Class & Field Notes
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Past Issues
For the NNA UtqiaġvikSensor Array project, Co-PI Caitlin Wylie and postdoc Hannah Bradley have focused their social science research on observing and analyzing the developing collaboration between our academic colleagues and our community partners, asking “How can scientists and communities best work toward common goals?”
Snow and Ice: Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems (Part II)
From 30 September to 7 October, Utqiaġvik, Alaska, greeted us with a surprise: about 3 inches of shorefast ice on our study sites. At the same time last year, these shores were only lightly iced even later in October, so this early, solid ice cover was not what we expected. Our targets were the same three water bodies, now in their early winter mode: Imikpuk Lake, Middle Salt Lagoon, and Isatkoak Lagoon. Keep reading
Water, water, everywhere: Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems (Part I) For their summer sampling campaign, the aquatic team walked the shores of three of Utqiaġvik’s large water bodies to gather key water quality parameters that will help us understand the chemical signatures of seasonal rhythms, human activity, and permafrost dynamics. Keep reading
Finding Air Quality Hotspots to Inform Dust MitigationAnother UVA|ARC team traveled to Utqiaġvik this spring to deploy “BigDot” particulate matter (PM) sensors in areas deemed to be potential or observed hotspots for dust, and therefore, for poor air quality. Eighteen sensors were deployed across the city. Keep reading
In mid-May, social scientists Hannah Bradley and Cheri Johnson traveled to Utqiaġvik alongside our colleagues from the Environmental Science and Architecture departments to continue our social studies of how science works. Watching scientists do science is just one aspect of our research, and it's great to be in the field and lend a hand or hold a ladder. Our social science observations covered two aspects of our research...
Keep reading
Here, Howard Epstein and Matthew Jull work on the sensor base station at Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, while UVA social scientists observe. Our ASNA partners generously lent us the ladder! (Credit: Hannah Bradley)
Snow, Pixels, and Probes: Ground-Truthing in UtqiaġvikOver a week in May, the team
collected over 900 snow depth and density measurements spanning open tundra, built environments, and zones affected by wind redistribution in Utqiaġvik. Keep reading
Sensor Reset Maintaining the Utqiaġvik Sensor Array includes routine tasks like changing batteries and replacing sensors that have stopped communicating. We have also been working to make the network more robust. The UVA|ARC team is investigating what types and numbers of sensors to install to enhance the Utqiaġvik Sensor Array over the next year. Keep reading
Design and the Built Environment of the ArcticEdited by Leena Cho and Matthew Jull
Eleven new and original contributions from leading and emerging scholars and practitioners on the Arctic at the nexus of unprecedented socio-environmental transformations.
ISBN 978-1-032-66770-6