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Some pictures from..


NOME             --            COUNCIL
A      ·      L      ·      A      ·      S      ·      K      ·      A

This is a selection of photos taken during my summer 2000 expedition to Alaska as part of ATLAS, a multidisciplinary field project to examine contrasts in energy and moisture fluxes between the tundra and boreal forests in high latitudes, the impacts of these contrasts on the atmospheric boundary layer and possibly the large-scale circulation, and potential feedbacks which may affect the composition of surface vegetation. The site for the study was in and around Council, Alaska. Council is located inland on the Seward Peninsula, 76 miles northeast of Nome. It is accessible for about three months of the year by dirt road.

Nome
My photos begin in Nome, a town of about 4500 residents located on the Norton Sound/Bering Sea coast, just south of the Arctic circle. At the last turn of the century, gold was discovered and the population swelled to more than 50,000. The town has an amazing frontier feeling to it. The three roads out of town all terminate after about 90 miles. Nome is almost entirely supplied by ship and airplane.
This oversized gold pan is located in a plaza in the center of town and is flanked by statues of prospectors. The recently renovated St. Joseph's Catholic Church, now used for municipal functions, stands in the background. The temperature on this day was around 50F.

The main road through town is Front Street, and is lined with municipal buildings, hotel, souvenir shops, and numerous bars. Along the street is the famous marker indicating the finish line of the Iditarod.

Nome-Council Road

The road heading east from town is lined with compressors and other gear for people mining the Nome coastline and the Bering sea for gold. Apparently this is still profitable, or they wouldn't do it. Here we see an intrepid scientist having a go with the traditional panning method.

After another 30 miles or so the road turns away from the coastline. Nearby is the bizarre scene of abandoned antique railway locomotives. The trains were first brought to the area at the turn of the century to capitalize on the discovery of gold inland, particularly in Council. Before being moved to Alaska the locomotives had been used as part of the New York City elevated railway. The Council City and Solomon River railroad was never completed, however, and the venture was finally abandoned around 1907, with the remaining equipment, now dubbed "The Last Train to Nowhere" left to rust on the tundra.
Solomon, now composed of about six houses or so, can be seen looking to the northeast from the same vantage point.

Traveling inland the road begins to rise towards subtle inland mountains, eventually crossing Skookum Pass near 1500ft elevation. Some researchers and locals referred to this as Revlon Ridge because of the red color of the rhododendron flowers in the area.






Council
This picture, taken from nearby Council mountain, shows the town's layout. The Nome-Council Road enters from the right. From Skookum Pass, the road descends rapidly and crosses about four miles of Tussock tundra before reaching the Niukluk River. Council consists of about 20-30 buildings mostly on the far side of the river. Beyond Council is a white spruce forest. Council marks the nearest stand of trees to Nome and is a preferred summer retreat because of the excellent fishing along the Niukluk River, Ophir and Melsing Creeks. It is not inhabited year-round, however Nome residents are said to get their Christmas trees from the Council area. To the right of town can be seen one of two dirt runways. Inland from the Bering Sea coast, the temperature varied a great deal more. On clear days the temperature was actually reaching 75-80F. For the last few days of my stay, when the sun was noticeably setting, it would cool down to near 40F in the early morning.


The grey house was the base of operations for all science fieldwork. I stayed in the next house over, which was mostly populated by NCAR-types. For some reason, it became known as "the bachelor pad". The field study benefitted greatly from the assistance of numerous Council residents. Our neighbor Abe, below, patrols the area for intrudors.

Although there were no electrical or telephone utilities, life in town was fairly civilized, thanks to generator power, hot water heaters, and these modern wonders, known as "incinolets".


Council received notoriety after the discovery of gold near the Ophir Creek and the subsequent gold rush of 1897-99. At one time, the town may have had as many as 15,000 inhabitants. The population quickly vanished after larger discoveries near Nome around 1900. Reminders of the gold rush era are easily found around Council. One of the more interesting is this old abandoned dredge near the Ophir Creek. In both Council and Nome, old dredge scoops are frequently seen being used as flower pots.




"Team Veg"
One of the most enjoyable things about my trip was interacting with scientists who were not atmospheric science-types. The largest group in camp was actually there to study and quantify the numerous plant species at the various locations. My background is in studying climate and meteorological phenomenon over ice sheets, where ice characteristics and topography slope are of primary importance. In the western Arctic however, it is not difficult to see the potential importance of vegetative processes on boundary-layer conditions. The tundra is an intricate assortment of plant life which varies markedly over short distances. On the right is the tundra near one of the rawinsonde stations.

Team Veg made ultra-high resolution observations of the vegetation at several locations on the tundra, in the forest, and other locations. At left is the "barren site", near Skookum Pass. After obtaining vegetation samples from each of the sites, a cherished pastime of the group was biomass sorting - separating the samples into individual plant species. On the right are two expert biomass sorters at work. I tried doing this once...

Rawinsondes

My primary duty for the field study was to launch weather balloons, or rawinsondes, from the two tundra locations. This was done day and night (of course, in Alaska in the summertime, night looks a whole lot like day...) during intensive observing periods (IOP's). We tried to have IOP's during very sunny days, which were generally the rule for the first two weeks of July. Below shows the near tundra site on my last day, when a large thunderstorm erupted (not IOP weather).

This is Mark launching a sonde from the near tundra site. The instruments measure temperature, pressure, and humidity, and the sonde is GPS-tracked for obtaining elevation, wind speed and direction. We had the most trouble maintaining GPS lock, particularly right after launch. We had some other technical difficulties, generator failures, etc. Overall, however, "the data were collected."

The tundra rawinsonde data were to be contrasted with forest conditions. Forest data were obtained using a tethered dirigible-shaped balloon, which was winched out on a 1500m cable. Once a day, a rawinsonde balloon was also launched from the forest. This was challenging because of all of the trees! Also, the mosquitos in the forest were unbelievable. Below, Ian launches a forest rawinsonde.

Wildlife

During my time in Alaska, I saw a moose, two porcupines, and several types of birds. There was a ptarmigan family close to the near tundra site. Our biggest problem was one or more curlews, which would dive-bomb us on the way from the road to tundra sites..and someone saw a bear near the main cabin. This is my only cool animal picture- two muskoxen on the side of Council mountain. Right after the picture was taken, the two clashed and galloped away.


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