22nd May 2016

After quite long time ... about 11 months;) we were able to make some group photos. After long time the weather was good and there were still enough snow around to move with snowmobile. Robert made some very nice pictures. Apart of the formal pics we made some portraits. Here are the results: :)

20th May 2016

Helmer Hanssen

So we started the summer season. You feel it in the temperature and because 2 last days we had much more visitors that during last half of year. And everything happens together! First Origo from Sweden. They were very nice since they gave us the big bag of oranges and apples. Because of the fruits we had shown them our Station:) Unfortunately, I don't have photo of the ship, neither of people from the vessel. Later arrived Join Us, the small sailing boat. The people were as well very nice since they gave us apples and eggs!! EGGS!! Fresh eggs- can you imagine? Last eggs arrived in September;) So they had some excursions as well:) Then Helmer Hanssen and it is fantastic. This is  a scientific vessel with many laboratories (and ice tea machine!!) onboard. There are 22 scientists and the crew. They come to visit us. It was crazy, we were just 2 people at the Base- me and Mateusz, but very nice. I hope they have enjoyed the stay at the Base.. at least I have enjoyed the time very much and I was happy to talk about the Station and share my experience with scientists from 6 or 10 different countries! Ingrid, the ship leader is from Germany, but living long time in Tromso. Susana is from Spain, but working in South Arabia, Basia from Poland, Helga from Denmark, or Sweden ;) And so on and so on- many fantastic people and interesting stories. While they were waiting for the sedimentation trap put inside the fjord, me and Konrad we had possibility to go and see the ship. There were very nice places onboard, including fitness room and one lab smelling herring :) 

after long time again on the sea:D going to Helmer Hanssen

with Konrad and the sampler which wire has 3000 m. Different bottles= samples at different depth

Conference room vel cinema;)

fitness room 

fitness room 

fitness room 

the place to monitor the sampler

The Station from the bridge

the heart of the ship

interesting conversation of 2 cool guys

if i am right this is the thing that makes the salty water sweet :)

the 4000 horses

escape boat

Hansen with the stairs

9th May 2016

Field work again. Really, recently one has to be in hurry. The snow is melting quickly and there is always a lot things to do on the glaciers. With Krysia and Olek we were installing the Automatic Weather Station- AWS. There is a grid of such instruments located in different places on few glaciers close to the Base. They monitor weather parameters such temperature, wind, snow cover and humidity along the year. I upload the pics from one AWS that we had managed to work on Werenskiold glacier. Success!!! 

7th May 2016

At the beginning of May I had possibility to work in snow. With 3 phd students we were making snow pits on two glaciers. It takes time… First you have to dig and on the upper part of the glacier is about 3m to dig.. Then you distinguish different layers of the pit. Different layers mean - different snow that is transformed with different weather conditions. So observing the snow you can understand what was happening during the year. You measure the temperature and density of each layer and then you take the samples for chemistry measurements- e.g. how much of the black carbon is each layer and biology- to see if something is living in such conditions. Interesting… but it takes tens of hours:) Therefore, we had different teams- the digging team, physics team and taking samples team. Last time I labeled the samples for chemistry and bio analysis.  (pics. by Daniel Kępski)

With Daniel and Krysia, I am the black sheep 

different snow layers

30th April 2016

Our puppies 1 month ago went to see the vet. This was difficult in Arctic conditions and they had to travel about 400 km. Poor babies but they are very very strong and it seemed they had fun. At least they were in the newspaper :) Photos by Darek Ignatiuk and Javier Lapazaran.