Greetings my blogfans,
I've been back from the Western Snow Conference for about a week now and I'm back into the full work schedule. I've picked back up on the lower Dungeness shallow aquifer recharge project again (see previous blogs). I have a few newly added wells to sample this year but it ain't no thang for this super speedy sampler. I'm still doing the snow sampling for the hybrid model, as well. We have a big day scheduled for deer ridge tomorrow, but I don't expect the snow to last very much longer.
The Western Snow Confrerence was cool. I learned a lot about snow science and forecasting models, everything I could have hoped for and more. I thought it was interesting though that approximately 80% of the presentations were either about climate change or directly referenced climate change as a part of their work. I heard virtually no debate over the validity of climate change amongst the attendees even thought many seemed to be fairly conservative. If anything I got the feeling that amongst the people who have been looking at snow pack for a few dacades, they consider climate change a no-brainer. Well, they've finally sold me on it. (edit: this last part was a joke:)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Watch out Western Snow Conference
Howdy there my loyal followers,
I'm back again after a bit of a spring layoff. I'm very excited about our (me and my crack team of researchers) upcoming trip to the Western Snow Conference. We'll be leaving on monday, April 14th, for Hood River, OR (road trip!), staying for three nights and coming back in time for my thursday night forest ecology class. While there, we'll get to hob nob with a virtual who's who in the Western U.S. water resource management industry. We (Dr. Dwight Barry, Chris DeSisto, Erin Drake, Shaelee Evans and myself) just finished composing poster presentations of our data for the conference. We have posters explaining the NASA solutions netowork and the hybrid water forecasting model of which I've explained much in previous posts. A third poster refers to a team research project comparing the effects of a forest fire on adjacent snow pack up on Blue Mountain, just east of Port Angeles. Pre and post burn snow data was compared with El Nino and La Nina events factored out. Hopefully, the proffesionals will be interested in our posters and want to talk with us at great length. I may be most excited about getting to hear the inside scoop on working in the water resource management industy,
from those who do it for a living. One the many benefits I've discovered in the undergrad research program, is getting first hand accounts from people in the field. Now amount of academic preparation can give you the insight of what a job or proffesion is really like, the way a conversation with someone who works in the business can. Because I've set my sights on working with water resources, I can't wait to get a preview of what it will be like.
I'm back again after a bit of a spring layoff. I'm very excited about our (me and my crack team of researchers) upcoming trip to the Western Snow Conference. We'll be leaving on monday, April 14th, for Hood River, OR (road trip!), staying for three nights and coming back in time for my thursday night forest ecology class. While there, we'll get to hob nob with a virtual who's who in the Western U.S. water resource management industry. We (Dr. Dwight Barry, Chris DeSisto, Erin Drake, Shaelee Evans and myself) just finished composing poster presentations of our data for the conference. We have posters explaining the NASA solutions netowork and the hybrid water forecasting model of which I've explained much in previous posts. A third poster refers to a team research project comparing the effects of a forest fire on adjacent snow pack up on Blue Mountain, just east of Port Angeles. Pre and post burn snow data was compared with El Nino and La Nina events factored out. Hopefully, the proffesionals will be interested in our posters and want to talk with us at great length. I may be most excited about getting to hear the inside scoop on working in the water resource management industy,
from those who do it for a living. One the many benefits I've discovered in the undergrad research program, is getting first hand accounts from people in the field. Now amount of academic preparation can give you the insight of what a job or proffesion is really like, the way a conversation with someone who works in the business can. Because I've set my sights on working with water resources, I can't wait to get a preview of what it will be like.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Cat Scratch and Frozen Piggies
This past thursday my crack team (Chris and Dwight) and I headed up to the top of Deer Ridge to do a little snow sampling and weather station construction. The not so fun part of putting a weather station together at the top of a five mile+ hike is getting it there. Luckily I was able to delay packing my bag in the parking lot long enough for Dwight to grab the heaviest part of the station, thereby saving your cyber hero the discomfort of carrying it himself. My plan wasn't as effective as I'd hoped it would be, as there was still enough heavy items to go around. Not to complain, the day was beatiful, I had skis on my feet (partway anyhow), and we ended up with a very productive day; four snow courses sampled and one weather station constructed. Not to mention that Chris and I collected valuable video footage for our vidcast on the water budget model. cough, NASA, cough, cough. We were taught a valuable lesson in improvisation on this trip as well. Even though we forgot the snow tube weighing rack and the main center post for the weather station, we were able to fashion suitable replacements out of a rag and a piece of closet rod. IN YOUR FACE MacGyver!!!!!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
water
Howdy cyberfans!
Work is starting to heat up now. Soon a podcast, vidcast and research brief, all relating to the water project, will be available on the interweb. While the research brief will stick to the water budget model, the pod and vid casts will relate to water issues in the western U.S. in general. I don't if any of you have been reading the papers lately, but their was an article about the future of lake mead. Researchers calculate that there is a better than 50% chance that the lake will be empty by 2021. The forcast for other water supplies in the west don't look much better. There has been speculation on the future of water supplies here on the peninsula as the glaciers shrink and the snowmelt runs off faster due to global warming. The new water budget model, once implemented, will help determine water trends here on the peninsula in the future. Once we have a good measure on how much water we'll have to work with, we'll be able to better plan on how to manage it. Isn't science great.
Work is starting to heat up now. Soon a podcast, vidcast and research brief, all relating to the water project, will be available on the interweb. While the research brief will stick to the water budget model, the pod and vid casts will relate to water issues in the western U.S. in general. I don't if any of you have been reading the papers lately, but their was an article about the future of lake mead. Researchers calculate that there is a better than 50% chance that the lake will be empty by 2021. The forcast for other water supplies in the west don't look much better. There has been speculation on the future of water supplies here on the peninsula as the glaciers shrink and the snowmelt runs off faster due to global warming. The new water budget model, once implemented, will help determine water trends here on the peninsula in the future. Once we have a good measure on how much water we'll have to work with, we'll be able to better plan on how to manage it. Isn't science great.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Deep Snow
Hi Everybody!
I finally made it out snow sampling again this tuesday. We were going to go again today, but I think the jeep is getting new snow tires and another set of chains (I hope anyway). We are finally able to get snow samples at the Luella sample site as the snow level has been dropping. We had to do a bulk sample though, as the snow isn't deep enough yet to get a good plug for each sample. It was the opposite case up at the top of Bon Jon Pass. There was so much snow up there that we almost didn't make it. Thanks to Dwight's masterfull driving and bravery, we were able to turn back and park. We then made our assault on the hill by foot. It always feels good to get outside and get the blood pumping, even when it means walking three miles uphill in blowing snow with heavy gear on your back. Ah....to be alive. I'm fairly certain that there was about two inches of fresh snow on the bill of my cap by the time we made it back to the jeep. Anyhow nothing to eventful at the (Shea's) Lounge sample site: good snow, easy access, and we got action footage. Keep an eye on the interweb and you might see this very footage on a vidcast coming soon.
I finally made it out snow sampling again this tuesday. We were going to go again today, but I think the jeep is getting new snow tires and another set of chains (I hope anyway). We are finally able to get snow samples at the Luella sample site as the snow level has been dropping. We had to do a bulk sample though, as the snow isn't deep enough yet to get a good plug for each sample. It was the opposite case up at the top of Bon Jon Pass. There was so much snow up there that we almost didn't make it. Thanks to Dwight's masterfull driving and bravery, we were able to turn back and park. We then made our assault on the hill by foot. It always feels good to get outside and get the blood pumping, even when it means walking three miles uphill in blowing snow with heavy gear on your back. Ah....to be alive. I'm fairly certain that there was about two inches of fresh snow on the bill of my cap by the time we made it back to the jeep. Anyhow nothing to eventful at the (Shea's) Lounge sample site: good snow, easy access, and we got action footage. Keep an eye on the interweb and you might see this very footage on a vidcast coming soon.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
NOAA fisheries
Howdy there little bloggeroo's,
Sorry to disappoint y'all yesterday. I was going to post at my scheduled blogg time but wouldn't ya know it, the college was closed for MLK day. You may have felt let down, but hopefully you spent the balance of the day celebrating the struggle for social justice. Anyhow, back to me. I spent this past Thursday and Friday helping out Sarah Morley and Holly Coe from NOAA. They have a pretty cool project going studying the marine derived nutrients Salmon provide to the riparian ecosystem, related the Elwha river. I spent much of the time helping Holly remove samples from underwater racks containing periphyton growing surfaces with differing nutrient availability in the growth medium, which was designed to demonstrate nutrient availability limitations on the periphyton, relating to nitrogen and phosphorus specifically. I also helped collect terrestrial invertebrates with a butterfly net. The second half of both days I was able to utilize an area of expertise that I have much experience in; grunt labor. I pounded numerous rebar stakes into the riverbed for the purpose of attaching Salmon carcasses to them this week, in order to study the effects of the nutrients they will release into the riparian ecosystem. Tune back in two weeks from now and I will probably jump to describing another project.
Sorry to disappoint y'all yesterday. I was going to post at my scheduled blogg time but wouldn't ya know it, the college was closed for MLK day. You may have felt let down, but hopefully you spent the balance of the day celebrating the struggle for social justice. Anyhow, back to me. I spent this past Thursday and Friday helping out Sarah Morley and Holly Coe from NOAA. They have a pretty cool project going studying the marine derived nutrients Salmon provide to the riparian ecosystem, related the Elwha river. I spent much of the time helping Holly remove samples from underwater racks containing periphyton growing surfaces with differing nutrient availability in the growth medium, which was designed to demonstrate nutrient availability limitations on the periphyton, relating to nitrogen and phosphorus specifically. I also helped collect terrestrial invertebrates with a butterfly net. The second half of both days I was able to utilize an area of expertise that I have much experience in; grunt labor. I pounded numerous rebar stakes into the riverbed for the purpose of attaching Salmon carcasses to them this week, in order to study the effects of the nutrients they will release into the riparian ecosystem. Tune back in two weeks from now and I will probably jump to describing another project.
Monday, January 7, 2008
2008 and full speed ahead!
Hi everybody!
I know you all have been checking in religiously, sometimes twice a day, to see if I'd posted a new message. Well the wait is over. The new year is upon us and the NASA project is moving forward. My crack team and I (they're not really my team, I just like to say that) are comensing with snow surveying. We have established a series of snow courses in the Olympic National forest just east of the Park and south of Sequim. We'll be visiting these snow courses twice-a-week in order to collect snow samples that will be used to estimate the amount and water density of the snow pack in the Dungeness watershed. This data will contribute to the NEW AND IMPROVED! water budget model of which I've told you much already (maybe too much). My understanding is that it will definately be used in a ground-truthing capacity and possibly as legitimate data wich may be entered into the model. The exciting part of the snow sampling, for me anyway, is that I get to do stuff outside. There may be danger involved, but don't worry excessively for your cyber-hero, just worry for the people with me. On these survey trips my crack team and I will be snow shoeing to remote (kind of) areas where we have to follow exacting procedures in order to collect samples from the correct spot and make sure we measure and weigh it precisely and with the greatest possible accuracy. Soon I may have real data to wave in your collective faces so you can see how smart I am. Tune in next week ;)
I know you all have been checking in religiously, sometimes twice a day, to see if I'd posted a new message. Well the wait is over. The new year is upon us and the NASA project is moving forward. My crack team and I (they're not really my team, I just like to say that) are comensing with snow surveying. We have established a series of snow courses in the Olympic National forest just east of the Park and south of Sequim. We'll be visiting these snow courses twice-a-week in order to collect snow samples that will be used to estimate the amount and water density of the snow pack in the Dungeness watershed. This data will contribute to the NEW AND IMPROVED! water budget model of which I've told you much already (maybe too much). My understanding is that it will definately be used in a ground-truthing capacity and possibly as legitimate data wich may be entered into the model. The exciting part of the snow sampling, for me anyway, is that I get to do stuff outside. There may be danger involved, but don't worry excessively for your cyber-hero, just worry for the people with me. On these survey trips my crack team and I will be snow shoeing to remote (kind of) areas where we have to follow exacting procedures in order to collect samples from the correct spot and make sure we measure and weigh it precisely and with the greatest possible accuracy. Soon I may have real data to wave in your collective faces so you can see how smart I am. Tune in next week ;)
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