Interior

In total I went to 5 stations around Fairbanks. The work was about changing solar panels, swapping weather sensors and seismometers, troubleshooting radio links and digitizers. All of those work required flying to the sites.

First thoughts

My first encounter with Alaska was full of surpirses. The first one being the mosquitoes. I had no idea how bad it could be... The second is how fast the weather can change. In one day it went from pouring rain to bright sunny day (you need to be prepared for anything). But mostly the beauty of the country. The land is large and empty. It is very different from Europe where everything is smaller and more clustered. The landscape in the interior is very green, fulll of rivers and lakes and mostly flat with some mountainous surprises.

Fires

During my trip we had to pay close attention to the thunder storm responsible for a lot of fires around Alaska. Even if it appears to be very green and wet, it is actually a very dry place that catch on fire really easily. On one of the site while we flew in, two fires were starting and expending. By the end of the day 2 more had started and the first ones were dangerously closing on us. We shortened the day to avoid any problem flying out. The interior is a reservoir of smoke during the summer making the air really unbreathable.

Measuring true north to set up a seismic sensor.

One fire starting up not far from our station.

A nice view of the helicopter waiting for us to be done with the day and go home

The weather changing with the incoming rain storm.

Working in the field

You need to be very adaptible and creative when it comes to working in the field. You never know what you will end up having to figure out. Changing solar pannels on the flank of a boulder or making an antenna mast with leftover shelving or silling a rat hole in a vault. This is what the life of a field tech looks like and it's fun!

Page updated

Report abuse