Palmer LTER NSFOPP96-32763 Supplement - July99 Palmer LTER and TEA Overview - June 1999 - June2000 K.Baker/R.Smith This year's TEA will participate in support of the multi-component sampling performed as part of the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Program. This program includes seasonal sampling from September through March at Palmer Station, on annual January cruises covering a 400km x 200km grid off the West Antarctic Peninsula, and on special process cruises such as an ice cruise in June 1999. A major focus of the program is on ice and weather as dominant physical forcing functions with significant impacts on the diverse components of the Antarctic ecosystem. There may be an opportunity for the TEA starting at the ship's departure location, Punta Arenas in Chile, to monitor the air and water temperature, in order to determine the location in the Drake Passage of the Southern Ocean Convergence. The chorophyll fluroescence in the water will give an indication of the the biological signature on both sides of this convergence and at station. These observations give an idea about the context of the Palmer LTER sampling grid which lies within the Southern Ocean to the West of the Palmer Peninsula. Prior to field departure, the TEA will have a two week internship at UCSD/SIO with Karen Baker, the Palmer LTER information manager, where she will meet team participants, be exposed to Palmer LTER Antarctic materials, begin to familiarize herself with laboratory methods and communication techniques. TEA tasks will include 1)fulfill TEA journaling and field communications requirements 2)gather information on weather stations in order to help evaluate AWS, Davis, and Globe options 3)participate in Palmer LTER Education forum in order to help define long-range education outreach plan, consider activity development, interact with Palmer LTER researchers and UCSB educators begin to define TEA specific field project objectives 4)create an ongoing PPT project for presentation at workshops using the Palmer digital archive and TEA materials focusing on the multi-component Palmer LTER research as it co-ordinates with the NSF Office of Polar Programs TEA program. 5)begin an annotated bibliography of useful references for use by future program participants include reprints, books, websites, etc 6)focus on an individual experiment such as evaluation of the cholorophyll solid standard 7)investigate and record electronic communication techniques from file transfer to networking software 8)develop ideas on methods to simulate Anatractic experience in the classroom Note that this year's TEA will become a part of a larger Palmer LTER Education Outreach effort made possible by supplemental NSF funding through the LTER Network. In conjunction with an education team including teachers, educators and scientists, she will participate in an education forum to be held at the National Center for Ecosystem Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California planned to coinside with the two week internship in July99. She will join past participants in addressing questions of terminology, inquiry based approaches and teacher-researcher paradigms. Specifically, she will help develop guidelines and goals for Palmer LTER outreach in addition to considering methods to bring the field experience into the classroom. She will help develop a proceedings in order to document the Palmer LTER Education Outreach Forum. The TEA may develop powerpoint presentation about the Palmer PI's coordinated around the Antarctic foodweb in order to understand the breadth of the LTER ecosystem work. Arrival at Palmer will allow approximately four weeks within which time a selected set of projects will be performed such as -observe and document station routines with a digital camera with an eye to both documenting Antarctic station life and the weather observing procedures. The method for image transfer will be explored and documented to aid future participants. Use of virtual tour software will be explored. -observe and document field routines with a digital camera -collect and document artifacts for the Palmer LTER Outreach Trunks -perform water quality testing similar to Montwood High School class Rio Grande monitoring effort -take classroom experiments into the field; develop field experiments to take to the classroom -generate age-appropriate classroom materials about the several Palmer LTER research component groups -continue investigation of solid standard stability in extreme environments -help with ongoing krill, phytoplankton and light observations made annually on station and from the ship -investigate calibrations, ie temperature probe intercomparisons -monitor on an hourly basis for a period of several days, the chlorophyll fluorescence, air temperature, and the water temperature in order to observe the extent of lags and correlations -compare the daily observed temperatures with a remotely sensed satellite image in order to provide a spatial context to the Palmer station location -obtain Sep98-Oct99 temperature and other selected weather variables from the Campbell equipment archive in order to make a comparison with the corresponding station daily observaton record It will be determined whether a second SIO/UCSD site visit would be productive and able to be supported. A post field visit is planned for UCSD/SIO in order to work collaboratively on the completion of project elements.