Understanding causes and consequences of catastrophic permafrost region lake drainage in an evolving arctic system
5/3/2019
Yesterday was long, but productive. We broke camp in lower foothills and split up for return to Barrow with work along the way. Nori and I instrumented a final six DTLBs with high snow-dam outburst potential, two chronosequence sites, and installed one met station. In total we instrumented 58 lake basins and 7 met stations across 8 distinct regions of the North Slope to better understand the regimes and responses of these ecosystems.
Sites east of Atqasuk at the western edge of the Sand Sea were particularly cool and will be excited to record what happens there this snowmelt season, which is rapidly upon us. We’ll be back out here in just a few weeks to make sure sensors are working properly, set up cameras, and observe outburst flood responses.
We came in late (11:45pm) to a beautiful sun on the NW horizon of strong blowing snow. A singing snowbunting and Sam and Lee’s greeted our return.
