Yesterday afternoon, Monday, six of us enjoyed sunny, calm weather as we set up an ALISON ice and snow observatory at Aurora Pond in Fairbanks. The weather was a stark contrast to the conditions that Tim Buckley and I endured in Barrow setting up the observatory at Imikpuk Lake. But that effort was worthwhile, as Tim and his students made their first visit to make measurements at Imikpuk Lake last week on Thursday 14 November.

At Aurora Pond yesterday I was joined by Deb Bennett and her two children, Kate and Jack, and Janlee Irving and her daughter Bonnie. I expect that in due course they will be joined by Mary Calmes and her son Will. This is a group of home-schoolers that I enjoyed working with in February through April earlier this year. They will operate the Aurora Pond observatory all this winter.

Our afternoon did not get off to an auspicious start, since yours truly forgot the 100 m tape for marking the transect. So we improvised and I paced out the transect, which is now staked every 5 martins (as opposed to every 5 metres). Just as we thought we had overcome that obstacle, we had another minor setback: the digital reader that we use to read the snow temperature was not working. So, Deb drove over to Spenard Builders Supply for a battery and screwdriver, while the rest of us set about installing hot-wire ice thickness gauges. I forgot to ask Deb if there was actually a battery in the reader when she opened it up to install a fresh battery. Deb?

By now you must be wondering if Jeffries knows what he is doing. Most of the time, yes, but with occasional lapses. In the meantime, Todd, Joy, Roxann and Cheryl, check your digital readers, and I promise not to travel without my 100 m tape when I visit you.

The Aurora Pond observatory differs slightly from yours in one respect: it has three hot-wire ice thickness gauges. At one of the gauges the snow will be left undisturbed, allowed to accumulate naturally. At the second gauge, the snow will be cleared as often as possible, and placed at the third gauge to make the snow artificially deep. The ice thickness will be measured at each gauge on each visit. What will we see? Will the ice thickness be the same at each gauge or will it differ? Present this problem to your students some time. Once there are enough data to show the consequences of manipulating the snow at Aurora Pond they'll be available at the Web site.

Aurora Pond will also be visited later in the winter by students from Tanana Middle School (teacher: Ron Reihl), Ryan Middle School (Teacher: Sarah Drew) and perhaps Randy Smith (teacher: Carol Scott). Ron succeeded in obtaining an Incentive Grant from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District that will allow he, Sarah and Carol to work together as a team of teachers take their students to Aurora Pond to do science and to contribute data to ALISON.

Having succeeded in starting the Aurora Pond observatory, I am looking forward to travelling to Nome at the end of the week. I will be visiting Todd Hindmann and his students at Anvil City Science Academy who will operate an ALISON ice and snow observatory. More on that when I return.