The Earth Story

natgeotravel Video by @andy_bardon /// Skier, climber, and mother of two @kitdskileads the way off one of the highest summits in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after successfully measuring the summit with a survey grade GPS device (bulky and HEAVY!). If you look closely you can see it sticking out of her backpack. Bulletproof ice, corn, pow, and slush conditions were all encountered on the descent. Kit's been doing some amazing work in collaboration with Dr Matt Nolan in Fairbanks, AK. Together, they have teamed up to study the rate of glacial recession, measure the highest peaks in the Arctic Refuge, and document the topography so future generations can look back at current conditions. Pretty rad collaboration of adventure and science 🙌🏽

Auroras – What Our Eyes See vs What the Camera Sees

I just returned from an incredible trip to Alaska where the primary goal was to see the Aurora Borealis. Success! I was fortunate enough to see the Northern Lights four different times on the trip, and it was worth every moment spent out in the bitter cold (-34C/-30F on vacation anyone?). However, on the very first night of the trip, our astronomer tour leader was quick to set realistic expectations of what we would see - all those amazing photos we’ve all seen of auroras, that’s not what our eyes see.

In situations where there is low illumination, such as standing outside at night looking at auroras, the rod cells in our eyes take over from the cone cells that give us our ability to see fine details. Rod cells have low visual acuity and don’t perceive color. That means when we look up at the night sky, our eyes are very limited in what they can see. Still-photo cameras, good ones at least (unlike anything I have), can take long exposures and vary their shutter width to allow more light in, and with it more color. This ability means cameras can see light and color that our eyes fail to perceive.

For example, take a look at the amazing aurora photo with this post. That’s an aurora (yes, there is some post-processing on the photo, but the aurora has not been misrepresented in any way) I saw just outside of Anchorage. I was with a group of 44 people, and the general consensus seemed to be that we could see a green or white cloud, and that it looked like the mountain was being backlit by some light source. Yet the photo reveals something much more spectacular was happening, beyond what our eyes could see. The backlighting in the photo is revealed to be a beautiful green aurora, and the “cloud” we saw is the most concentrated area of light and color.

When we later traveled to Fairbanks in central Alaska and drove far away from light pollution, what our eyes saw and what the camera saw were much closer than this, but still also far apart.

Please don’t misunderstand, experiencing the aurora in person was amazing and I highly recommend going to look at it with your own eyes if you get a chance. Just be realistic in your expectations of what you will see, and bring a camera along that can take long-exposure photos so you can photograph all the remarkable details that your eyes missed.

Photo Credit: Dr. Tyler Nordgren http://www.tylernordgren.com/ Photo used with permission

References: https://www.britannica.com/science/rod-retinal-cell

Apparently the University of Alaska, Fairbanks hosts a long running lecture series of local scientists discussing issues of interest to Alaska. Here’s a friend of mine, Professor Carl Tape, discussing a poorly known, historic, 1904 earthquake. This is a great example of how we have to do science sometimes - literal detective work, tracking down 113 year old references to an earthquake from across the world and using them to estimate which fault the quake happened on and what the modern seismic hazard is from this fault. Really neat!

The drive from Fairbanks towards Denali National Park, edge of the Alaska Range.

This is literally a snow train. This train, leaving Fairbanks Alaska, is carrying carts full of snow. It is heading to Anchorage Alaska, where it will help make up part of the Iditarod dog race - its been so warm in Anchorage that they don’t have enough snow to start the race, they’re bringing it in by train from farther north.

Falling Fish

The toothed Arctic Lamprey fish (Lethenteron camtschaticum) looks a bit like a monster out of a horror film. With an eel-like body and a circular sucker-like mouth adorned with keratin ‘teeth’, the Alaskan population must be pretty glad these creatures are marine. So imagine their distress on finding live specimens four times in one week in car parks and on lawns across Fairbanks, in central Alaska.

It appeared these fish had fallen from the sky as Fairbanks is a fair way from the sea, and they aren’t sold commercially in the area. Original hypotheses for their appearance included waterspouts or tornados picking up the creatures and depositing them inland. With no reports of tornados in the area; however, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game offered up another suggestion. On examination of the Lampreys, many had scars running across their body, suggesting they had been in a bird’s bill. When the Lamprey wiggled free of the bill, some of their gills would have been scraped off leaving them with V-shaped scars across their body. Seagulls often feed on Lampreys and could carry them inland away from water before dropping them. Lampreys return to freshwater to spawn (from May to July), and it’s believed that the seagulls have pulled the Lampreys out of the Chena River.

~SA

Picture: http://on.fb.me/1cUhZSJ by The Alaska Department of Fish and Game More on Arctic Lampreys: http://bit.ly/1L8k4t2