Week 4: Pre-trip Report
14 February 2018 - Valentine’s Day on Ice
Sweetheart of a trip? Students were broken hearted on learning they can’t attend locus in quo? Cupid will strike sure and ignite my love of atmospherics?
There I was, attempting to set the mood for this epic pre-trip post and all I could come up with were these absolutely bargain-basement puns. The Art of the Drole? Maybe some other time.
Today! Today we board an (un)urban assault vehicle on a mission to the summit of Mount Washington. The snowcat will carry a quota of humans on a 1.5 hour or so trundle up the “auto-road” to deliver unto us a better understanding of the conditions that make this mountain so damn alluring. Scientists and artists, adventurers and fair-weather-touristas, have trod The Cristall Hill’s [1] flanks in search of recreation and illumination. As for me, my goals are more modest: to perform a basic analysis of the Mountain’s snows en route, and to learn a bit more about how the weather wizards who reside atop the rock pile ply their trade.
It was something like four years ago that I was introduced to Dr. Liz Burakowski (UNH) and her plan to leverage volunteers, teachers, and students across the Granite State to examine the dynamics of the New Hampshire snowpack. Through Liz’s tireless efforts and creativity, this group has laid the groundwork for current and future studies that will help us all understand more about how our climate is changing here in New England. On this particular trip, I will be using the tools of this trade to look at the snows of Mt. Washington. The working hypothesis? Snow quality and quantity changes as a function of altitude along the Mt. Washington Auto Road. Heavy emphasis on quality.
A simple hypothesis, but as I have explained to my students, the only trouble one can get into in science (or exploration) stems (lol) from assuming that a thing is true when you haven’t done the experiment. To look closer at snow quality, I will be bringing along a snow kit that includes:
1) A four foot snow tube that is graduated to measure depth. This core of snow will also be massed in order to assess the snow water equivalent (SWE)
2) An infrared thermometer to record the “skin temperature” of the snow.
3) A custom-made pyranometer (thanks again, Liz!) to measure incoming, as well as outgoing, solar radiation.
With these tools in hand, I hope to record differences in how sunlight interacts with the snowpack at distinct intervals along the way to the summit, and at the summit itself. I also look forward to discussing these observations with the pros on the rock pile, and ultimately sharing this information with my Environmental Science students back at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua. Allons-y!
-Dr. Rob Pinsonneault, Bishop Guertin High School, NH
[1] Not Without Peril, Nicholas Howe.
Sweetheart of a trip? Students were broken hearted on learning they can’t attend locus in quo? Cupid will strike sure and ignite my love of atmospherics?
There I was, attempting to set the mood for this epic pre-trip post and all I could come up with were these absolutely bargain-basement puns. The Art of the Drole? Maybe some other time.
Today! Today we board an (un)urban assault vehicle on a mission to the summit of Mount Washington. The snowcat will carry a quota of humans on a 1.5 hour or so trundle up the “auto-road” to deliver unto us a better understanding of the conditions that make this mountain so damn alluring. Scientists and artists, adventurers and fair-weather-touristas, have trod The Cristall Hill’s [1] flanks in search of recreation and illumination. As for me, my goals are more modest: to perform a basic analysis of the Mountain’s snows en route, and to learn a bit more about how the weather wizards who reside atop the rock pile ply their trade.
It was something like four years ago that I was introduced to Dr. Liz Burakowski (UNH) and her plan to leverage volunteers, teachers, and students across the Granite State to examine the dynamics of the New Hampshire snowpack. Through Liz’s tireless efforts and creativity, this group has laid the groundwork for current and future studies that will help us all understand more about how our climate is changing here in New England. On this particular trip, I will be using the tools of this trade to look at the snows of Mt. Washington. The working hypothesis? Snow quality and quantity changes as a function of altitude along the Mt. Washington Auto Road. Heavy emphasis on quality.
A simple hypothesis, but as I have explained to my students, the only trouble one can get into in science (or exploration) stems (lol) from assuming that a thing is true when you haven’t done the experiment. To look closer at snow quality, I will be bringing along a snow kit that includes:
1) A four foot snow tube that is graduated to measure depth. This core of snow will also be massed in order to assess the snow water equivalent (SWE)
2) An infrared thermometer to record the “skin temperature” of the snow.
3) A custom-made pyranometer (thanks again, Liz!) to measure incoming, as well as outgoing, solar radiation.
With these tools in hand, I hope to record differences in how sunlight interacts with the snowpack at distinct intervals along the way to the summit, and at the summit itself. I also look forward to discussing these observations with the pros on the rock pile, and ultimately sharing this information with my Environmental Science students back at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua. Allons-y!
-Dr. Rob Pinsonneault, Bishop Guertin High School, NH
[1] Not Without Peril, Nicholas Howe.
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