Dinner With Len

Guy Mecham is returning to Summit Station near the summit of the Greenland ice sheet. He took a brief trip to the States to present a talk at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute. Guy is leading a study researching the earth change affects on the upper atmosphere. His speech was on the changes to the upper atmosphere that are taking place and how they affect technology in space.  

Guy is happy that his trip was only to Maine this time. The flight time is far less than his last trip to Japan. He left Bangor, Maine not far from the University of Maine, flew to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. From there, he boarded an LC-130 Hercules cargo plane from the New York Air National Guard outfitted with skis for landing on the snowfield at Summit Station, Greenland. He usually does not have a companion for the trip, but this time he is accompanied by Brett Callon. Brett is producing a story on the work at Summit Station. Guy is to be his host for the week while Brett is at the camp. 

There are two other passengers on the flight with them who Guy does not recognize. They are not a part of the scientific projects or part of the support crew for the camp. Guy does not pay them much attention. Perhaps they are joining one of the scientific teams. Or maybe the stations support team needs some expert assistance with something.

Speaking loudly over the flight noise of the LC-130, Brett tries to get some information out of Guy for the article he is working on, “Guy, tell me about yourself. What would you like people to know about you?”

Guy does not respond. He is not someone who talks about himself much. His mind is usually on other things. When it comes time to promote himself, he cannot find much to say.

“Guy? What is most interesting about you?”

“What do I want people to know about me? Nothing, really. I am a research scientist, and I graduated from MIT.”

“Those are your credentials, Guy. Anybody can find that out about you. What about something nobody knows about you?”

"There is nothing, really. I guess I am a boring guy."

“Is that what you say at a job interview when they ask you the same thing? I have nothing interesting to tell?”

“I have not interviewed for a job since I was an undergraduate. I usually just promote my science and ask for grant money."

"OK, for now. We will come back to you later. What about your science?”

"Well. Science has predicted that over a multi-decadal period, the increase of CO₂ would lead to a 50K cooling of the thermosphere, lowering of ionospheric layers, decrease in global mean neutral density in the upper atmosphere, and the lowering of the maximum electron density of the ionosphere."

“Hold on! I need to present this so that the average person can understand. I do not understand the thermosphere or the ionosphere myself.”

“Life is most affected by climate change in the lower atmosphere - by what happens near the surface of the earth. But changes are happening to the upper atmosphere that also affect life on earth as well as our technology in space. Did you know that at the height most weather satellites, communication satellites, and the International Space Station operate at, there is still atmosphere? It is called the thermosphere. The thermosphere in terms of temperatures and density affects the performance of our satellites through the drag exerted upon them. The lifespan and performance of satellites are greatly affected. So, understanding how earth changes affect the upper atmosphere impacts the quality of life on this planet."

The pilot comes over the speaker announcing that they are approaching landing. The plane has to drop its skis and touchdown on the glacier skiway. It is not the smoothest landing. The grading equipment for the skiway is crude, and the aircraft is designed to land with heavy cargo, not with passengers. Guy has become used to the hard landing and warns Brett that it will be a rough ride once they are on the ground.

“Hey! What’s that!!” Brett yells as the large back door of the LC-130 begins to open.

Guy learns over and yells into his ear, “Oh, yeah! They are going to drop the supply pallet out the back as we land.” There is a large pallet loaded with a fuel bladder for the camp. It rests on the floor made up of rollers to easily slide in and out of the airplane. When the crew is ready to remove the pallet, they will release the strapping holding it in, and then push it out the back.  “It is just one pallet today. Usually, there are more. We are on a special flight for some reason."

The plane touches down on the skiway with a thud as the back door comes to a rest at the fully open position. Unloading cargo when the aircraft is moving is called combat offloading. It is used in war zones and at air shows to impress the crowd. The air rushing through the plane is cold. Two crew members push the large pallet down the rollers and out the back door. The plane bumps up and down as the pallet leaves the end of the open door, then the plane starts to slow down.

The plane comes to a stop at the end of the skiway. Guy, Brett, and the other two passengers start getting their things together to offload. One of the plane’s crew opens the man door and drops the stairs so that the passengers can unload. Once again, the wind blowing through the man door is cold.

“What is the temperature today,” Guy asks the aircrew.

“Fifteen degrees Fahrenheit.”

“The arctic Death Valley,” Guy says. Its record high temperature is 36 degrees. “Well, with the precipitation of Kiunga. Not really any locations with equal precipitation and equally extreme temperatures as Summit Station.”

As the passengers unload, they are met by staff from the station. A private company out of Littleton, Colorado maintains the station. Its staff maintain the facilities and ensure everybody is provided for according to their contractual needs. "Everybody is required at the Big House. We will be taking you to the Big House first and then to your tents."

The passengers load onto snowmobiles. The gear is loaded on the sled towed behind the snowmobile and the passengers on the back seat.

At the Big House, Len Perkins the Stations Operations Chief, is addressing the standing room only crowd. The Big House is the center of the community. It stands on tall stilts, houses the kitchen and dining facilities, the communications equipment, and functions as the social gathering spot for the inhabitants of the camp. It is the only place big enough to have the whole camp of thirty-four people gather at once. “Now that everybody is here, I would like our guests from Rigspolitiet, the National Police of Denmark, to introduce themselves."

The other two passengers from the plane step forward, “I am Captain Ansgar Sorensen. I have come to investigate the vandalism from a couple of nights ago. This is my partner, Lieutenant Lovise Damgaard. We both have specialties that apply to this investigation. We would like to interview each of the personnel that were onsite when the vandalism took place. We have a list of the names here, and we have assigned a time for you to meet us at the Green House for your interview. Will you please check what time you are assigned, and then you may go?”

Guy finds his way to Len, “Len! I have Brett Callon, who is here to do the story on the station. Where would you like me to set him up? Something we should know?”

“Afternoon, Guy. We will have him in the VIP tent for the week. I will meet the two of you later for dinner, and we can talk then about what is going on here."

"Let's go, Brett. I will show you to the VIP tent. You are lucky. You are the only tent that has heat."

“OK, Guy. But once we get there, we will continue our conversation. I would like to know more about your science.”

Guy grabbed two of the staff members who had brought them to the Big House. “We need to get a ride to our tents. For my driver, go by my tent first and we will drop off my pack, then take me to the VIP tent. The other driver, follow us. I will introduce Brett to his dwelling.”

The snowmobiles pulled up to the VIP tent. Snow has drifted up the sides of the tent but has been swept away at the door opening. The VIP tent is larger than the rest. It is a double-walled Arctic Oven tent set upon an insulated wooden deck for stability and to keep the floor off of the cold snow. Most tents have just what is necessary for the science members and in order to conserve fuel are not heated. The camp staff stay at the Green House, which has climate controls, its own kitchen, and plumbing where they will remain year-round. The VIP tent has a cot, a small shelf, a small table and two chairs, a composting toilet, plus lots of warm clothing and bedding. There is power provided from the microturbines. They run twenty-four hours a day on an intelligent power module that runs the microturbine at the RPM needed to match the energy consumption. When there is no power draw, the microturbines idle to keep from freezing. The power in the VIP tent is enough for a few lights, a computer, and a few small kitchen appliances such as a coffee maker.

Guy and Brett enter into Brett’s tent.

“Damn. It is cold,” Brett says.

"You're the lucky one. You have a diesel heater. Let's turn it on and warm this place up."

Brett throws his two backpacks on the floor and unpacks his computer from his briefcase setting it up on the table. "How is the power here? Am I safe to run my electronics?"

“State of the art. You will be fine.”

“Now how about that interview. How about your science, Guy?”

"You know what we are doing up here. In the last month, we have set up a new magnetometer array to measure the earth's magnetic field. The field has been changing dramatically since the 1980s. The field is weakening, and the magnetic north pole has been migrating from Canada toward Siberia. This change has started to become accelerated. It is up to thirty-four miles per year. That may not sound like much in terms of the total circumference of the earth, but it is huge for navigation. Defense departments and cell phone manufacturers have had to update their software. Think about what happens when you take a map from the 70s and use its declination to determine a route today. There will be an error."

"How does that tie into my project concerning satellites? It has been found that there are three forces at play in the upper atmosphere which change its density. The temperature of the upper atmosphere changes the height that the lower, denser, atmosphere reaches. When the temperature is cooler where our satellites are operating the atmosphere is less dense and they travel with less resistance. That can affect their speed and their orbit, which can affect their usefulness and their lifespan. The earth’s magnetic field is one of the factors that affects the temperature of the upper atmosphere. In fact, it is as important to that as the presence of CO₂, which dissipates heat in the upper atmosphere while trapping it below. The magnetic field, CO₂, and the sun's activity are the three factors that change the temperature and the density of the upper atmosphere. The density is really what we are studying. We want to understand the forces that affect the density of the air at operational heights for satellites."

Brett breaks in, “You talk a lot about your science. How about we talk about you now?”

"Well actually, it is almost dinnertime, and I have to go change. I will meet you here in 40 minutes, and we will walk over to the Big House for dinner with Len."

On the walk to his tent, Guy wonders about what vandalism took place. Something so severe that the police were called in. He wonders about his team’s array. What are the chances that someone vandalized it? Probably pretty low. His team would have let him know by now if something had happened to their project. It could be something in the Science Trench. It is a trench twenty feet deep which houses computers and data logging equipment that records various instruments located around the trench. The trench protects the computers and data logging equipment form the extreme elements outside. The access is not locked. Anybody can enter the stairway that leads to a room cut from the snow below. Someone could enter at night and do a lot of damage. If not the Science Trench, maybe it was something with the Swiss Tower? That would be more difficult as it is exposed, and the experiments are mounted at height up to 165 feet on the tower to measure the atmosphere and energy flux at the surface. Whatever it is, it is something serious enough to call in the national police.

When Guy and Brett climb the stairway and enter the Big House for dinner, Len is already seated in the corner away from everybody else with Captain Sorensen and Lieutenant Damgaard. Guy and Brett head to the kitchen to get a plate of dinner. The site crew prepared dinner tonight for the whole camp of thirty-four people. They will come and go in the next hour as they please. Guy grabs a tray and heads down the food line. The main course is Beef Stroganoff, and there are only a few sides. There is not much choice at Summit Station. At least it is warm in a cold environment.

Guy to Len, “May we join you?”

“Please do. You know the Captain and Lieutenant?”

“We have not been formally introduced. We flew together, but the environment in the plane is a little loud for a ‘getting to know you for the first time’ talk.”

“They are here to investigate a little sabotage that happened a couple of days ago. Someone grabbed a grinder out of the Operations Barn and cut open our fuel bladders, releasing about half of the fuel that we had stored. What a mess. We are waiting on some equipment to get here overland so that we can remove the contaminated snow and ice. That puts us back on our fuel storage for the winter. There will have to be extra flights to get the fuel we need. Captain Sorensen and Lieutenant Damgaard are here to determine what happened and hopefully remove the perpetrator before there is another event.”

Before he can continue, the power goes out through the camp. "Damnit," says Len.

“Suspect sabotage. Look for Jason Rigsley!” says Captain Sorensen. “He is our prime suspect.”

Len finds his crew chief, Chris, and tells him to tell the crew to look for Jason and suspect sabotage. The place they will look at first is in the microturbine building. When Chris gets to the microturbine, he finds it has stopped and it is out of fuel. The fuel is pumped from the bladder stored off the end of the skiway up to the microturbines. The whole system is dry. That indicates that there is a problem with the fuel line, or a bladder has run empty. 

Chris gets on the two-way radio, “Someone get down and check the bladder and fuel line. We have no fuel.”

After a few minutes the two-way radio lights up, "We found the fuel line dug up and cut.”

Chris, “Let me look for a splice fitting. Jason are you out there?” He pauses for a response. “Anybody see Jason?”

Nobody has seen Jason. He has nowhere to go, so Chris tells Len they should look in the Green House. He might be in his quarters.

Len leaves Chris who is headed to the Operations Barn to look for the fitting they need to repair the fuel line while Len heads for the Big House to get Captain Sorensen.

“The fuel line was cut. Nobody has seen Jason. Chris thinks that we should look in his quarters,” Len says.

“We should search his quarters at least. Let’s go over there.” Captain Sorensen and Lieutenant Damgaard follow Len to the Green House. “Let’s look to see if he is missing a uniform that matches the one discarded after the first incident. Or look for anything that smells of diesel fuel.”

The room is dimly lit by the outside light coming through the window. The emergency generator has not started yet. There is barely enough space in the room for a bed and a closet. Next to the bed, there is a small nightstand that has a pocket knife on it.

The Lieutenant looks in the closet, “Well, his clothes are the right size for the ones we found stained with diesel. I will count these and then check the laundry for more. Anything else look like evidence?”

Len says, “That pocket knife would work perfectly to cut a fuel line.”

Lieutenant Damgaard picks up the knife, “It smells like diesel! I think we found our evidence. We can detain him now."