December 23rd, 2007 andrea
The sound of the Canada glacier streams and waterfalls dominated the soundscape of Lake Hoare. Here is one of several recordings I made while walking along the side of the glacier, listen for the percussive low tones:
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December 23rd, 2007 andrea
I made this binaural recording while walking on Taylor glacier. It is about ten minutes long. Listen especially to the strange, almost electronic sound that occurs in the last minute. It is coming from moving water under the surface of the glacier. It surprised me so much that I had to bring Hassan over to listen to it too. The picture here is of the very place this sound came from:
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December 23rd, 2007 andrea
The four of us: Hassan, Matt, Liz and I, lay on top of our equipment bags to keep them from flying away while the helicopter left us to work on the glacier. My favorite part of this recording is at the end – our expressions of excitement about getting to work. This is a binaural recording, so, as usual, headphones are recommended:
Before we left Taylor, the pilot and helo tech went through a checklist for takeoff. Recorded here through my helmet (keep those headphones on):
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December 23rd, 2007 andrea
This is a very compelling graphic that Matt Hoffman created by running the surface energy balance model using data from the Taylor Glacier met station. Imagine you are looking at a 5 meters deep cross section of the glacier over time. Notice how the lower parts of the glacier take longer to warm and cool, indicated by the way the color blobs in the lower image angle to the right.
Matt says:
“The energy balance model is still in development so I would consider this to be representative. The upper panel shows measured air temperature and modeled surface temperature over the course of a year from midwinter through summer and back to midwinter. The bottom panel shows ice temperature in the top 5 meters for the same time period, with the colors representing temperature in degrees Celsius. The first stripe above the main block is surface temperature again, and the stripe above that is air temperature again. Grey markings indicated temperature above 0 degrees C. The black lines indicate contours of partial melt in intervals of 2.5%. The large yellow/orange curved body in the center represents the heat absorbed in summer slowly conducting deeper into the glacier long after the warm days are over. The winter periods are characterized by cold temperatures punctuated by brief warm events that interrupt the dark blue pattern.”
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December 23rd, 2007 andrea
On Taylor, LTER science researcher/Portland State University graduate student Matt Hoffman used a spectroradiometer which measures the energy of visible and infrared light as a function of wavelength (http://asdi.com/products-fs3.asp) to make detailed measurements of solar radiation on and beneath the surface of glaciers in the Dry Valleys. This image shows him using the spectroradiometer to make surface measurements, you can see more detailed photos if you click on the image.
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