MOSS LANDING, CALIFORNIA-- From the presentations on the first day of the SCAR conference it became clear that climate change from global warming is very real... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA– Recovering a mooring of any significant size essentially amounts to getting it to the surface and picking it up with a ship using a crane... {Read More »}

COLVILLE RIVER, ALASKA-- We awoke this morning to rain, wind, and 35˚ F temperatures. Immediately the remaining sampling lost most of its appeal, but we inhaled our coffee and oatmeal and staggered forth through the wet brush and tussock tundra... {Read More »}

MOSS LANDING, CALIFORNIA-- In early July, 2008 I traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to join thousands of other polar scientists for the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Open Science Conference. I was thrilled to attend this year’s SCAR meeting to present my graduate work on Antarctic toothfish... {Read More »}

COLVILLE RIVER, ALASKA– Days drift by on the river. The wind of the previous entry indeed subsided that evening, and we paddled from 11 PM to 5 AM, stopping for an hour to gape in awe at a massive exposure of permafrost (frozen ground) towering above the river... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA– Kate's moorings, like most others, are constructed to be placed on the sea floor at a particular location and depth... {Read More »}

COLVILLE RIVER, ALASKA– Finally, there is time to journal, as we are still relaxing in the “Salix Lounge” (Latin genus for willow). We’ve spent 36 hours watching the river flow backward – upriver. It has granted us time to catch up on some of the scientific literature, so we’ve been discussing the changes underway in North Slope river floodplains... {Read More »}

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND– (By Lisa Strong-Aufhauser) An aircraft we never did get to fly in while it was on its science mission was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter... {Read More »}

COLVILLE RIVER, ALASKA-- Aha! Windstorm #2, and we have ducked into some willows after the wind halted our downriver progress. This morning was crisp and clear, but the wind produced swells and breaking waves moving upriver... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- My last dispatch discussed the work of scientist Kate Stafford, who uses sets of acoustic sensors called hydrophone arrays to listen to the sounds of whales, dolphins,… {Read More »}