Flurries-and-frost - Do You Remember Your First Snow?

The expedition had set up cameras to study penguin migratory patterns. After several weeks of nothing, one of the cameras began picking up movement.

Arctic Silence (by Jan Erik Waider)

Instagram: @northlandscapes Tumblr: @really-shit

canadian gothic

You have never seen the Tim Hortons’ employees outside their restaurant. You didn’t apply for a job there when you turned sixteen, but they called you all the same. Twice. 

There’s that boy you went to school with, Samuel, he was once so rude that they - you do not know any boy named Samuel. 

There comes a time in January when you cannot remember what’s buried under all that snow, and you are glad. 

You wonder what the others hear when the winds from the Great North blow; you always want to ask, but the winds made you promise not to. 

The week after the New Year, you walk past the frozen lake and hear knocking from under the ice. You smile, and you do not know why.

A warm summer means the maple syrup will taste like rust and something you do not want to name; the trees miss the cold. 

The hospital’s waiting room is always full and you can never remember why you’re here. 

The weatherman speaks of the coming snowstorm with a fondness you will take years to master, much to your sorrow. They can sense fear. 

canadian gothic

it’s snowing again, you can’t remember the last time it wasn’t snowing. has it always been snowing? have you ever seen real grass or felt real warmth? 

you pass some kids playing hockey on an empty parking lot. they stop there game when you pass. they all wear blank expressions on their face and their eyes appear to be glazed over 

you think you see some canadian geese fight over what looks like a human femur   

tim hortons always seem to appear when you need them. even in the middle of nowhere. is it just a coincidence?  

The French Astrolabe and the Zelee caught in Antarctic ice 1838 during the Expedition of Jules Dumont d'Urville, watercolour by A. Mayer 1838

In temperatures that drop below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, along a route occasionally blocked by wind-driven ice dunes, a hundred miles from any other people, a team led by two of our scientists are surveying an unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice. 

They’ve packed extreme cold-weather gear and scientific instruments onto sleds pulled by two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, and after a stop at the South Pole Station (seen in this image), they began a two- to three-week traverse.

The 470-mile expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth will ultimately provide the best assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), set to launch in 2018.

This traverse provides an extremely challenging way to assess the accuracy of the data. ICESat-2’s datasets are going to tell us incredible things about how Earth’s ice is changing, and what that means for things like sea level rise.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com. 

In Search of Those Lost

I’m currently super interested in Arctic exploration. This is mostly inspired by the searches for the lost Franklin expedition. 

May they rest in peace.

Planet E A R T H  by :

© b.simon