Permafrost outreach 2009

Last night we checked with Northern Air Cargo to see if our stuff made it to Kotzebue.






After waiting over half an hour, we found out that only 11 of the 13 pieces of equipment was on the plane. The two snow machines were still in Fairbanks...
Without the snow machines we needed to make some changes with our plan.





So, first thing this morning, we looked for the earliest flight to Noatak and made plans to make a day trip to Noatak.
As we rushed to the airport to check in, we then learned that the flight was on hold due to the overcast conditions around Noatak. Another hour goes by waiting at the airport.
Suddenly we were told that they are flying and jumped on th plane.

We were flying over a blanket of clouds the entire way.
As we got closer to Noatak, the pilot lowered the plane just above the tree tops to land.








At the school, the principal John, and the teachers Susette and Stan greeted us.








We were introduced to Steve, who keeps a daily record of the weather in Noatak.


















Before the talk, we replaced the old data logger with new ones.
The bateries were running a bit low and it was a good time to change them.
There was a lot of snow and the external casing was completely burried under the snow.





Kenji talked about the Noatak data, and how it's interesting to see signs of a recent warming trend compared to other sites.










Tomorrow we plan to visit Selawik, but we will have to wait and see what happens.