Eni Njoku Today was planned as the first full day of science flights and soil moisture sampling. The morning Go/No-Go telecon confirmed our “Go” decision of yesterday evening, so the ground sampling crews were given the signal to head for the fields (an hour or more drive from Winnipeg) and the PALS folk headed for […]
Eni Njoku Today was a test day, to go through the PALS/Twin Otter flight operations, and for the ground teams to get familiar with the soil and vegetation sampling equipment and the field site locations. Test Flight We were at the airport by 8 am. The plane was outside being prepared by Richard and Dave […]
Eni Njoku Arrived yesterday evening (Monday June 4) and settled into the Hilton Suites, Winnipeg near the airport. The Twin Otter had arrived a couple of days earlier from Grand Junction, Colorado via Wyoming and is hangared at Winnipeg airport. Training (First Day) Early Tuesday morning we headed for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) […]
Friday April 27 the PALS instrument was packed up by Barron and Seth and shipped by truck to Grand Junction, Colorado to be installed on the Twin Otter aircraft assigned to the SMAPVEX12 campaign. This is the first leg of the PALS journey to Winnipeg, the site of the field campaign. Monday April 30 Seth […]
SMAPVEX12 stands for the 2012 Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Validation Experiment. The SMAP mission… SMAP is a NASA Earth science satellite mission that uses microwave radar and radiometer instruments to measure soil moisture from space. The radar and radiometer share a six-meter mesh reflector antenna that rotates at approximately 14 revolutions per minute. The […]
During the next few weeks we’ll be writing a series of short articles or “blogs” bringing you news of the SMAPVEX12 field campaign taking place in Winnipeg, Canada this summer. Along the way we’ll be providing you with a view of what SMAPVEX12 is, when, where and why it’s happening, and we’ll introduce you to […]
By Lora Koenig I am feeling a little sad as I write this post. I always do when writing the last post of a research season. Being able to share my science is one of my favorite parts of my job. I assume some of you looked at our blog’s photos and thought “they’re crazy,” […]
By Randy Skinner The wind began to blow at approximately 1:00AM on December 20. In Antarctica the wind blows most of the time, as there is nothing to slow it down and air is continually shifting from location to location due to density. But this was different: The force of the wind was strong enough […]
By Ludovic Brucker The only wildlife we saw during our three-week traverse was three snow petrels and one Antarctic petrel. I still haven’t decided if they were sort of a Christmas gift, or the announcement of a storm! The birds visited us when we were at camp 5,430 km (265 mi) inland. I was surprised […]
