Fieldwork in the Swedish Mountains (2023)

Until now, I had only conducted summer fieldwork in the Arctic. The days were long, there was enough time to collect data, take a nap and hike all the way back to base camp with the sun still out! Winter, however, is a completely different ball game. Temperatures can dip to -30° C, the wind can be gruelling, and daylight hours are short so fieldwork needs to be done like clockwork with high efficiency. The project was looking at estimating snow depth in the Swedish Mountains using drones. This research was part of a larger hydrological modeling project to improve estimates for hydropower companies to be more effective with their water usage. Days were spent on a snowmobile traversing the pristine white winter landscape of Sweden conducting GNSS surveys, drone measurements, and snow probing for ground truthing and validation. Everything was systematic. The team was absolutely wonderful and seeing the aurora almost every single night was magical!