wishlist (sort of)

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We got some car troubles (power steering oil leaking, in Norway this is not what you want, got it fixed in Finland on the way back...), I took some minor damage to tendons in my right knee for descending 1000 meters too fast (took about 3 hours). Then the weather changed from 22 degrees, sunny to 7 degrees, foggy and rainy, in a day. The locality we visited was in the early summer so many of the species mentioned were impossible to find. After this we decided to cut the trip short. Luckily we didn't initiate any rock slides over each other nor did the fog surprise us in the fell.

Results:
Butterflies and moths: Oeneis norna, Colias tyche (VU), Of the Geometrids, high arctic Entephrias (specially nobiliaria (VU) and flavicinctata (VU) (didn't get to the place for the knee) , they fly at night in the shade (in the midnught sun, huh?)), Some of the rarer Noctuids (one protected) (strike two over), and with great luck Holoarctia fridolini (tried to find, but only for about 10 minutes) from Norway. Of the taxonomically more primitive species, I'd like to encounter Hepialus fuscoargentus (flies in august, can't remember everything), Catastia kistrandella (RE)(didn't get to the place due weather), Sesia bembeciformis (NT) (tried to find, but didn't) and Stenoptilia islandica (CR) (nope, but a Platyptilia gonodactyla from a new province).
Of other insects, some Carabidae and a couple of Cerambycids are of interest (went too early for these...) ... Some of the other flying ones would be less favoured (read: Culicidae, Simuliidae, Ceratopogonidae (mosquitos, blackflies, sandflies)) (Only mosquitos present this early in the season, quite pleasant)

Arctic fox (CR) in nature (They could have a traffic warning sign for this one near the border of Sweden and Norway)
Pine Marten (carrying some prey) (LC)
(The big one I saw and missed due exhaustion was probably Xestia lyngei (Noctuidae, NT))

Other ones on the non-wishlist are Epirrita (LC, which is somewhat funny) and Operophtera (LC, which also has the potential to cause a little concern), but I strongly suspect these are present somewhere along the way (yes, there they were).

Overall, a fine, succesful and enjoyable trip, though a bit short and the roughness of the terrain was a bit too much. Trying to top the fell from the south did it I guess. More planning should be involved (we didn't know what the name of the fell was until we were back... we didn't have an accurate map... and I need a new compass). Thinking of going again, but the next trip should be later in the summer (mid-July) to avoid the snow still present this time of year (at altitudes of over 900 meters on all slopes but the southern one). Posting some photos in a few days.

Note #8

And so it came to be that the Month of Admixture begun and the minions were busily preparing the Plane and the Way of Admixture that were needed to cross the vast expanses of NoSwetlands. The Chosen Clean Ones were preparing themselfes to join the Duchess in this yearly ritual. As they were settled in their seats the Duchess pressed the button in her holy sceptre and the plane started it's journey. Even the Duchess didn't know where they would end up, as this was a matter of the Admixer. The reproductive Cycle began.

axial tilt of 30

Once upon a time, there was a planet which was on the verge of ice age. Inhabitants there were naturally worried of this as their crops needed some warmth to produce food for their growing population. Then there was added terror of an asteroid hitting the planet. Luckily, the asteroid crumbled before it hit and burned brightly to millions of pieces. This event raised the temperature of the planet, but it was still a curse for people, for the insects couldn't anymore fly to pollinate their crops.

Some April events and a followup

This bulletin continues our updates on the weather relating to the Breakup event of Ross Ice Shelf.


As noted in the previous bulletin the cooling effect of ACC in the southern Indian Ocean was largely cancelled this SH summer. The 3rd last Tropical Cyclone of the season in Southern Indian Ocean, that hit areas near Perth (Australia) as Category 4 two and a half weeks ago, and got extratropical before hitting New Zealand with winds of 200km/h, continued straight towards the Icebergs in Drake channel. The blockade of ACC was finally broken, with the icebergs spreading with the re-established ACC. A notable amount of ice was swept by the Falkalnd Current between Falkland isles and Argentina, it remains to be seen if this is enough to create an ocean ice bridge between the Isles and the continent later this winter. What we expect is that the ocean ice amount is large in southern Atlantic portion of the Antarctica. This likely will direct the polar cyclones powering ACC towards South African Republic and some notable snow events are expected there before the winter is over.

{{From the Agricultural Department:

As the cyclone season has brought copious amounts of water to Western Australia, it is likely advisable to plant during winter (may-jul), since the forecasts show a significant possibilty of light showers during the next spring (aug-sep) and the drier conditions are likely to return in the summer.}}

The failed one

We took a 1 meter piece of 1-inch thick iron water pipe with an inner diameter of 4 inches, and welded it shut on one end. Then we put it in a freezer and applied layers of clear and colored water in it through an insulated rubber tube, to simulate the yearly layers in a glacier. Then we set the pipe to an industrial grade hydraulic press that had a 1-meter 4 inch spike attached to measure the thermal conductivity, layer compression, and other physical parameters in the ice under heavy load. Unfortunately we cannot publish the results in glaciological magazine, since "glacial ice doesn't contain iron" and "the parameters measured this way cannot be applied to estimate glacial flow", and the response from solid state physics magazine was that "this is a student-level study of ice jams in hydraulic pressers" and "since you didn't measure the behavior of iron under stress, this cannot be applied to engineering." There were no further tries to publish this study, and frankly, why bother, the results in the study have some application in the current field of our research. Any relation to real persons or studies is purely coincidental.

October Weather Report

"This bulletin continues our followups of the breakup event of WAIS that left a 200000km2 iceberg from Ross ice shelf floating on the path of Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The iceberg rotates slowly clockwise on the northwest side of the Antarctic Peninsula and the high ridge between Antarctic mainland and Patagonia continues to be strong. This has lead to the diversion of the ACC, it now goes along the path of Humbolt current. Chilean coast continues to freeze and dry up to the 20S parallel. On the Atlantic side of the Andies the Brasilian current reaches Falkland Islands raising the temperatures there up to 25 degrees celsius. Ships moving between the iceberg and Falkland are warned of sudden hurricane-force weather systems. Central Argentina continues to receive downpours as subtropical lows hit the cold high ridge. As a result of this diversion of Tropical Rain Belt the Peruvian forest areas are drying up, and the flow of Amazon has weakened by 80%. On the African side of South Atlantic, the Benguela current has warmed up by 6 degrees and the rains continue to batter Angola and Namibia. The diversion of ACC has cooled the southern equatorial current so colder than usual (~34C) temperatures are expected in the Indonesian-Australian areas shortly. This ends our current bulletin of the weather related to the breakup event."

a sketch

3D-Restructuring of North Pacific Gyre and Undercurrents during Onsets of El Nino and its implications to Local Climate Effects in various parts of the world, discussion on Differences between summer and winter onsets. (for buplication in Oceanographical Futurology sept-2010)
As has been previously noted by, among others, R.C. Franccccis and others. (Last updated 6 March 1998) and B. deYoung & alii (2004) oceanic regime shifts of marine biota have been observed on north Pacific affecting fisheries and other animals. Here we try to link these economically fortituous events to the not-yet-fully-explained phenomenon called El Nino (see the description of observational parameters of this from f.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensō). The warm water escapes its more common place in the former Sunda and Sahul areas and lets the tropic cool by enhanced cool water resurfacing there, it'll also bring wet times to the drought stricen Andies. This cool water has to come somewhere. In furthere papers we'll discuss the modal effects of the phase of the oscillation and the season it's occurrring to very far places in teh wolrd since its also been noted that some weather effecta in the nearby areas are a direct consequence of this 15000 km spanning phenomenon.