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Bugs, Aii-ee!
Slapping, clapping, waving, scratching—these are common, if not constant signals of life in Siberia. “Don’t scratch the bites,” someone says, “They’ll go away.” Sure. [caption id=”attachment_3034″ align=”alignleft” width=”530″ caption=”Mosquitoes swarmed around…
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First Impression
It’s our fourth full day in Cherskiy! The weather has been beautiful everyday – sunny with a breeze and warm (but not hot). Everyone is already very busy with…
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The Carbon Bomb
I’m trying to imagine it as I look out over this wet, verdant landscape, dark-green stands of larch forest punctuated by lighter green bogs and blue lakes glinting in…
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We Arrive, Finally
We can see through crystalline skies its unique beauty and something of its expanse from 8,000 feet—a flat, bright-green flood plain pocked from horizon to horizon with black-water lakes…
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The “Aquatics International”
Despite the fact that the Polaris Project is funded by the American National Science Foundation and its founding father is based in Woods Hole (US), the variety of nationalities…
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Converged in Cherskiy
We arrived in Cherskiy last night after two grueling flights across eight time zones from Mosocw to Yakutsk to Cherskiy. However, we landed in Cherskiy to clear, cool, and…
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travelling
Privyet friends of the Polaris Project! I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear we’re alive and well and only moderately exhausted. I’m sitting on the floor of the…
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Waiting on a plane
All 22 dots have made it to Moscow. We spent a peaceful night at the hotel-like structure as in years past and had an idyllic hour or so in…
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What will 2011 bring?
“The deadly Russian heat wave of 2010 was due to a natural atmospheric phenomenon often associated with weather extremes” states a recently accepted publication in GRL and more importantly,…
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22 Converging Dots
If each of the 22 participants in the 2011 Polaris Project field course was a dot on a map, right now we’d cover much of the USA and even…
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On the way to the hardware store
I’m packing to leave on the field course this Friday. We need some fresh supplies in Cherskiy. There are several trivial things on my list like ziplock bags and…
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Welcome to the Polaris Project
“I didn’t think anyone went to Siberia willingly,” a friend replied when I told him I was going there with the Polaris Project. Gulags are the first images evoked…
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It may be Snowmageddon in the Lower 48, but what about the Arctic?
While the US has seen an unusually cold winter so far (with several large snowstorms battering New England as well as sweeping across the nation), you may wonder whether…
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Photo Essay: Ambarchik
Ambarchik was a Soviet prison camp (gulag) beginning in the 1930’s. This place has a sad feeling to it, perched on the edge of the world, the Arctic Ocean…
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