Adigan Pass

Adigan pass along the Dalton Highway seems from another world. All the trees have been left south of you, and the scenery is a mixture of shadow and light. Here is a photo of one of the hills off to the east side of the road taken on 29 Feb 2008 around 4:30 pm local time. We were about 10 miles south of Adigan when I took this picture. The shadows on the hills were extremely striking. We are now safe and sound in Toolik, and tomorrow set up the high speed cameras and photometer.

On the road to Toolik

We drove north 380 miles along the Dalton Highway today on our way to Toolik Lake. The trip took us about 9 hours. The drive is truely incredible. You see every type of scenery imaginable. Here is a picture of trees covered in frost above the Yukon river that I took in January of 2007 on my trip to Toolik.

And here is the picture!

This is a 2 second exposure with a Nikon D-100 using a 20mm lens. The green auroral emission from the forbidden Oxygen line is very apparent.

Why go to Toolik Lake?

I am going to Toolik Lake to study the aurora. If you want to know a bit more about the aurora, you can look here. People who study space physics are interested in the aurora, because it is the most obvious manifestation of the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetic field of the Earth. I personally like studying the aurora not only becuase it is interesting science, but becuase it is beautiful.

I am going to Toolik Lake to study a particular type of aurora called flickering aurora. As the name implies, flickering aurora visibly changes intensity in time that the eye can see. I have previously studied flickering aurora at Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, but I moved to Toolik Lake so I could search for links between flickering aurora and VLF auroral roar. More on this next post. For now, here is a picture of the aurora taken from Toolik Lake in 2007 by my friend Dirk Lummerzheim.

Getting Ready to go to Toolik Lake

I am currently getting ready to travel to Toolik Lake, in Alaska. While there I will be studying the aurora. This week I spent time packing all the gear, and getting it sent off to the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. When I get back to work at the Air Force Academy, I will post some pictures from the trip to Toolik last year.