this year. I took advantage of the location to leave a bit early and have a couple days at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo about 3 hours south.  I left on Wednesday afternoon after getting on the water for REMUS deployments on Monday and Tuesday.  The missions went well and established the pattern that we are going to try and repeat on a weekly schedule thoughout the winter.  On Tuesday, I also had a meeting with the UNIS faculty on the logistics of sampling in the polar night.  Already the LCD screens of my GPS and the ranger, an acoustic send/receive instrument to range off and communicate with the REMUS, are very slow to respond as the LC  (Liquid Crystal) part of D (Display) are freezing.   I rigged up a system after the  deployments to use foot warmers to keep those screens warm enough to keep responding in the field.  The key to sampling is to minimize the time it takes to deploy and recover, so that is what we are working on.  Another of my concerns regarding logistics is to have someone to help me in the field.  While a number of faculty, students and Nicole have helped out, it is hard to consistently schedule each mission.  Tuesday afternoon while frantically trying to get ready to leave, I met with Edward Byrne, a Fulbright student studying in Trondheim.  He is in Svalbard taking a course in ocean engineering and will take more course later this year.  He and I spoke and we agreed that he will work with me in the field with the REMUS this winter.  This will be great as we will be able to work around our respective schedules and ensure consistent sampling. 

Dinner out at Huset with the family the night before leaving.  Huset used to be the community center initially for the miners and then for Longyearbyen residence.  A new community center was built in the center of the town and now screens the movies and hosts community events.

After a stormy weekend, the beginning of the week was beautiful.  Clear skies and still with the blue glow of sun lasting from about 8 in the morning until 11, some direct sun still on the tops of the mountains and then a return to the glow from 2pm until about 4:30.  The bikes are no longer usable for the kids to go to school as the streets of Longyearbyen are sheets of ice.  It is also dark in the morning, so it is also safer if they are not riding.  The boys are now transitioning to walking, which is a bit more work, but as they have impressed Nicole and I with this entire trip, they will step up and meet the challenge.

Within 10 minutes of lifting off the tarmac, the sun was in my face.  The trip to Tromsø and onto Oslo was uneventful and I skyped the family when I arrived.  With the flights leaving in the afternoon, there are no connections in Oslo, so I had to stay overnight. On the flight to Frankfurt I sat next to a guy from Molde, a city south of Trondheim.  He was a car parts dealer and was on a holiday with his wife (sitting behind us) to Budapest.   He did not want to speak English to me even though he spoke it, which forced me into speaking Norwegian.  We spoke for about an hour of the 1.5 hour flight in Norwegian about each other’s background, our work, families etc. He filled in and taught me a few unknown words, but it was amazing to me what we were able to cover given my very limited vocabulary.  I really appreciated that he minimized the English.  It is hard in Norway, as most people speak perfect English and when they hear you struggle at all, most people switch the conversation.   This experience gave me a lot of confidence and look forward to using what I have learned more than I have.  Back to Harold… he was very interested in my work in the Arctic, about the sea ice patterns, the variations in the intensity of the Gulf Stream and they effects these patterns have on wildlife and fisheries.   In his 20’s, he had sailed around the world, had worked on fishing vessels, and had worked on shrimp trawlers off Greenland, so we had a lot in common in terms of time on the ocean.  We also used the map in the on-board magazine to chart the countries we had visited.  We both agreed that the islands of the North and South Pacific were and are near or at the top of our favorite places on earth.  Nice conversation and experience for someone (myself) who does not often take the time to talk to others on planes.

The plane arrived late in Frankfurt, so had only time to get to the next flight.  I got into my seat and got ready for the 11+ hours.  About 5 minutes later, an American couple stopped at my row and told (not asked) me to get out of their seat.  Not a good first impression of returning to the States!!  I was calm and showed them my ticket and it was clear that the airline had made a mistake.  I got up and told them they could have the seat.  The stewardess took my boarding pass and returned with a new one… 15K… the upper deck!  With a flat bed and a couple of movies, the trip was really nice.  After arriving in San Francisco, I had a 4 hour layover and felt a "welcome back" 4.0 earthquake centered in Berkeley before heading to San Luis Obispo. My student, Anniken, picked me up at in SLO and we went back to the house (she is house sitting for us while gone).  I crashed pretty hard and woke up the next day pretty refreshed.  I spent the day meeting with students, my technicians, and going through the foot-high pile of mail.  It was a bit strange being back and really felt like a visit rather than being home.  The weather was great as usual.  I told Nicole in a Skype call, being in that perfect temperature with a light breeze and the warm sun feels like getting into bed with cleanly washed sheets.  The smell of the trees was also intense.  I worked at home that evening and the following day getting ready for the talks and catching up on paperwork.  I also frantically drove around town checking off the items requested from Nicole and the boys.  It was also good to see our cats who obviously missed me as they were like glue, following me everywhere around the house.

Meeting with students (Johanna, James and Anniken) and technicians (Ian and Brian) for lunch at Cal Poly.

Hummingbird taking a time out outside the house in San Luis Obispo.

I then headed north on the 3 hour drive to the Bay Area, had a swim in the pool, had sushi take out and took in a movie.  I pick up my colleagues from NTNU for Science Week tomorrow…

SNØ

Picture of the week: Full moon over Adventdalen after a coating of snow.

This week began with a normal Monday morning at UNIS.  I got a call at a bit after 1:30 though from Nicole that her flight to England left in 1 hour and not the following day like we had thought.  I borrowed a car and rushed her to the airport.  The flight was late from Tromsø, so it all worked out well.  It was good to give her a break after arriving in July.  The workday was cut short for the rest of the week as the boys come home around 2:30 every day.   I spent most of the week putting my talk together for Transatlantic Science Week, an event put on by the Foreign Ministry of Norway to promote cooperation between the US and Norway. I will be going next week to give a presentation on a US-Norway partnership program that I have been co-leading with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, UNIS and Rutgers University.  Specifically, I will be talking about the technical part of the program and the underwater instruments and platforms that the students used in the exchange program. I am also going as the Fulbright Arctic Chair representative.  As it is in the San Francisco Bay area this year, I will be flying in and out of San Luis Obispo to touch base with students and technicians at Cal Poly. I also found out mid-week that my colleague from UNIS will not be going to science week, so I have to give his talk as well. So, I finished the other talk and the two work well together. 

Across the fjord.

Noon sun on mountain range with moon.

Across the fjord II.

Although there was less time at UNIS this week, it was good to spend more time with the boys, hear about their days and get them ready each morning.  It was stormy this week with very high winds (60 mph gusts), creating two dusts storms.  The winds were strong enough to lift the freeze dried soil in Adventdalen and fill the sky with dust.  At one time, you could not see the fjord from our house.  We also had our first real snow storm that blanketed the area with 2-3 inches.  The boys and I went on a few walks after the wind died down to enjoy the new look. 

Jason in snow storm.

The boys addiction with Minecraft!

Skyping with mama in England.

On a walk with the boys through town after the storm.

An interesting note (mostly to the California crowd)… Over the past two days, the winds reversed in the fjord and created some big swells (8-12 ft off the point and 3-4 ft along the river sill).

Waves breaking at the sill.

Nicole returned today with some presents, having had a great time in Shrewsbury, England.   It is great to have her home!

Nicole's plane arriving in Longyear airport.

BELOW ZERO

The sun lights only the tops of the surrounding mountains.

This week marked the transition to sub-zero temperatures.  Two weeks ago the average was about 6 C, last week was about 3 C (this week began with that temperature), and now the average is about -7 C.  Anders helps us choose our layers every morning with a mini weather report; temperature, wind and sky condition.  The boys are still using their bikes, but that will end soon with the accumulation of snow.  An inch of snow fell last night and is now whipping around town. 

Anders speeds off to school.

A Svalbard reindeer skin hangs to dry at a residence.

Candles are lit every day to warm the livingroom.

The low morning sun highlights the cliffs.

The timetable for Norwegian class changed this week, now Monday, Tuesday, and Fridays.  Class has been good and starting to get a bit more challenging.  Tuesday there was a fire drill and the entire school had to stand outside for about 20 minutes.  Jason and Anders made sure they didn’t acknowledge us… adolescence is upon us!

Cliffs across Isfjorden and huts from the airport.

The work week was very productive, starting with us installing the bioluminescence sensor in off the harbor docks.  It will be measuring the light flashes of zooplankton in the fjord every 1/60 of a second through mid-December.  We are trying to obtain a record of the transition of bioluminescence from the light to 24 hours of darkness.  They have shown this response to light in the laboratory, but not in a natural setting.  We just got an article published on one of the first observations of this during the polar night (click here), and are following up the physiological and ecological implications.  More on this later…  The sensor we installed is attached to a pole 3 meters below the surface connected to a computer, with power available on the dock.  The computer is inside a cargo box and we think it should be fine through the winter.  The effort took a lot longer that first anticipated, so I scrubbed the REMUS mission also planned for that day.

The bioluminescence instrument being installed on the docks.  The pipe under the red cargo strap holds the instrument, while the logging computer is in the aluminium box in front of me.

From Wednesday to Friday, I hosted a couple of colleagues from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU’s) Applied Underwater Robotics Laboratory in Trondheim.  We spent the time discussing robotics applications and the process of integrating these platforms into an educational setting.  For example, examining the level of involvement Masters students would have versus PhD students.  They are acquiring some new systems and asked a number of questions about my background.  We also discussed the general application of underwater systems in the Arctic with respect to natural resource assessment.  The Norwegian government is understandably interested in the Arctic, but as for polar systems in general, comparatively very little is known as sustained observations are challenging. 

Colleagues from NTNU meet with me at UNIS.

Before our meetings on Thursday, we deployed the REMUS for a long mission (50+ km) around the mooring, across Isfjorden, and back.  The route was based on earlier discussions with a physical oceanographer at UNIS to look at the heat content of the North Atlantic Water entering Isfjorden.  He is examining the impact of this warmer water on the formation of ice in the local area.  The traditional approach has been to use a ship to get vertical casts of the water at a number of set stations.  The advantage of the REMUS is that it produces these vertical descriptions of the water every 300-400 m, thus providing the heat content in much higher resolution for analysis.  After deploying the REMUS, of course the ship in the harbor decided to leave and crossed right over the path of the vehicle.  The REMUS however was about 20 meters below the hull of the ship, so only a close call.  We then went back to UNIS and continued our meetings while we monitored the vehicle via satellite when it surfaced every 50 minutes or so.   The mission went well and it was a good demonstration of the capabilities.  About 8 hours later, we got back on the water and retrieved it.  The sun is setting at about 4:30 PM now, right at the opening of Isfjorden.  As that is around the corner from Longyearbyen, I had not seen the sun go down for some time.  It was great to see the direct sun even for a few minutes. 

Paul Renard helps launch the REMUS in Adventfjorden.

Trying to keep in good spirits as a cargo ship runs over the REMUS!

Seeing the direct sunlight was awesome!

NTNU collegues after the getting the REMUS back in the boat. 

The Lenin bust at Kroa restaurant.

After the REMUS retrieval and return to UNIS, I left for basketball for a couple of hours. Nicole and I were then treated to dinner at Kroa to end the evening.  Friday we wrapped up the meetings and then went on a small hike up Sukkertoppen overlooking Longyearbyen.  It was a beautiful day with no clouds and no wind.  It was cold, but we rapidly heated up from the climb.   When we got to the top, the sun shone in our faces and because there was no wind, I could just sense a hint of heat on my skin.  Direct light from the sun no longer hits Longyearbyen, but lights the tops of the surrounding mountains.  We could only stay for a few minutes as I had to get them to the airport.  After returning to UNIS I addressed the 200 waiting emails.

The sun at Sukkertoppen.

The walk back down the mountain.

The Longyearbyen school.

UNIS from above.

The hike on Firday and the persistence of virtually no wind motivated another walk around town on Saturday.  I bought the camera and some of the shots are below.  It was a good thing I went because two hours after returning home, it started snowing and we woke up to white today.

Picture of the week: Reflections off the frozen river from Longyearbren and Larsbren.

Frozen rock on the shoreline.

A beached combjelly is frozen to the seashore

Splitrock with algae.

A purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) forages along the shoreline.

UNIS vista.

The Longyearbyen church.

Moss in ice.

Sarcophag and approaching storm.

Foundation remnants from buildings bombed in WWII.

Frozen cotton grass field.