We chose a good time to leave Fairbanks to set up ALISON study sites on the Kenai Peninsula – while we were in Sterling the temperature went down to –25°C, which is pretty chilly, but not as cold as Fairbanks, where it was below –40°C. On Wednesday 12 January when we were making measurements at Scout Lake, Sterling (air temperature –23°C), we thought of graduate student Marc Gould, who was scheduled to make measurements at our Poker Flat study sites, where the air temperature must have been below –40°C.
One interesting consequence of the low temperatures on the Kenai Peninsula was the large amount of frost smoke along the open Kenai River channel. Frost smoke is the very visible manifestation of the large heat and mass transfer that occurs from an warm open water surface to the overlying atmosphere when the air temperature is particularly low. The photograph below shows frost smoke above the Chena River in Fairbanks.
Frost smoke drifts from the Chena River towards Pioneer Park,Fairbanks, March 2002.
Another consequence of the cold weather was the postponement of our visit to Scout Lake with Allan Miller’s 6th grade students the morning of Wednesday 12 January. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District does not allow outdoor activities for students when the air temperature (including any wind chill) is below –23°C. So, Kim and I went there alone to make a complete set of measurements in calm conditions under clear blue skies – it was delightful, but we’re sure the students would not have been as enthusiastic.
We returned to Scout Lake the morning of Friday 14 January, when the temperature was a mere –10.5°C. Some students were cold by the time they had made their own measurements and taken their own snow samples, but Allan thoughtfully provided hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and cider to reward them for their forbearance and beginning their measurement program.
Read about Martin and Kim's next stop on their Kenai Peninsula trip - Kenai.
The line of wooden stakes marks the Scout Lake study site located at the west end of the lake, Wednesday 12 January 2004.