Getting prepped and pumped

It's been a hectic past few weeks. Informative, but hectic.

Let me start off with a quick introduction. I've recently been given the opportunity to work in the arctic for the next year, as a Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Lab Operator. I'll be working for Environment Canada, living at the northernmost permanent settlement in the world (Alert, Nunavut). 

For those who want to get an idea of just how far north it is, let me show you: 

Alert's in the northernmost part of that red circle, in the far, far north of Nunavut

Why do I say these past few weeks have been hectic? I had started training for the job in Toronto and the surrounding area, and the logistics of it were troublesome to say the least. EC wasn't concerned with how I showed up to work these past few weeks, as long as I showed up at all, so my options were limited. 

View from the side of the Environment Canada's Downsview labs; my base of operations these past few weeks. I also received training at the Center for Atmospheric Research Experiments near Barrie, and AirZone One in Mississauga.

View from the roof of the labs. The white machines in the foreground are programmed to always aim directly at the Sun during the day, collecting and analyzing UV rays. They're called Brewers, but they only brew science, not beer.

It was either stay in a nearby motel, stay at a friend's place, or commute (This last option was particularly unpleasant, as I'm based in Waterloo, and a 4-5 hour commute each workday wasn't very appealing). Luckily, I have a few truly great friends in Toronto who stepped up and helped me out when I needed it. Julia, Nick, you guys are awesome (They split the 'workload', one week each of letting me crash at their respective places.

The training focused mainly on how to be self-sufficient with the instruments; how the worked and how to fix them. There are so many different instruments up there it is almost mind boggling, not to mention all of the different companies and countries that have their own experiments up there I have do every week (For some name dropping, I'm aware of at least France, Japan, UK, Germany and the US who have equipment up there, not to mention of course Canada).

In terms of how much I'll be testing, there are at least a dozen projects I'll be in charge of, but likely that number is larger. As for what I'll be testing for, there are many, many different chemicals in the snow, air, and soil that are being monitored (I'll likely post at least a partial list  in the coming months). I'm officially done training now, and will be spending the next few days getting together any last minute supplies and tying up any loose ends.

The flight itself is scheduled for July 5th, at 4:00am local time. I'll be taking off from CFB Trenton, on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, which is a pretty badass sounding name, and it looks even more badass to be honest. I'll take my own pictures of the aircraft after we land in Alert (the flight apparently only takes 4-5 hours, so I'll be in Alert before lunchtime), but this stock image of a C-17 will have to do for now:

Unless the military has a last minute change of plans, I'll be taking a C-17 similar to this on a 4-5 hour trip directly to Alert

I'm looking forward to the change in temperature though. These past few weeks the temperature has reached as high as 42C, while in Alert I'm told the weather station recorded a high of somewhere around 2C. Haha, a bit of a difference, for sure. Luckily I'll be able to ease my way into the harsher, colder temperatures of an arctic winter in the coming months, where temperatures can reach as low as -50C with wind chill. But that's for future me to worry about :P