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Summer 2013: Fieldwork for Remote Sensing – from the Lena Delta to Abisko

(Photo: Birgit Heim) On one of the days when we had no boat, Antonia (Tonia) Antonina guided us around the lakes on Samolov. Elin and Tonia.(Photo: Birgit Heim) On one of the days when we had no boat, Antonia (Tonia) Antonina guided us around the lakes on Samolov. Elin and Tonia.Monday, 26th of August 2013
 
Dear readers, as I told you last time, we were expecting the new group, traveling from Scandinavia, to come last Monday or Tuesday.

But as it turned out this week became a week of waiting.

For several days, the weather conditions were too rough and it would not have been safe to land in Tiksi. So, every day we waited and hoped for good weather and news from Tiksi, the Scandinavians waited in Yakutsk and we waited here.
 
We were all impatient for them to come, for the pleasure of their company.
 
I knew half of the group from before, from fieldwork and from studies back in Uppsala and Stockholm, so it is always nice to have the opportunity to meet again.
 
(Photo: Elin Högström) The day after the arrival of Stockholm/Copenhagen team we had a meeting in the conference room to plan our workdays together.(Photo: Elin Högström) The day after the arrival of Stockholm/Copenhagen team we had a meeting in the conference room to plan our workdays together.The other reason that we were eager for them to come was the boat, without which we could not go to Kurungnakh for fieldwork.
 
There is more than one boat around here. But with strong wind it is not safe to the small ones that were here.

At last, the saviors arrived! On Thursday night, as I was preparing for bed, there was a phone call and the message that the boat had already arrived at the beach. Yes!
 
We ran down there to welcome them and help with the luggage. Then Regina, our wonderful chef, had prepared a big pan of french fries and a chocolate cake for everyone. I had a second dinner and went to bed later.

The next couple of days we could go back to Kurungnakh again.

I installed two out of the five planned soil stations. There was also time to do manual measurements and finalize some parts of the existing subsidence stations: programming, reading out data and installing sensors.

(Photo: Birgit Heim) Elin and the station on the way to the Yedoma plateau – the stations home for the coming year.(Photo: Birgit Heim) Elin and the station on the way to the Yedoma plateau – the stations home for the coming year.With a couple of kilometers between us, Birgit me and Sascha kept in contact with the walky-talkies throughout the day, and met up for lunch or for hiking back together.
 
One can say much about the looks of the orange AWI outfit.
 
But I'll tell you one thing: in the middle of the huge tundra landscape, it is easy to find each other. Orange dots in the distance.

That is quite good for safety, I would say.

From the Yedoma plateau in southern Kurungnakh, the view is astonishing!

Now, when also temperatures are quite a lot lower than at the beginning of our stay here, one really feel the strength of the wind up there. It is hard to believe that we were sweating like pigs only some 10 days ago here.

Gustaf, Christian and the others also came with us in the boat to Kurungnakh. They had lost many days of field work when stuck in Yakutsk and were now really glad to be able to start as soon as possible.
 
 
 
Written by Elin
 
 
 
 
 
 
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