Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska seeing impact of climate change in its infrastructure villages

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska seeing impact of climate change in its infrastructure villages

The Sun Is Returning: Blue Skies to the South

This view has been common for a while now. Since about mid-November the southern sky has mostly been orange, yellow, or red during the day. The Sun sits so low on the horizon that only the longer wavelength light reaches us since it must penetrate more atmosphere; the blue light scatters, which is why the sky is blue. During the winter months here, the days are really just like an extended sunset. Today I walked outside and noticed the southern sky was blue!



Also, the Sun was noticeably higher as the daylight is returning. Actually it's already returning at a rate of over six minutes a day. I never noticed the change in daylight over time in the lower 48. It's just noticeable that November's days are shorter than September, but here I really notice it day to day. We are already starting to enter nautical twilight when we leave for work. Stars are still there, but the sky is lightening. Check out this table from www.timeanddate.com to see how much the day-to-day changes here:

To Do In Fairbanks 2: Chena Hot Springs

In case you haven't heard, Kate and I spent the weekend at Chena Hot Springs Resort. Kate posted yesterday. We had a few problems, but only one would really be the 'fault' of the resort. Most of the photos have been posted in flickr here.

This place is a great winter stop. There are an incredible amount of activities to do here. You can hike, snowshoe, cross-country ski, take a dog-sledding ride, learn how to dogsled, snowmachine, and (of course) the obvious soak in the hot springs. There's a lot of historic vehicles and gold mining equipment around the parking lots. In the summer there are campsites and yurts (but no winter activities). You can always tour the Ice Museum year round. There is an aurora viewing area that they will take you to in a snowcat. You can sit inside to watch when it gets really cold. The resort is powered by geothermal energy and they offer 'geothermal tours'.

It's about a sixty mile drive from Fairbanks.  In the winter the road will be covered in snow and ice.  You can be like me and imagine you are an Ice-Road Trucker, or take a shuttle that the resort operates. The drive is beautiful along the Chena River. Angel Rocks and Granite Tors are along the way.

While it's not cheap to stay here or eat here, the rooms are comfortable and the restaurant is cozy with good food.  If you just come out for the day you can soak in the hot springs for $10, or just walk around for no charge.



If you have a forty-below night, make sure before you go to bed that your car is plugged in.  They have around eighty rooms, but only about 15 parking spaces with outlets.  The staff was not helpful in making sure we had a spot (or many of their other guests).  The result was many upset guests in the morning trying to get cars started and staff running around with extension cords (they tried to sell us one, which was pretty bad taste on their part).  Cold nights are nothing new here, I can't imagine they operate like this all the time. With packages running $200-$700 this was a little upsetting.



Don't let this stop you though, the area is beautiful, the resort is historic yet modern, and the hot springs are awesome.  It's worth it to go on a forty below night just to walk out there in a swimsuit and slowly wade into the pool. The steam from the springs freezes on everything and makes it a total 'winter wonderland'. Our room was great; everything was great they just need to work on their logistics.  You can get to the resort website here.

Do I go, or do I wait? . . . I'll wait

We had a visitor at near our outhouse tonight. It was a young Bull Moose and (I assume) his mother since later there was a much larger moose near the neighbor's house. I wasn't expecting to take any pictures tonight so I left my laptop at school; The higher-res photos and some more are on flickr now. A few minutes later I said, "why doesn't this flying squirrel care that I am here?" I took a few pictures of him too. I was literally holding the camera up to his face.

This really is Rocky and Bullwinkle's world. I am absolutely positive that they were working together to lure me into a false sense of security. I'm really looking forward to taking more wildlife photos when it starts to warm up.

Oh, I almost forgot the good news: today the sun rises before 10 am! We're on our way to having sunlight again. In a little under a month our days will be as long as the shortest day of the year in the lower 48. Yeah, you have it good. It's alright though, I love it here. Of course, another great thing about Alaska is that when the wildlife leaves, you can walk down to the end of the street and watch the aurora for a while. I didn't even notice that I was walking around outside in -20^o F temps for over an hour.

Pretty Cold

Today was awfully cold. After struggling with the car this morning, I finally got to work at around 9am and it was about 40 below (celsius or fahrenheit - they are the same at this temperature). The car door wouldn't latch and I got a little frostbite trying to push it closed. It's supposed to be colder tonight.

At this temperature we get ice fog. Homogeneous nucleation occurs when it's a little lower than -40. This just means that water (even pure water) will freeze all by itself. Normally when it's below freezing water needs something like dust or other ice crystals to form an ice nucleus. Since it's colder than that here, at times we get some of the driest air in the planet; it absolutely cannot hold any moisture at all. Here's the ice fog from this morning:

Late Night

I went to pick up Jason from the airport last night/this morning. His flight was delayed and I didn't drop him off until about 2am. When I left his place and got to the end of his road I saw this:

Just Eating

Yesterday our neighbor came knocking at our door to let us know that there were a couple of moose in her yard. We went over and watched them for a while. I tried to get a few pictures, but the Sun had set and the lighting was bad, so I couldn't get anything great. Earlier when I was walking in the woods behind the house I noticed that there were signs of moose all over the place. I guess they're just not around when we are home and awake.

Sunset on Denali

It's a special few days when the Sun sets behind Denali when viewed from Fairbanks. It's so pretty I'm sad that not everyone can see it. Kate and I drove up Ester Dome to watch it today, so I'm sharing some pictures. Click on any of them if you want to see the bigger versions in flickr.


3:19 pm, 17 minutes before sunset. It's hard to believe that the Sun is going to set behind the mountain, it moves almost horizontally here.


3:36 pm: The last of the Sun fades into the eastern edge of Denali.


3:39 pm, 3 minutes after sunset: the edges of the mountain light up like the flame of a candle.


3:53 pm, 17 minutes after sunset: The 'flame' is slowly dying and there is some wicked superior miraging on Foraker (right of Denali).

Goodnight!

To Do In Fairbanks 1: The Museum of The North

If you have never been to Alaska and find yourself suddenly in Fairbanks, one of the first stops you should make is the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Or stop in if you live here and need something to do on a rainy (or better yet a 40 below) day. Of course, if the weather is good and you only have a few days then you should go outside and play, but the museum can be a great way to give perspective to the state, its vastness, and its diversity. You'll at the very least leave knowing a bit more about the state and its history for when you go trumping around. Almost everything here is focused on Alaska and the 'North' (go figure).


The panorama from the museum is among the best Fairbanks has to offer. On a clear day it's hard to drink it all in.

The architecture is top-notch. Designed by Joan Soranno, AIA, of HGA, with GDM, Inc., the building is beautiful and aesthetic and the team has received numerous awards for this structure. It's fun just to walk around the building. The inside is just as nice as the outside.


The main, lower floor hallway.

The museum isn't huge. It is two floors and contains two large exhibit halls along with a few smaller ones. The two main exhibits are the "Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery" and ""Gallery of Alaska". The former has a lot of both traditional and modern Alaskan artwork, as well as a lot of photographs, including (at least) Ansel Adams pieces. The Gallery of Alaska is divided into regions of Alaska and also has an exhibit explaining the Aurora and another small Hubble Space Telescope exhibit.


There's a lot of information in this exhibit. If you're the type that just walks around and looks of things, it will take maybe 45 minutes to 1 hour to see everything in here. If you like to read, you should maybe plan for a two-day visit.

Children may not find this the 'funnest' museum out there. There's not a lot for kids, especially smaller children (no kids section). Although there is a lot of bones and stuffed bears which are pretty cool to look at. If you ask at the front desk there is an activity sheet available for kids (recommended grades 4-6). It looks like a neat little scavenger hunt, I'm going to try it next time I'm there.

A really unique feature of this museum is the 'Place Where You Go to Listen'. It's kind of like a little meditation room, with ambient light and sound that changes based on the Sun, the Moon, aurora, earthquakes all from real-time monitoring.


Joe, Jason, and Alex sitting in the 'place you go to listen'. It might be hard to enjoy it if the museum is packed, but try to find some time to sit.

There are some shows available for an additional small fee. I was able to see all the shows playing the first day I was there for $5, I'm not sure if this is always the case. If you are here in the summer, you should see the Aurora show since you won't get to see them in person. Don't expect IMAX® quality sound and light, they're just some fun short films.

At $10/day, the museum won't kill your wallet (although the gift shop could if you find the right things). The gift shop is nice and has a great selection of Alaskan stuff from jewelry to masks and wall decorations and also has a fantastic book section. The cafe doesn't really offer a whole lot, so I wouldn't recommend going in hungry.

There's more than what I've covered here, and there are usually some temporary exhibits. Find out more by visiting the museum's website here. You can also see more pictures on my flickr set here.

Find this review helpful, or not? Leave a comment!

Holy Moly!

They were so freaking cool, bright, colorful, and everywhere! For about 10 minutes, then they were completely gone. I'm very happy to have stepped outside at the right moment. I ran back in to grab the camera and Kate. See, its a good thing we have an outhouse or I would have missed them completely. There were lots of reds and oranges, although I could never seem to get the camera in the right spot at the right time and they were moving way to fast. I've posted a few more on flickr, and I'll probably post a few more today or over the weekend.

There's a good chance the aurora will be out in force again tonight, so I'll be out (probably at Murphy Dome) or exploring some new vantage points. So hopefully I'll get some more tonight.

Fun Stuff

First of all, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. For those who don't know, I'm thirty today. Yikes. It's alright though, I will remain twenty-three at heart forever! *Maniacal laughter*. While friends and family in the northeast were getting pounded with snow (yay) our mild temps broke and we're back down to 18 below (F).

Second of all, here is a really pretty picture:


This was taken about an hour after sunset yesterday. It is a lenticular cloud hovering over Denali and casting a shadow over the entire sky. There is a lot of miraging going on at lower elevations, while at higher elevations the mountain appears compressed all due to an incredible high pressure system that has moved into the interior. When I drove up Ester Dome the other day, Fairbanks was -6, the summit was 36. A forty degree difference between the valley and the hills is quite the inversion, even by Fairbanks standards.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Extreme high pressure system may affect Alaska aviation

The weather this month has been crazy. Started out the New Year 40-50 degrees above average and it has remained pretty mild. Today it's really windy which is very abnormal for Faibanks. Now there is this too!

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Extreme high pressure system may affect Alaska aviation

Yesterday

Yesterday (January 9th 2011) started on the previous day. Like I said in the previous post, I went outside to plug the car in at 2 am and had to rush back into the house, grab the camera and run down to the end of the street to shoot the aurora. It was really pretty despite not being nearly as bright as it gets. It was just very dynamic. I took a few still pictures too:


Looking east at the end of our road.


This one is looking north. The auroral oval runs northeast of Fairbanks, so when it's only moderately active we can see it better at the end of our road.


This was the view from the front of our house.

At 3 am I got tired and went to sleep. Woke up at about 6:45, dropped Kate off at work and went to campus. It was really clear out and I've been wanting to take pictures of Venus, so I drove up Ester Dome.


Venus and the eastern Alaska Range, about two hours before sunrise.


Fairbanks, Alaska! With weather like this I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to snap some shots of the city. I will definitely be posting more of these on flickr soon.

As I was packing up the camera I saw the outline of Denali forming in the distance, sighed, looked at the time and decided to hang around for another hour or so to try to get some decent photos. Of course, about 10 minutes later a moose shows up. She was so stealthy. All of a sudden she was there, hung out behind this bush for about a minute and then disappeared as quickly and quietly as she appeared.


I'm happy she had no interest in me. Seriously big animals. This must be the fifteenth I've seen in a week.


Denali and Foraker. It is stupid how pretty this place is. I can't get over it.

Second Dose

I went outside last night at 2 am to plug in the car before going to bed and the sky was green! I just caught the end of it, but here's another (better) short time lapse. I'll be posting some stills soon too!

Aurora Time Lapse

Another cloudy night gave way to a short auroral show last night. Fairbanks just hasn't been getting the luck that Scandinavia and Greenland have lately. The Sun has been pretty quiet lately, most of the time. The few times it has acted up the clouds roll in just in time. My patience (or rather compulsion) paid off last night when I was out shooting time-lapse until 2:30 am when the clouds rolled in again.

Contrast and Color

I walked around campus today to try to take pictures in the most awful lighting conditions imaginable. It was the perfect test for me and for my new camera.

• First of all, at solar noon the sun is only 3.1 degrees above the horizon. So there isn't much light.
• Second, it was incredibly overcast and there is snow on the ground and on pretty much everything else. So pretty much everywhere you look is just white. 
• Lastly, it started to snow pretty hard, so now anything that did have color is now white. 

I did my best and this is what I got (click to go to flickr):

Lucky Break

Amidst all the clouds and snowing last night, we did get a short reprieve where the clouds broke and the sky opened up for about five minutes to show what was going on the other side.



A solar windstream emanating from a coronal hole met the Earth's magnetic field last night really stimulating the Auroras. Hopefully this keeps up for tonight too (supposedly it is supposed to clear up). I don't know, it's been snowing all day!

Night

It's been so long since we've had a good auroral display that now I'm getting antsy. Supposedly a solar windstream from a coronal hole was going to hit us yesterday, then today, now the 7th. But, it's supposed to snow this week! *Hands thrown up into air*. It's hard to see the aurora when it's snowing and cloudy.

It's clear tonight though, so the obvious solution is to drag Kate out to Murphy Dome and trudge out in knee (waist) deep snow to try to take some pictures. Well, the northern lights were out (they almost always are there). It was pretty dim, but still fun to watch.

Here are some of the pictures (click to view them in flickr):



Orion hovering over the radar tower. You have to turn around to see the northern lights.



There they are.



Here they are doing that little flicker/shimmer thing that is so cool



And here they are again, posing with the big dipper.

I saw four moose today!

UAF

It was (once again) a beautiful morning. It's starting to cool off a little, but still fairly warm. I wanted a few pictures of campus so here is what I took. I really like this eerie light we are getting in the morning when it is (mostly) clear out.


Didn't have a lot of time to react. I went down to take a picture of the UAF sign. As I was putting away the camera this cow and her calf went running out into the road. Picture isn't very good, but it just isn't Alaska without a moose in the road.


The Geophysical Institute (with the giant dish) with Ester Dome in the background.


This is the Reichardt Building where I work and study. This is also the view from the Reichardt Building.


Here is the museum again. It is in between the Reichardt Building and the GI. It's a really great museum. I love the architecture.

Back to The Grind . . . Sort of

Today Kate had to go back to work. So, with little else to do I shuffled my feet back to the office to start writing some lesson plans for next semester. I have about two weeks before classes start, I think. The morning was productive, but I trailed off in the afternoon. Went outside to take some pictures in the eerie light. The light diffusing from the clouds above lit up the north side of the Alaska Range (58 miles away) so I took this shot of the airport.



The weather has turned gross again. Delta reported temperatures in the +50's F over the weekend. We've seen the +40's a couple of times and now it's raining and sleeting a little. The culprit is a chinook that's pushing back our cold arctic air. I hate cold rain. It is the only weather that I hate.

Our Home

I really like our dry cabin. It is tucked away in the woods away from town, but still only a five minute drive to the University. We have a few neighbors who are quiet and friendly. We are surrounded by trees. We have a large, panoramic, south-facing window downstairs that gets sunlight on all but a few days surrounding the winter solstice. Our couch faces this window. We look out at trees. I think this is our favorite thing to do when we are home. The sky is always so pretty here.

The view from our window. It's a little blurry because our window is dirty.

We finally got a kitchen table that is big enough that I can sit and work on homework on. That's exciting because I may be able to spend a little more time at home next semester. Ohhh, next semester is coming up fast. Back to cleaning dishes.