My first fieldwork started the evening of November 7th, when myself, Josh Jones, Nawal Midraj, Steve Dykstra, and Andy Mahoney landed in Utqiaġvik. After a quick stop at the grocery store, we drove up to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (now run by UIC science), where we would be staying in the Ukpik Nest. Steve made a lovely chicken tikka masala for dinner.
On the 8th we met with UIC science to talk about our safety plans, coordinate a bear guard for the weekend, and schedule a snowmachine training for Nawal and I. After our meeting, we piled into the truck and drove out to look at beach profiles and ice berms. We went to 3 sites: one north of Utqiaġvik near Pigniq, and one south of town near Nunavak Bay. At the first site, we made an initial test of our frazil sampling method, which consisted of pouring slushy water through a sieve; the hope of this method was to get a measurable amount of slush to compare the volume of frazil and the volume of water. Unfortunately, there was not enough frazil in the water at this point to decide whether or not this would be a viable option for frazil sampling. We also made a first cast of the CTD, to look at the salinity and temperature of the water close to the beach.I made a lentil daal-ish dish for dinner, which Andy endearingly referred to as goop (a compliment, I’m told).
On the 9th we made our first snowmachine trek out to Nuvuk (Point Barrow), where we were hoping to take a look at ice berms and make some measurements. Before we left, Steve, Nawal and I set up one of the EMLIDs as a base GPS, so that Steve and Nawal could take beach profiles. The ice berms at the point were ~3m tall, and there seemed to be 2-3 distinct berms, and there was a relatively large flow cruising by at ~2 knots. Our bear guard Emiliano helped us get to the bottom of the sea-most berm, so that we could take samples. We took ice samples from the bottom, middle, and top of the sea-most and land-most berms to be tested for their salinity when we got back to the nest. After this we scurried over to Elson Lagoon. We took 2 measurements of ice depth, water depth, and freeboard on the lagoon. We stopped at a few locations on the way back to NARL to get beach profiles, then headed home in the dark.
On the 10th we returned to the lagoon to get a core and a view of the water below. After a demonstration of coring from Andy, I got to take my first ice core! It was a small one, since it was early in the season, measuring only 22cm. I cut it up so that we could take it back to the nest and test salinity. In addition to the core, Andy cut 2 holes in the ice with a chainsaw, and recorded underneath the ice with a GoPro. The two sites had a clear difference in the amount of light allowed: the site with rafted ice was much darker. After loading up our equipment, we headed out to the point so that Nawal and Steve could take beach profiles, and stopped along the way back to the nest for profiles as well. Nawal made Tasty Bite’s curries for dinner.
We started our day on the 11th slow with some work catch-up, then headed out midday to take beach profiles and make CTD casts along the coast, between Pigniq and Nunavak bay. The beach profiles were taken using an EMLID GNSS receiver, which is able to give global position with an accuracy of a few centimeters. This was a rather monotonous task: get in the truck, drive to a location, take out the EMLID and CTD, let the CTD soak while getting beach profiles, repeat. We caught sunset at Nunavak and ate dinner at Mario’s.
On the last morning we were lucky enough to have a large amount of slush close to our staging area, so we donned dry suits and made another attempt at our frazil sampling. While we were doing this, Josh had a chance to fly the kite with a thermal and visible camera on it! Yet again, the sieve proved a difficult sampling device, so we attempted to use it with a piece of cloth, in hopes of catching more frazil. Unfortunately, this was also a bust, as we had somehow picked out hydrophobic fabric. Last, we tried a french press, which was a great success! Future missions may include a more scientific version of the french press method, or perhaps an aeropress. After packing everything up, we headed home.
Thank you to UIC science for supporting our research and keeping us safe, to our bear guard Emiliano for taking time out of his weekend to watch for bears, and to the Iñupiat who have stewarded this land, water, and ice for generations.
