((PKG)) ALASKA OBSERVATORY
((Banner: Life in the Far North))
((Reporter: Natasha Mozgovaya))
((Camera: Aleksander Bergan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska))
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
We are in the United States Arctic. When it’s all dark, it can be kind of isolating. What I do in those periods, when it’s all dark, is I try to make extra effort to call people and talk to people. Like to play music. So, for me, it’s easier for the darkness than it is for when it’s always light and you have no idea what time it is.
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
Oh, I mentioned about two seasons: the season of mud, and the season of snow. Yeah, so we just ended the season of snow. We had a fairly late melt here. We’ve been measuring the melt on our albedo rack and what we’re doing is we’re subtracting what comes back from what comes in, and when we get to 30%, that’s when we consider snow melt.
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
When the decision was made that the United States needed to know what was happening in the Arctic, they looked at where that could be done, and the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory was right down the road already.
We’re monitoring the atmosphere. The Congress asked us with the Clean Air Act to monitor the atmosphere. Specifically, they wanted us to monitor for pollutants, greenhouse gases.
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
Here we’re monitoring for ozone depleting gases. These are compounds that were prohibited by the Montreal Protocol which was signed in the early 90s and all the parties to the Montreal Protocol have agreed not to use these substances anymore.
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
My job here is to take the measurements like we've been doing for 40 years. The measurements show that the carbon dioxide, for example, is increasing in the atmosphere. We know the physics of that. We know what that means for the atmosphere and what we do about it and who does what about it and when is a policy decision and a politics decision that I don't have a direct influence on.
((Bryan Thomas, Chief, Barrow Observatory Station))
One day, when we were coming out, we always look out before we come, and there was a white mound underneath the platform of the satellite antenna. The wildlife agent came and he pulled up on his ATV and his four-wheeler and he said, "I watched the bear come over here." And the bear was coming from the lagoon. It was coming from the ocean and had probably been on land for a few hours and it wanted a place to rest.
