20 August, 1997

August 20, 1997

Today we flew to Atkasook to probe another grid. The flight was by Hagelund Air and we used a plane configured for about 12 passengers. Our flight traveled at about 700 ft and we were able to see land forms and animals quite well. When we arrived in Atkasook, our groups split up and headed out across the runway toward the plots which were about 2 km away from the airstrip. The airfield is the only part of the town that I saw from the ground. Anna, Jeremy and I just finished our area in time to catch the plane out.

At the 1 x 1 grid we probed for thaw depth every 100 m and at the botany research sites. In addition to those probe points, Jeremy and I tried out a thermal probe that I made to see if the probe would give useful data. (You may remember that we tried to use them before but a computer problem prevented any recording.) Our sampling pattern for the thermal probe was every other probe site for a total of 36 data points. The field site prevented taking 36 points as some of them were under a lake and therefore unreachable.

When we got back to the lab tonight, we downloaded the recorders and looked at them on the spreadsheet. It looks as if we have a working probe this time and the data looks consistent. There is a need for more refinement but I think that this gives me something to work with.

That's it for now, the 12 km hike has left me rather tired.