Author: greg

It is my birthday and I hope that I can make it a short working day, i.e. “only” working normal hours.I switched the bio-sampler for the MOUDI and then headed over to the SST for SPME air measurements and some snow sampling. The weather was pleasant – with the ever changing wind, which was not too strong. After return to the base in the afternoon, I just managed to phone my parents  and my sister in Austria in time for birthday wishes. I even got my brother on his mobile. I then ran the SPME fibres on the GC, which still is in excellent condition. I am very happy about it, because this way I can concentrate on sampling issues, which is challenging enough. Finally, I worked 9 hours – a record low 🙂 I spend the evening watching a video and I had a couple of drinks and toasts at the bar – the Wolf Den. Nice.

We headed out again, but not without taking additional precautions. We stocked up on bear spray and established communication guidelines via Radio. The visitors from Environment Canada departed today on an early service flight back to Trenton. They were lucky, because the usual Wednesday flight was pushed back 24 hrs.

I had company on the way to the lab, because it is still too dangerous to go out alone. Sampling went well and back at the lab I started running the SPME air samples and some snow samples as well. It was a long evening – I finished well after midnight, but the bar was still open and I followed an invitation to celebrate my birthday on early May 30 with a few drinks – nice, so at least staying up late paid off in the end.

After getting ready and a late breakfast at 10.30 (it was the “Brunch” routine again), we were ready to head out, when a bear warning was announced. Fresh tracks were found at the Met-Shack and near the gym, and everybody was advised to stay inside. Let’s see how the situation develops. I have checked the possibility to get an armed guard and a BV for sampling at the “Bay” site again, but it won’t be before the end of the week. Planes are scheduled to come in tomorrow and Tuesday, so people are going to be busy.

So I ran standards and samples instead. I do not mind the day at the lab, because I am lagging behind a bit anyway. However, I was not prepared for a lab day and melting samples delayed my measurements further. So I could have made more of the day, but bears usually do not phone ahead.

Today I had my first visit to the “Bay” Site. Better late than never. It was a beautiful day and after shutting down the Bio-sampler and starting the MOUDI at the GAW Lab, Brad drove me to Alert Inlet. I made my way across the ice with my equipment on a sled, approximately 500 m from the truck.

Although the wind was changing throughout the day, it never blew from the direction, where the truck was parked with engine running and neither did it blow directly from the base with the exception of 20 min. I had a wind from SW during canister sampling, but the SPME measurements could be affected. For snow sampling I did not only the usual grab sampling, but I also sampled 3 different snow layers that covered the ice (a snow pack of 23 cm in total). On my return to the truck, the ice had opened up a little with small cracks appearing (but I could not see the water yet).

Well the past two days I was busy sampling. There were a few minor delays – truck not starting, … nothing that could not be fixed. At the GAW Lab and the SST, things went smoothly. I set up a power line to the deck of the GAW Lab and started the MOUDI – for an overnight run.

I fixed it to the guard rails and set up an “umbrella” of tin foil in case it starts snowing. It was -10°C today, so it was pretty chilly in the trailer. The snow flakes have transformed to plate like structures as opposed to flakes two days earlier (beautiful!). When we got back, we noticed that one of the bogey-wheels on one of the tracks became loose. With a bit of luck and thanks to a super-nice mechanic we will be on the road tomorrow. GC measurements went well (although I have not done any data analysis yet). The instrument is behaving well with a good baseline and well-timed measurements. On bothdays, I finished at 10.30 p.m., 16 hrs again.

I have now established a fine routine, starting at the GAW lab to switch from Biosampler to MOUDI (or vice versa). These two instruments run reliably overnight on the deck. When done, I head over to the SST to do my snow sampling with scoop and shovel and air sampling with SPME fibres and canisters. I have also started sampling snow layers, differentiating between loose, powdery and packed snow. Sampling goes well by removing layer by layer and filling a new bottle for each one.

It usually takes 4 hours to get everything done. Including transfer times it usually is a 6-7 hour day. Back at the base I clean up, run the SPME fibres on the GC and prepare them for the next day. If there is time, I also run two snow samples (headspace & liquid, in duplicates).

I have been thinking hard about going out sampling today, but in the end I decided to run the snow samples and blanks that I have collected so far in order to not fall behind with my measurements. After labeling and putting them out of the freezer for melting, I was running my morning routine.

Today is “Plane Day”, so the base is a bit of a beehive. Around 11.30 I went outside to take photos of the plane touching down on the gravel runway – an impressive picture. Otherwise I was busy with measurements. I was running snow samples and standards to determine the retention time on the recently clipped column. I have prepared solutions apart from each other and in well ventilated areas in order not to introduce any contamination into the snow samples.

After running individual compounds by injecting 0.5 μL of headspace from the ampoule I mixed – so far – 9 standards in a common stock solution. I had problems with solubility in water, which I solved by adding ethanol. This worked fine. From this stock I will prepare
dilutions and set-up calibration curves for all compounds under investigation.

I have also learned from the electricians that a new transformer will not be available until next week’s flight. That means that the MOUDI will stay at the GAW Lab for the week and I will also move the bio-sampler and use it with the mains-powered pump (because the batteries are too short-lived, when it is this cold (currently -10°C). For all other measurements I will stay at the (unheated) trailer.

Not enough bad news today – the other truck broke down on the way back and will be out of service until at least next week. We now have to use the only (replacement) truck – Nuuk. That means rescheduling and I have set-up a regimen, where I will run the MOUDI & bio-sampler alternately overnight (which is fine – the longer the better). This way I can do my other tasks within approx. 4-5 hrs, which is also the usual timeframe for work at the lab. It now seems unlikely that I will sample regularly at the BAY site. With just one truck and being alone it will be difficult. Bear tracks have been found in the vicinity and going out without a vehicle is too risky.I finished “early” today – at 10.30 p.m.

Early breakfast again today – the long weekend was over (what weekend?). After that I wanted to head out to the SST right away, but – alas – Nuuk, my trusty truck, would not start. So I called for help and got some power from a working battery. Once arrived at the TX Site, I plugged it in to keep the engine warm. So I hauled my equipment of the day incl. some food with a sled to the SST and started working. Bio-sampler, snow-sampling,… but no power yet.

That did not change after 2 visits from the electricians (driving their BV right up the the trailer *arrgl*). Some part in the transformer was dead – and they had to check back to see, if it was available or had to be flown in. I also had my first shot at using the radio with the Hydro guys. Well – no power and so I got the sled again and hauled the MOUDI to the GAW Lab and set it up there. If I do not get power soon, I will move to the GAW Lab altogether, although I find the trailer very practical. Setting the MOUDI up at the GAW Lab was fine. At some point I had to head back to the SST to finish up there (snow sampling, air sampling, shutting down the bio-sampler) and then back again to the Lab to finish the MOUDI measurements. I am a bit skeptical about storing substrates in Petri- dishes, but there seems to be no other way. Especially avoiding vibrations, which causes particles to bounce around the dish and off the substrate, will be difficult, when getting the samples back with the truck and flying them down South.

Anyway – a busy day and it was getting late – not that it mattered, when there are 24 hours of daylight. Getting back before dark is not a good resolution for the day in these latitudes; anyway, it was 8 pm, when I parked the truck at Polaris Hall (it started fine at the TX site and I was spared the use of the Sat-phone). I fired up the GC to run the SPME samples and prepared the Bio-sampler for its next run.

I started at 7.15, with some coffee. I had a look at yesterday’s data (SPME of snow & air) and compared it to MilliQ and instrument baseline runs. Not much to say about identity and concentrations yet (with standard runs missing), but while the instrument baseline is much lower, the MilliQ is similar in peak intensity. Some peaks, however are different – or significantly more intense in the sample runs. So I think I will be able to see something.

I have also set-up the MOUDI so that it is ready to use – same for the bio-sampler. I am ready to head out again, which I did right after breakfast – to the SST, the special studies trailer, the site off the GAW Lab. It has a nice roof for setting up equipment with lots of power outlets inside and on the deck. I set-up shop there and indeed the power came up quickly. Still a bit chilly, I did a bit of cleaning and set up my gear. I also started adsorption of SPME fibres (air and snow).

After a while, however, there were periodic power outages (every 2 min 50 sec and I had to shut down power again, because the GAW lab was affected too. So no MOUDI today. I sampled air into a canister with the battery powered pump, though. When collecting the SPME fibres, the next disappointment – the snow fibre was broken, the air fibre was fine.

To cheer myself up a little bit, I had a look at snow flakes with the microscope that I brought along – stunningly beautiful! I headed back to base in the early evening – missing dinner again. I ran the single fibre and called it a day at 9 pm.

Sunday is another day with the “brunch” routine. So I started the GC early to run and check the baseline. Keeping the detector, inlet and oven at 130°C worked fine, so I will keep it like that in the future. The baseline was mostly flat with a few small peaks starting at 15 min.

I also finished my assessment of the sites and set-up a schedule for sampling each site, including instruments and frequency.  After brunch I was almost late for the tour of the GAW lab, but I made it. The lab, which is located approx. 6 km south of the base is extremely interesting, incl. generators for hydrogen and nitrogen on site to feed the various instruments and everything being automated. GCs, NIR spectrometer, mercury analyzers are part of the lab. Quite fascinating. I also saw the Special Studies Trailer, located approx. 200 m SE of the lab, which – if everything goes according to plan – I will use for my studies. I have to park the truck at a transmitter site and then get on foot to the trailer using a sled to get my gear around.

After getting back including a couple of photo stops, finished my preparations for my first sampling event. I moved the stuff to the TX site for a first run and it went really well. I sampled air (canister, SPME), snow (bottle, SPME) and took some ancillary measurements. I assessed the snow by visual inspection with the microscope. There is a tower next to the TX Building, which is very convenient for sampling. No danger that equipment gets eaten or damaged by wildlife.

I hauled the samples back frozen and cooled with ice packs (incl. the SPME fibres) and placed them in a freezer. I analysed the SPME fibres the same day. A long day and I have missed dinner – thankfully Brad got me a plate and put it into the fridge for me. So getting the MOUDI and the bio-sampler up and running is the next and final preparatory task, before I can settle into routing measurements.

The downside was that there is a furnace with a chimney on the roof, which is running, albeit being located downwind. But it was a good opportunity to test my procedures, although if I can avoid it I will not sample there in the future. The risk of local pollution sources is just too high.

I woke early this morning (7.00) – early, because brunch on Sat & Sun is not until 10.30. Anyway, I fired up the GC and the baseline did not look good, especially at > 10 min. Cleaning helped (and cost me 90 min) and the baseline was fine – I might have to do that every morning or I keep the GC at a higher temperature overnight.

I have run fibre and MilliQ water blanks throughout the day and tested the signal with a direct injection of benzene, which worked fine. The blanks are “soso” – similar to the GC-MS blanks (a lot of peaks, usually < 45 pA, but they are going to be interfering more, because of the lacking underlying mass spectrum. The fibres are brand-new, but still bleeding a little. Let’s see how the intensities and retention times for the standards look like.

I have also been outside the station by truck today and checked out some of the potential sampling sites. Tomorrow we will do another outing and I will finalise my decision and set up shop at the site that I would like to probe daily (most probably the new TX Building). It’s been fun outside – getting a feel for the vast expanse of the High Arctic. I also got a little practice with the Sat-phone and (listening) to the radio traffic.