Diamond Dust Day

When I was uploading and sorting the pictures that Kasper put on a CD for us, I was thrilled with how many great images he selected. But one picture immediately caught my attention: The day we were at the snow pit, the sky and snow sparkled, and most of us took a snapshot. Most of us knew that our cameras were not powerful enough to capture the beauty of the day, but we took the photo anyway to help remind us of how beautiful it was. This photo really does capture the diamond-like quality - and you don't even have to look too carefully to see the sparkling ice crystals! This is a magnificent photograph (Since the photos are a compilation of all the Greenlanders, I'm not sure exactly who took it.... but I'd love to know what kind of camera was used). Thanks for sharing!

~ kathy g

Breaking the Ice

Couldn't resist the bad pun.

Hi all. My name is Thomas Overly. Here is the 'formal' paragraph I provided polarTREC:

'Graduate student in Geography at the University of Kansas working with snow accumulation data from Greenland. Currently on a Fulbright grant to Denmark/Greenland examining knowledge production on climate change from both a scientific and Greenlandic traditional ecological knowledge perspective.'

I have been in Greenland since early May. Spent May 7th to June 2nd on the ice sheet with the NEEM Ice Coring project. Since coming off the ice I have spent time conducting research in Maniitsoq and Nuuk on the west coast and Kulusuk, Tasiilaq, Isertoq, and Tiniteqiilaq on the east coast. Prior to coming to Greenland, (November to May) I was in Copenhagen working with the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Ice and Climate (the NEEM group).

Oh, for the Greenland participantS, I will be in Nuuk this Friday to Sunday morning, so if anyone would like to meet up, give me a call on my Greenland mobile (+299)22 42 56

General interests include skiing, climbing, photography, travel.... Here's the picture I provided polarTREC, taken in Tasiilaq about a week ago.

Less than a week away!

Just under a week from today we will all meet in person! There is so much to do in such a short amount of time: Get to know each other and sharing our goals for the trip, talk about our cultures, education, science and so many other things. Here in Washington, DC, the weather has been hot and humid, and it's hard to believe I'll be needing wool socks and gloves in a few days when we go to Summit camp!

Have you all seen the pictures from last year? Visit http://www.gu-aasiaat.gl/Summit/Summit-1.htm and http://www.polartrec.com/gallery/2007/greenland-education-tour to see what last year's group did. I have been told that PolarTREC will set up a page for this year, too.

See you all soon!

Great to see so many of you have joined

I'm thrilled to see that so many of you have entered the blog. You are all listed as authors and can add new posts as well as comment on old ones. This will be for the students, too, but I don't yet have their contact information in order to invite them. I took the initiative to set this up, based on some thoughts from last year's group. They wished they had some more time together, and this seemed like the easiest way to facilitate that. We can use this, and/or maybe a more 'official' venue to continue learning about each other after our trip, if people would like. 

For most of you, your English is far, far better than my non-existent Danish, but please post in whatever language you are most comfortable and force the rest of us to figure it out! And please do join in and tell us about yourself. This is not meant to be the formal 'science' site; I believe we are working with ARCUS to get some space on the PolarTREC site like last year's group did.  When that's ready, I hope to give you some advance information on things we are going to consider when we have our research opportunities.

until later....          kathy g

Welcome!

This blog has been created for the participants in the July 2008 Science Education Week at Klangerlussuaq and Summit Camp in Greenland.

Here in cyberspace, we can get to meet each other, and learn a little bit about one another before we arrive in Kangerlussuaq. Please introduce yourself, tell us a little about yourself - your hobbies, family, pets, favorite music or food, why you are excited to be part of this experience, what you hope to gain from our trip - anything you'd like us to know!

The blog will be open, but we may change it once we have all the participant contact information.