As we count down the days to our departure for Alaska, we are all helping out to get our instrumentation assembled and trying to buy our last minute glacier gear.  Earlier this week, I helped Dr. Jackson continue to set up the data collection boxes. Using a soldering iron and the ever-trusty JB Weld, I sealed up some of the extra openings on the boxes and attached wires to the battery units and to the coupler.

Soldering away

My finished products

The boxes will hold the data collection device that will record data on temperature, wind speed, and wind direction on the glacier.  The device is battery operated, so it needs to stay dry for the few days that we will leave it out in the field.  Once we get all of the instruments assembled, we just have to break in our new hiking boots and we’ll be ready to go!

Students in Mathematical Models of Climate have begun to build the instrumentation we will deploy on Matanuska glacier to measure the interaction of the valley wind and the glacier driven wind regime. More details will be provided in later posts.

Instruments we will be using are R.M. Young Wind Monitors (http://www.youngusa.com/products/7/5.html) and Onset analog thermometers. All signals are voltage based and will be logged with Onset’s new style UX120 4-channel data logger (http://www.onsetcomp.com/products/data-loggers/ux120-006m). We need to configure the loggers and soldier all the wires in the correct places. We also need to build two towers and two logger enclosures to keep the electronics dry.