Finally Thawed Out!

Greetings from Annapolis, MD.  It has been two weeks since we arrived home from Barrow, and I apologize it has taken so long to get a wrap up together.  What an experience for everyone involved!  I mentioned to my students that working in the Arctic is an addicting lifestyle, and on our way home from the trip (and you can read in their blogs), you can see that it affected them deeply.  The environment is so different than any other on Earth, and so few people get to experience it.  It truly changes your life, and makes you want to keep going back!

It is very difficult to summarize our trip, without a VERY lengthy posting, so I figure I will do it over small installments.  I want to thank all the people on the BROMEX team, especially principal investigator Son Nghiem for inviting USNA and giving us the opportunity.  Also, the guys at UMIAQ (the logistics company in Barrow, made up mostly of native Eskimos), were top notch, and are driving the decision to attempt to get back up to Barrow every Spring Break for another 'midshipmen on ice' experience.  The scientists involved with the BROMEX team were all top notch, and treated as we were all on their team as well.  The 4 midshipmen, and other two officer, could not have been a better mix of people that all came together to really make the experience the best it could be!

I do not really have a favorite moment, because the entire trip was a nonstop blast!  We could not have done anything differently to make the experience better.  We were ahead of schedule, and even got to play a bit on the way home in Anchorage (skiing at Alyeska Resort in 40" of fresh powder!).  The sort of list of experiences that cannot be measured would go something like this:

Experiencing the people and landscape of Barrow, Getting on the Sea Ice EVERY DAY (and with the most interesting man in the world Tom D as our guide!), Cruising over the frozen Arctic Ocean on snow machines in -30 degree weather going 50 MPH resulting in a -88 degree windchill, Getting to deploy (sort of) USNA's first ever Arctic Buoy and watch it perform better than expected!, Setting up an acoustic array to collect some ground breaking science data, Collecting ice and snow samples for future analysis back at USNA, Taking tons of pictures one of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, Seeing the smile on the midshipman's faces as they treated the Arctic as their spring break playground (Who needs the beach when you can walk on the Ocean-Spring Break 2012, Barrow, AK), THE NORTHERN LIGHTS DURING A SOLAR STORM (from the Northern Most Point in the US multiple nights!!!), Our fun times in our 'hooch' Bancroft Hall North, Attempting to get under ice video with a 'non-waterproof' GoPro, Getting under ice video with a properly cased GoPro, Spending time at Barrow High School interacting with native kids and showing them some cool hands on science, Experiencing the great city of Anchorage, Thinking about redoing everything again next year with another group of mids!

Again, that is a short list, and I will hopefully expand on each of the topics over the next few days (and weeks!).  The USNA Polar Science Program is here to stay! 

I want to make a call to all teachers (thanks Kerri Pratt for the suggestion) both in the local area of Annapolis, and remotely.  Please use this site (or email me at woods@usna.edu) with a list of questions that you would like my students to respond to.  The questions can be anything at all, from what the environment is like to what do you eat in Barrow?  Sort of like a virtual Q and A.  If you are in the local area and would like us to come by and give a talk, please feel free to ask!  We are preparing a sort of roadshow talk where we can share our experiences with others.

Thanks again for following and keep your eye out for exciting news in the future!

GigaPan taken by Chris Linder off of Barrow, AK. Find the IceGoat!

Check out this GigaPan!

3490 miles and 95 ºF Away

It’s been hard to describe our time in Alaska to friends and family other than by saying it was an adventure of a lifetime and I just hope I get to visit again. The ruggedness, beauty and sense of discovery are already calling me back. I was initially invited on the trip by CDR Hager so a very grateful thank you to him! While on the ice off the coast of Barrow, Alaska I mainly helped CDR Hager and Penn State grad student Sam Denes with acoustic field work. Among other things Sam was looking at how sound propagates through the arctic water.

 I think all of us thought about spring breakers in Florida or Puerto Rico at some point but all in all I couldn’t have asked for a more awesome experience. We even got to throw the frisbee out on the frozen ocean one day. Aside from the rewarding scientific work we helped contribute to I was able to explore the culture of Northern Alaska not to mention ride snowmobiles almost everyday and have fun in Alyeska and Anchorage. When we weren’t busy the locals and guides were always willing to share their experiences and stories in the Arctic and they are truly amazing people that I was able to get to know thanks to this trip.

Thank you so much to everyone at the Academy, STEM and all the officers for making this possible. Special thank you to the Umiak guys and everyone working on bromex who made us feel so welcome up in Barrow! I hope we can make more visits in the future and let more people expeience this part of the world.

Saying Goodbye..

Hello All!
Rebecca here with one of the last posts of this year's Polar Science Program's journey to the arctic! Like Kyle mentioned, the adventure was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I am so glad I was chosen for this trip and that the USNA STEM program was able to send me (and that those I went with put up with me). I went to help with the chemistry side of sampling and CDR Joe Smith was incredibly patient with me as I attempted to learn the ins and outs of field chemistry. For starters, electrical tape and zip-loc bags (or really any type of plastic) are no match for -20* C. The same holds true for glass bottles (once they warm up), ball point pens, and hands covered by only glove liners and nitrile gloves. Fortunately, sharpies and paper proved to do just fine in the cold weather so at least that's something. At the end of the day though, I learned that not everything will go as planned and sometimes making it up as you go is the best way to get things done.

All in all, the adventure to the bitter north was absolutely awesome. I hope the work CDR Smith and I put in is all worthwhile too and we will find out soon as we begin working with the samples we collected. I know that Kyle, Ben, and Will really accomplished a lot though so I'm glad we were able to help with the BROMEX project. We were able to meet some great scientists that really made the trip even more worthwhile. I wish them the best in the next few weeks as they complete their projects as well.

 I do not know if I will ever get over how gorgeous Alaska is.I kept thinking how photo-shopped everything looked because it was hard to believe a place so amazing actually exists. I definitely want to go back in the summer, and maybe even make another winter adventure for more skiing and possibly another peek at the northern lights. I highly recommend everyone make it up to Alaska at least once in their life. It's a trip worth taking, and if you want to make it really great, fly with ERA airlines. They will be sure to make your trip to the frozen tundra as authentic as possible.Thank you for all your support and hopefully we can continue our adventures next year!

Back to School

Ben here.

I just wanted to throw in my two cents on my overall experience of the trip.  In my opinion, it couldn't have been a better spring break.  With the experiences I had, the people I was with, and the work I accomplished I really feel that I could not have asked for anything more.

I was there primarily for the IceGoat. After helping design and implement the power and communications systems for the buoy with 1/C Nathan Kren and Kyle, I feel that our hard work has really paid off and the buoy is working better than we ever imagined.  Instead of being starved for power in the cold and harsh weather conditions, we are in great excess of power and are using the rest of our time here to figure out what other fun gadgets we can put on IceGoat2.

I would also like to thank everyone who put together our trip and made it so successful.  Everyone back at the academy who had part in the IceGoat production, all the people who set up our trip, and everyone up in Barrow that made our stay as pleasant and enjoyable as possible.  There really are some great people up there in that part of the world and hopefully one day I'll get to see them again.

I would also like to thank LCDR Woods for keeping us working hard so we could enjoy some fun time near the end of the trip.  When we were getting lazy he was right there keeping us working because he had bigger plans for us. Him setting up our night at Alyeska and our other night at the Captain Cook were just cherries on top of a wonderful trip.

So I hope you all continue to follow the IceGoat online. I know I will be eager to see what happens to it and what wonderful pictures it can send us from its home on the ice!

-Ben Aspholm

Looking Back

Hello all, it’s Kyle. Looking back on it, our trip this spring break to Barrow, Alaska was a once in a lifetime experience. The trip could not have gone much better. We accomplished everything we set out to do and had a great time in the process. Perhaps the most memorable part was the sheer beauty of the Arctic. Looking out on the horizon and seeing ice as far as you can see in every possible shade of blue is an incredible sight to behold. Also, or timing to show up in Alaska was perfect. The solar flares made for some phenomenal northern lights. I will never forget the amazing sights of the Arctic.

Thank you all for following us through this great experience,

-Kyle

We're Going Viral...

Ben Aspholm here.

Time for another whimsical journey through another day of the Polar Science Group in Barrow, Alaska.  Today was STEM Outreach day.  Kyle, Rebecca, Will, LCDR Woods and I went down to Barrow High School with our Build a Buoy kits and our Sea Perch's to help recruit future scientists and engineers for our nation.

Setting up in the high school sauna, or as they called it a swimming pool, we entertained kids ranging from 7th grade to 11th grade.  Although they were shy at first, they began to open up to us and began building really good buoys and enjoying driving the Sea Perch's around the pool. We really enjoyed spending time with them and feel that we have made an impact on them to possibly pursue future careers in a technological field.

We then enjoyed a quick Chinese Buffet at Sam & Lee's before heading back to go out for our last trek onto the ice.

We all geared up eager to go out and help CDR Smith and Rebecca collect some final snow and ice samples for their chemistry analysis.  We drove along the trail in our snow machines in beautiful cloudless skies and once we got to the site the chemistry crew was ecstatic to see frost flowers growing on top of one of the holes drilled the previous day.  They collected those and then we broke through the hole to take some water samples as well.  We then used that hole to make a second attempt on a video this time using guaranteed waterproof case.  We dropped it through the hole unaware of the beautiful video it was taking.  Look below to see the video to get a rare never before seen view of the ice of the arctic ocean from below.  We were all definitely uber excited that this video came out better than expected.

We stayed out on the ice for a little while longer getting some brine samples and playing on the large ice boulders that form on the pressure ridges.  Will, Kyle and I even found some nice lounge chairs and prime tanning spots to get that spring break beach tan, however, you tend to have your skin turn black from frostbite rather than tan from the sunlight when it's exposed for a long time out here.



We then made the final snow machine ride back to NARL soaking in as much as we could.

It was then time for Chef Woods to make us his grilled London Broil and Potato dinner with a CupBrownie dessert.  It was extremely well cooked and we enjoyed it immensely.

We were also joined for dinner by Tom Douglas.  The man that has been our ice guide, bear guard, just overall coolest guy ever. This guy's stories, experiences, knowledge of the area, and just overall knowledge of everything known to man has made him an awesome guy to talk to.  We all think he asks us questions about the Naval Academy and the Navy just so we can feel better about ourselves because he probably already knew the answers before he asked the question.  Seriously though... this guy is awesome and we're all glad to have spent so much time with him on the ice and to have learned so much from him.

So tonight is the final night we spend in Barrow for the 4 of us mids and LCDR Woods.  Due to the fast successful buoy deployment and the wonderful weather we've had since we've been here, we have finished our research ahead of schedule allowing us to fly back to Anchorage a day early.  What does that mean for us? It means that a townhouse and a day of skiing at Alyeska Ski Resort outside of Anchorage awaits where we will be doing more research on the weather patterns and the meteorological changes as you move quickly down in elevation.

Unfortunately, we did not see any polar bears during our time in Barrow.  Nor will I be able to tell any of my friends that I was able to 'pet' a seal.  And I swore I was going to see one of these, but we didn't. :-(

Anyways, we shall report tomorrow from Anchorage, and happy hump day!

Under the Ice in Barrow, AK

Uniform of the day is: Flip-flops, athletic Shorts, and a Purple Parka

        12 MAR

Hey all. Kyle Crowder here. It was another beautiful sunny day here in the Arctic Tundra. One that anyone would dream for on spring break. My friends in the Bahamas actually had some very similar weather today. In fact the only difference was 94 degrees Fahrenheit.  

               

 We got a lot of great chemistry and acoustics work done today. I spent most of my time with Becky and CDR Smith taking snow and ice samples. I had a great time with them drilling ice cores and digging snow pits. CDR Smith and Becky were even nice enough to let me take a few samples myself. They probably quickly regretted that after they noticed that with only 8 credits of chemistry experience, I had no idea what I was doing and likely contaminated a significant portion of their data. Nevertheless, I had a good time with them and they will be taking even more samples tomorrow.  They were taking samples for snow density and are also hoping to find some trace metals and other organic material.

                Meanwhile our acoustic team got an enormous amount of work done. CDR Hager, Sam, and Will pulled in a good 40 Giga bites of data today. I wish them the best of luck going through all of that. Apparently Sam got a head start listening to an hour’s worth of data today and noticed a large spike in the data. He is speculating that he is picking up on the sounds of a fox peeing on his site which would explain the yellow snow around his instruments. Not exactly what he was looking for but there is still plenty more data to go through.

                We ended the day by riding out into the sunset, taking the snow machines out to our site on the ice. Sam, Will, and CDR Hager worked with their acoustics instruments while the rest of us took pictures and rolled chunks of ice down the ice mountain.  When we got back the rest of the scientist at BROMEX threw us a going away party as tomorrow will be our last full day in Barrow.

                 Tomorrow we will be outreaching at the local high school so look forward to hearing from Ben to hear how that goes.

P.S. the Aurora was sweet.

“It’s definitely waterproof …” March 11

Greetings from Barrow! I’m Will “random” Parker here for your third blog update. The group began stirring this morning one by one after group 2’s first night in paradise. The morning consisted of planning, coffee drinking, milk spilling, and “sea perch” reinforcing (which would later prove futile). After an amazing brunch at the cafeteria down the road the usna crew geared up for an afternoon on the ice to deploy the Ice Goat and acoustic equipment. As the Ice Goat prepared for its long anticipated trip out to the ice everyone lined up for one of the research bouy’s pictures (which can be viewed at icegoat.datatransport.org/monitor#icegoat-1/camera0). Seven academy guys plus Sam plus three guides plus the Ice Goat plus all the acoustic equipment on 8 snowmobiles = rolling deep. Once the convoy made it to the research site everyone began working on drilling holes for the acoustics or helping position the Ice Goat. As a side project we wanted to put a remotely controlled submersible called a Sea Perch down the ice hole in order to get a picture of what it looked like in the water beneath the ice. One of the first discoveries of this trip was that the sea perch is not yet compatible for arctic waters.

                             Before                                                                                     After

We still wanted to get video under the ice so we tied the gopro camera to some line and lowered it down the ice hole (hold your tongue and say that one). Unfortunately the gopro was in the wrong case; the non-waterproof case to be exact and much of this evening has been devoted to bringing it back to life. So far the couscous hasn’t worked. After an afternoon of good work out on the ice the group rode the snowmachines back in and got ready for dinner at the local Mexican restaurant called PePe’s where researchers from other groups joined us. CDR Hager, Sam, and myself left early with Tom to check on the acoustic equipment before dark. This translated into a high speed snowmobile ride out onto the frozen sea chasing the sun before it could set. Once the snowmobile engines were turned off we could really appreciate the beauty and peacefulness that contrasts the inhospitable conditions here. After a quick tune up we raced back to Barrow at dusk which proved to be equally exhilarating…definitely top 5 coolest experiences. Look forward to a post from Kyle tomorrow!

The Day the Hut Became More Crowded

Evening Everyone. I'm 2/C Rebecca Watson (now also known as Den Mother) and today I was tasked with writing the blog. After 23 hours of travel, including a four hour layover in Minnesota, a short layover with dinner and four hours of sleep in Anchorage, then a couple of hops and skips through Fairbanks and Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay), group two arrived in Barrow, Alaska. -25 degrees did not sound terrible until we noticed the windchill was -55. Welcome to the northern most city in America I suppose. Without the indepth details, we had a similar arrival procedure as group 1 before being introduced to our new home.

LCDR Woods, Kyle, and Ben arrived shortly after we moved in. They had been chipping away a trail in the sea ice in the morning. After grabbing lunch, we left Sam and CDR Hagar behind to work with their project and the other six of us ventured onto the Arctic Ocean to do what we came here to do... chip ice.

 We were creating a trail for the snow mobiles to reach the lead we hope will appear while we are here. (A lead is stretches of open water within a field of sea ice. We are hoping the ice will break off where the newer ice is, so that we can access this lead). 10 minutes of chipping ice will really warm your soul. It almost felt like it was 70 degrees on that ice. It lead me to wonder, why bother going to the Carribean when you can have a spring break like this? As far as I'm concerned, it was just as warm as a "typical spring break", or at least for an hour or so. We actually went too far out to the point where we were almost on fresh forming ice. Considering how dangerous this is (we didn't want to end up on an ice island floating in the Arctic) we decided we had carved a trail far enough onto the ice. As we headed back inland, we decided to pause and climb to the top of this giant ice mass that had formed previously in the season. It was absolutely awesome to hear the fresher ice masses rubbing against each other. It was silent except for the creaking of the ice. It was the first time, of what I assume will be many, in which my first thought was, "Well, this is among the things I never thought I would do."

We did not much do much else today. We had a meeting with other BROMEX participants to discuss logistics for tomorrow then headed back to the hooch for a good 'ol home cooked meal of lasagna, garlic bread, and caesar salad. Unfortunately no Aurora Borealis tonight, but hopefully group two will get to see some while we're here. Tomorrow, expect a blog from Will about our snow samples and acoustic samples. Goodnight!

First Two Days in Barrow: Why swim in an ocean for spring break when you can just walk on top of one?

1/C Ben Aspholm here.

I'm going to take you on a wondrous journey which spans from Anchorage to our first two days on the planet of Hoth... I mean Barrow.

After a wonderful night of pizza at the Moose's Tooth, we took a 3 hour nap at the hotel and left at 0430 with all of our gear for the Airport.  Things went smoothly and after our plane was de-iced we were on our way.  We made two stops on the way in Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, but at 1030 we finally landed in Barrow and were kindly greeted by Tony and Glenn, two UMIAQ representatives to take us to where we were staying.  We had a quick orientation brief where we met Eric, the head of the base, and we then settled into our hooch.

It's small, but warm. And frankly, I'd rather take the latter of the two. Because when we landed, it was a balmy -27 degrees with a wind chill of -55.  It actually feels pretty good for about the first 5 seconds.  After that, you swallow your pride and put on every piece of clothing you have in the vicinity.  Overall, our hut is a nice place but you wouldn't really be able to tell from the outside.  However, it has everything we need and it's a warm bed to sleep in... Or futon...

After lunch with Son at the Shogun Chinese Buffet, we came back and had a discussion on the IceGoat1 deployment.  There will be a whole post on that to explain everything that was said and some potential changes in the deployment.

After that discussion, LCDR Woods, Kyle and I were all given a wonderful opportunity to ride the helicopter to do a photo reconnaissance run for the Icelander2 Buoy.  We geared up and grabbed our cameras because we were asked to take as many pictures as we could of the ice around that buoy to better understand the conditions it was in.

We took off and flew Northwest about 12 miles until we encountered the Icelander.  We made several passes taking photos until we landed to walk around on the ice. We stayed there around 20 minutes taking photos, enjoying the silence of the "ocean" and enjoying the sunset.  We then took off to head back but instead of landing right away, our pilot took us on an aerial tour of Barrow. We went over the main city, the research base where we're staying, and then all the way up to Point Barrow, the northernmost point in the United States.  I don't think that many people have been to Point Barrow, let alone by helicopter, at sunset.  It really was a neat experience and we all enjoyed it immensely.

Little did we know that our night was about to get better. Because of the solar storm activity recently, we heard that the Aurora Borealis was supposed to be extremely active last night.  So around 2045, we picked up Son and Ignatius and drove as far north as we could.  I'm going to let the pictures do the talking on this one, but on behalf of everyone who witnessed them, the pictures do not do it justice.  It was the most amazing thing all of us had seen and we were in awe the whole time.  It didn't even become a factor how cold we all were.  It made the trip for all of us and it was only day 2.

We then went to Arctic Pizza, got some food and called it a night eager for another day of adventure.

When we woke up, I had the opportunity to help out another person working with BROMEX named Matthew.  This involved us going out on Snow Machines onto the tundra to a couple of isolated labs roughly 6 miles out.  I was more of a helper to him and spent most of the time staying warm and digging out the huts that had about 8 foot drifts in front of the doors.  I enjoyed riding the Snow Machine all over.  You just have to make sure you have absolutely no skin showing or you will probably lose it within minutes.

Meanwhile, Kyle and LCDR Woods were over in another lab setting up there weather sensor which will log data for the duration of our stay.  They visited with Kerri Pratt from Purdue university who is doing atmospheric chemical analysis in conjunction with the BROMEX experiment.  The weather sensor was deployed next to another buoy so that we can then compare the two and determine it's performance.

In the afternoon we went and had our Ice Core Drilling 101 lesson from Don.  This process involves a large auger type machine that cuts down and brings back up essentially a long tube of ice which can be tested and sample for salinity values or for things that may be in the ice.

We then went out and tested our new learned skills. We drilled one hole down and were reasonably successful in bringing up a 65cm long piece of ice.  We measured it's temperature finding that that the temperature of the ice gets warmer the closer you get to the water and we sawed it into sections and put them in bags so they could melt and we could do tests on the resulting water.

Finally, we took the opportunity to make the quick drive and see another spectacular light show.  One that was even better than the last.  With LCDR Woods getting the kinks on his camera worked out, we were able to capture another great set of pictures.  Again, as beautiful as they are, they don't do it justice of the actual beauty you see when you witness it in person.

So whats on tap for tomorrow?  The other group arrives making the cabin much more cozy and we go out onto the ice to begin to dig the trail.




Stay warm!

The USNA PSP Crew.

Flying to Alaska

7 Mar 2012

Greetings friends and supporters,

            My name is MIDN 1/C Kyle Crowder. I am an Oceanography student at the Naval Academy and I have been working with the IceGoat1 team as part of my independent research project. Things got off to a great start on Wednesday. It was a beautiful sunny day in Annapolis with the temperature at a comfortable 70 ⁰F. CDR Hager generously drove LCDR John Woods, 1/C Ben Aspholm, and I to BWI to catch a 2:50 pm flight. We checked nine bags total including two 100lb crates and a few other 70lb bags. The lady with Delta Airlines thought we were crazy but she was very helpful checking our luggage.

We started by flying in a tiny regional jet to Minneapolis. The plane was so small that LCDR Woods described it as the "Alice in Wonderland Plane." The flight went well and after a short layover we were on a six hour flight heading for Anchorage.

We were told by multiple sources that when we were in Anchorage we had to go to a pizzeria called "The Moose's Tooth," so after we dropped off our bags we got a taxi to take us there. Our cab drivers name was Kirin. He was born in Afghanistan but had lived in Alaska for the last 33 years. He took us to the pizzeria where we stuffed ourselves with delicious pizza. An hour later Kirin took us back to the hotel and we got to sleep around midnight.

USNA Polar Science Program observing the Northern Lights over Barrow, AK

Landing in Barrow, AK during Sunset at BROMEX 2012

Our first time lapse video, From USNA to Barrow, AK

USNA Polar Science Program (PSP) getting ready to head North!

Greetings,

This is my first post of hopefully many!  Let me first introduce myself.  My name is LCDR John Woods, and I am a military instructor in the Oceanography Department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.  We have created, with the help of many others, the Polar Science Program (PSP) within the department.  PSP introduces midshipmen to the unique environment of the Polar Regions.  This is accomplished through academic course work, design/build projects (arctic buoy project ABP), and field experiments.

This blog has been set up for our first field campaign starting in a few days, but the story begins about 3 months ago!  Through partners at the University of Washington and the Naval Ice Center, we decide to attempt to have USNA build an arctic buoy.  We purchased a buoy shell from Legnos Boat Incorporated (LBI), and decide to modify it to add some webcams to it.  Sounds simple enough right???  Well, we quickly put a team together of Aerospace Engineering Staff and Students, USNA Hydrodynamic Lab support (Dan 'the man' Rhodes), Oceanography Department Students and Technicians, all being remotely guided by the 'irreplaceable' Todd Valentic out at Stanford, and in 6 short weeks (and many hours of overtime and late nights!), we put together the IceGoat1.

The design, build, test, and delivery phase was a story in itself (stand by for student write up/technical report)!  The support that was necessary to be successful was phenomenal (wink to my wife who held the fort down at home while I was up early and home late, and to Jimmy Aisquith from USNA Oceanography Dept who was instrumental to making IceGoat1 a reality!).

So here we are now in early March getting ready to meet our buoy up in Barrow, Alaska to take part in a much larger experiment being hosted by NASA called BROMEX 2012.  We have 4 students, and 3 officers in total heading North later this week.  We will be in Barrow during USNA Spring Break (think Northern most point in US for your Spring break, instead of Southern most point where most midshipmen will be going, aka Key West, FL), deploying the IceGoat, and also doing some acoustic studies, and Bio-Chemical sampling.  Bottom line, I am excited to introduce 4 midshipmen to one of the most unique environments on Earth!  And collect some useful data along the way!  And, I plan to have them share their experiences here on this blog.

The list of thank yous is long, and I am afraid to miss people so I will avoid an official list with names, but need to mention at a minimum:

USNA Midshipman Research Office and Office of Naval Research (Funding Support for IceGoat and PSP)
USNA STEM Office (providing travel, technical, and moral support) and USNA Foundation
USNA Oceanography Department (allowing us the freedom and support to make this a reality!)
USNA Hydrodynamics Laboratory (where I basically lived with the IceGoat for 6 weeks during assembly)
USNA Small Satellite Lab (For giving the IceGoat it's heart beat from the sun!)
Stanford Research Institute (Advising the computer build, sharing their design, and hosting all IT issues)
University of Washington and the International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP)
National/Naval Ice Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
UMIAQ (logistics support in Barrow)
My family, who have welcomed the IceGoat with open arms as another member of the family!

I hope you follow along our journey over the next few weeks, and along on all future campaigns...please like us on facebook, follow us on youtube, check out the IceGoat site, share with your friends, and spread the word about the USNA PSP!  We are excited to introduce you to the Arctic, and show you just how beautiful, unique, and harsh of environment it is!  Thanks for following!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/USNA-Polar-Science-Program/342695585742952
http://www.youtube.com/user/USNAPolarScience
http://icegoat.datatransport.org/monitor#icegoat-1/camera0

First picture from Barrow, Alaska!  Follow along to see many more!

Welcome to USNA's Polar Science Program (PSP) BROMEX Blog. Follow us for our adventures in the arctic as we participate in NASA BROMEX12 (Bromine, Ozone, and Mercury Experiment) in Barrow, Alaska from March 8th to March 15, 2012!