How do you get over 30 people to sleep in the middle of the amazonian jungle for more than a weekend without expecting to go fishing, site seeing, or go back to a comfortable hotel bed at night? Actually, all these people are there to work, are happy and most of them honored. If you ask me, I'll tell you only crazy people will do that, or maybe scientist. Of course it sounds cool when someone hears "I'm going to Brazil, to the middle of the amazons", but have you stop to think what does that imply? ...don't even start, it is not worth it. What's worth it is being here and being part of all these crazy people trying to understand a little bit more of the behavior of the newest biggest star of our planet: the atmosphere. After the media began to put attention on the changes that are taking place in our atmosphere, children, adults and our grandparents actually started to be aware of their surroundings (I guess is the only thing "good" the TV and the newspapers have done, and I'm not talking about the way they published the news about the atmosphere), they began to look up to the sky, to observe the clouds, feel the temperature on their skin, realized that it was not suppose to rain on that time of the year, or that the wind had never blown as strong as it did the day before. Fortunately, the awareness did not stop there, people started to ask for less plastic bags in the supermarket and how much gasoline their cars consume per kilometer, to mention a couple of changes, but I'm not going to expand on the awareness increase of the world population cause by the global warming phenomenon (that's another entry on its own). What I do hope this blog will expand on, with good narration and explanations for my none scientist friends, is in the understanding of what is it that we are measuring and how a measuring campaign takes place with some of the best atmospheric scientist (and those of us who are learning from them)in the world arrange in it.
I'm also very interested in seeing how 30 to 40 scientist, who we know are not the best social animals, get along in a cabin where they have to sleep in bunk beds or hammocks with no walls that separate the beds, and one, or at the most two, showers. I think that is going to be the most interesting part of the campaign or at least the one where I'll get to laugh the most.
I hope everybody will learn a little from reading this, or at least get a good laugh out of it.
I'm also very interested in seeing how 30 to 40 scientist, who we know are not the best social animals, get along in a cabin where they have to sleep in bunk beds or hammocks with no walls that separate the beds, and one, or at the most two, showers. I think that is going to be the most interesting part of the campaign or at least the one where I'll get to laugh the most.
I hope everybody will learn a little from reading this, or at least get a good laugh out of it.
4 comments:
Que chido esta todo lo que fotografiaste carnal. Se ve que esta bien interesante el lugar en donde estan aunque sea para investigacion.
Segun lo cuentas parece un big brother de investigadores, deberian hacer una especie de nominacion o algo asi para que se ponga mas interesante no?
En las fotos que tomaste aparece el cielo nublado en casi todas, a que temperatura andan por alla?
Y esa torre que parece de bungie jump de que es?
Que bueno que tienen tiempo de compartir sus fotos y experiencias con la banda. Suerte
Dear Michael,
Amazing experiment, congratulations. I write to answer one of your doubts. The Cabin you refer to was built by around the same time our group installed the K34 aluminum tower (53 m high), between 99 and 2000. The steel container that now serve as a laboratory in the core of the cabin, was the same one used by our Dutch colleagues to ship tower and eddy flux equipment from Holland to Manaus in early 99. Yes, we also had terrible problems with Customs, it is part of the territory. Initially it was only the container, then I organized a wooden floor around it, with a little space for a table and a sink, so we could cook. Eventually we built the second floor for the hammocks. Normal beds came much latter, for those foreigners that could not appreciate a full night in a hammock. The informal name of that cabin is "Motor-de-linha", which means river-boat-liner, in an allusion to the fact that the ZF2 dirt road, if you watch it from the second floor, does look like a typical white water Amazonian river, with dense tall forests on both "banks", so that being in that cabin give an impression that you are in a river boat, sailing up the Amazon... This impression was still stronger when the diesel power generator was nearby, resembling the engine of a river boat.
A few names:
1)The INPA reservation is called Cuieiras, because of the Cuieiras river laying 7 km to the West of Motor-de-linha.
2)The rainforest stream catchment in that area is called "Asu", which encompass 5 small first order streams that shape roughly like a "left-hand" (Asu in indian language means left hand).
Let me know of any furhter doubt you might have about the site and the forests, as well about other studies conducted there in the past. I will be glad to answer.
Have a fantastic time in the forest!!
Antonio Donato
Antonio,
Thank you for this history. Very interesting.
I'd be further interested to know how you decided on the location of the tower K34. What is special about that location? For instance, as random examples, why not 2 km north, 5 km east, and so on? What is special and attractive about the K34 location---what is the history behind choosing its location?
Scot Martin
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