Put your back into it
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We are in Iceland! It’s been an adventure getting here with speed bumps at almost every step. But, we are excited and already have two days of field science in our rear view mirror.

Emmett and Tamara in a giant valley created by the glacier Kvíarjökull

Friday, 6/4
Richmond, IN -> NYC

We met at EC at 4:00 AM to start our drive to Chicago. The (very generous) Doug Harms came with us so he could drive the Earlham van back to Richmond. Difficulties began during our first flight from O’hare to JFK. Weather grounded the flight in Buffalo, NY. By the time we got back in the air and landed in NYC we had missed our connection to Iceland. While Seth, Emmett and Craig went to find lodging for the night, Charlie, Tamara, Davit and Yujeong stayed at the airport to ensure we were got booked on the next possible flight.

Craig and Tamara showing off the NatGeo love. They’re funding our trip!

Saturday, 6/5
NYC -> Iceland

After waking in a very swanky Best Western, we confirmed our (rebooked) 8:30 PM flight to Iceland. We spent the day at the recently refurbished TWA hotel, which is connected. Played Carcassonne. Ate crepes. Would recommend.

Seth and Emmett chilling in the TWA Hotel. 1960s Swank.

Saturday evening we finally boarded our flight to Keflavik, the only international airport in Iceland. An uneventful flight left us arriving in the country at 6 AM local time.

Sunday, 6/6
KFK Airport –> Cabins in Höfn

Iceland has only recently started lifting Covid-19 travel restrictions. We each brought vaccination cards and recent negative test results. Then, after going through customs we each had (shockingly painful!) COVID tests. We were released with the personal responsibility to quarantine. Within 6 hours we had each received negative results and were free to move about the country.

During our quarantine we met up for a (socially distanced) breakfast with our friend Gummi
who lives in Reykjavik. Since we couldn’t enter stores or restaurants Gummi helpfully acquired delicious local food to sate our each grumbly tumbly.

Breakfast at Gummi’s

Fed and hopped up on coffee, we were ready to finally get on the road. In our fully packed rented van we took off for our first destination: Sólheimajökull (AKA Solo), a beautiful glacier that is among the easiest to access on the island. Undaunted by the rain and wind, we were ready to engage in some first class field science!

Emmett dwarfed by Sólheimajökull

The work at Solo is part of Emmett Smith’s research into the changing microbiome diversity of the region. The glacier has been receding for over a hundred years with the location of its leading edge being well documented over the years. Areas closer to the present location of glacier have been exposed to the air for less time than those further away. As such, they have had less time for moss, flowers, soil, etc to grow. On Sunday we took soil samples at about 10 locations. We will use the samples to meaure soil properties (pH, Nitrogen/Potassium levels, etc). Additionallty, we will sequence DNA at each site looking for particular signatures. (More details in the upcoming paper!) We have been returning to the same sites since 2014, investigating how the soil has changed through the intervening years.

At Solo: Tamara flies a drone while Emmett collects samples. Yujeong is taking photos for documentation.

The field work was cold and wet, but we knew we could do it! We put our backs into it! We piled back into the van and drove four more hours to Höfn where we had reserved two very tiny and very dry cabins. It was time for our first good night’s sleep since being in Richmond.

Monday, 6/7
Höfn -> Skálanes

It’s Seth’s mom’s birthday. Shoutout! Happy Birthday Mom! 🙂

Turns out these little tiny cabins don’t have everything! We all had to share one teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy towel … not all at once. But still!

Loaded with oatmeal and more coffee it was time to return to the field. So, rainier, colder and windier than Sunday? But you know our motto: Don’t stop, get it, get it!

Seth, Emmett & Tamara at Kvíarjökull atop a giant moraine

So, we drove back along the ring road in the same direction we had just come (I know … but trust me, this itinerary makes sense). This time we were collecting samples near Kvíarjökull.
Another spectacular glacier, Kvíarjökull is a finger of ice splitting off of Vatnajökull (the second largest ice sheet in Europe). We split into two teams (as we had done on Sunday) to get to the sample site more quickly. This was our first year visiting this site, so it’s just the beginning of a much longer study! We braved the elements, collected soil from 12 sites and ran back into the van to strip off our soaking rain gear.

As I write this, we are headed toward Skálanes where our friend Olí is going to make us some delicious stew! (Oh my! We just saw our first reindeer!) It’s certainly been a rainy and tiring beginning to the trip, but Iceland is so beautiful, our spirits are quite high. Speaking of spirits, we’re about to stop at the local vínbúðin. (look it up …)

Team introductions: Tamara
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Hello! My name is Tamara Blagojevic, and I am an upcoming senior at Earlham College. I am a Computer Science major and a Data Science minor. I come from Belgrade, Serbia. My interest in Computer Science started when I got a scholarship to represent my country at an international high school in India. I am passionate about using computing for social good, and I am interested in the role technology can play in social progress.

What is my role in the Iceland Field Science Research? One of my main delegations is managing all the drones and surveying. Currently, we are using drones from three different manufacturers: DJI, Parrot, and Skydio. Our research must be as replicable as possible, and covering different types of drones gives us insight into how anyone can do this without access to what tools they have.

Before departure, we have been working on organizing all our gear and ensuring that we are documenting everything well. Drones are very moody, so it is essential to understand all possible issues that might come up while flying before the trip. We need to be ready to collect data as smoothly as possible when we reach Iceland.

Iceland here we come!

The Porta-Lyser (TM) And Other Wins
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Today Charlie and I had a few wins – seems like the 4th trip to Iceland is the charm. We’ve been continually working to streamline our DNA extraction procedures so they can be done reliably in a makeshift lab at Skalanes. Today we took another step toward creating that reality.

One of the major steps of extracting DNA from soils is to physically separate the DNA strands from soil particles. This is not as easy as it might seem. Many soils strongly attract DNA, and the specific soil type we are working with in Iceland, a Brown Andisol, is one of these strong DNA attractors. In order to separate the DNA from soil, we need to mix a bit of soil with specially-made beads. We also add a bit of powdered skim milk to help keep the DNA from re-binding to the soil particles once it unbinds. However, the mixing step, or “bead-beating,” is critical. It needs to be done using a special vortex adapter for 10-20 minutes. We have a small vortex in the lab at Skalanes, but we’re not sure if the adapter will fit it, or if it goes as fast as we need. Therefore, Charlie rigged up what we are calling the “Porta-Lyser.” Here is a video if it in action – looks like it works a treat.

Other wins for today – we were able to reduce our checked baggage quota by one; we have almost all of our gear ready to pack into the van (which means we get a late start tomorrow morning!); and we were able to score some great NatGeo t-shirts to wear while working in Iceland!

Tonight we will gather for some Gulzars and watch an Icelandic documentary at my house. Tomorrow we will finalize our checklists, print and laminate them so they are ready for the field, and pack up the van that will take us to Chicago early Friday morning for the first leg of our journey.

D-4 until Iceland
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This summer I have the honor to join the team in Iceland to document the research. And what a time to travel with the team under the National Geographic Society grant! With my background in computer science and experience working with Earlham’s marketing, my role in Iceland as a storyteller includes updating our WordPress site, creating a social media presence, interviewing current and previous participants, creating videos, taking photographs, and producing writings from time to time.

I came in with a good amount of experience in photography and social media management, but most of the work I did for the research team has been a learning experience. I learned to get around WordPress by adding a few design updates to the Field Science site, especially the importance of producing a responsive website (those that don’t break with zoomed in or zoomed out) for the users on different devices to effectively gain information. By interviewing Charlie P. and Craig E., I gained a better understanding of the history and development of Icelandic field studies. Interviewing Gail Connerley was especially interesting with her knowledge of wilderness travel and enthusiasm for the research. Gail had traveled twice to Iceland with the research team and introduced effective wilderness travel methods like assigning a different leader each day.

One of the best things about being a storyteller is all the gears we get to use for the research. Many drones, a few GoPro cameras, and a smartphone stabilizer provide a lot of space to create and be creative.

I often ask myself “what am I not doing right now that will make my future self regret?” I think I will regret not having made as many videos as I can and not having learned to fly the drones if I don’t.

We’re on track for summer
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Discussions are ongoing about the viability of summer travel given the pandemic. However, as Charlie has blogged recently, we are “acting as if”. As such, we are trying to maintain our original calendar.

Lo and behold, we have:

Imagine a “You are here” arrow by Spring 1

Here’s the full breakdown of that schedule and our progress:

Our plan for the fall was to find and test alternative UAV’s. This proved prudent, as the federal government banned DJI craft late last year. We are happy with both the Parrot and the Skydio craft, for different reasons which we’ll undoubtedly cover here on this blog in the future.

December and January, which were effectively a long winter break for a subset of us, were dedicated to testing the craft, capturing initial video, and possibly beginning development. This was a success as well. Additionally we have begun spinning up a more sophisticated web presence for the stories we’re telling – changes we will be prepared to publish soon.

We’ve now started the calendar for the spring, term 1 of 2. We are moving into scaling up our operation of the craft and developing software to automate that work. It’s a tough problem but one we can solve in the time we have.

We’re optimistic about our ability to meet the moment. If the world continues to make progress on COVID-19, we should be in shape to have a successful research trip.

Cross-posted to craigearley.com

The year in review
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For the first two months of 2020 we planned and worked as though we would be working in Iceland during June; once we realized that the Covid-19 pandemic would prevent that, and much else, we re-organized ourselves and our work in the new normal. This included accommodating people working remotely from a wide range of timezones and reprioritizing tasks based on a new timetable. Whenever possible we tried to make lemonade, for instance we were able to re-organize our data storage structures, something we could not have done without the long timeline available this past year. Here is a summary of the other ground we have covered, future posts will have more details about each of these bits.

Craft research – One of the challenges of doing system integration in this space is the fast pace at which the hardware is evolving. We refined our requirements and resurveyed the market, ultimately deciding to add the Parrott Anafi and the Skydio 2 to our kit. In addition to craft-mounted multi-spectral lens we are also working with a MapIR NIR equipped lightweight camera which we will use as payload on the Anafi.

The Anafi with the MapIR camera payload. Image credit Charlie Peck.

ODM configurations – With time and computational resources we have been able to read and experiment with the ODM options that apply to our analysis workflow, and there are lots of them.

GIS integration – Our workflow now incorporates QGIS, this gives us the ability to use the powerful georeferencing plugin to accurately merge each of the data layers (sensor modes).

Storytelling – For many years we have been taking a fairly ad-hoc and often random approach to getting the word out about our work. We realized that we could now take the time to make a more organized run at storytelling, so a few of us have.

Planning for 2021 – We are now deep into the logistical and science planning for the 2021 field season, as I write this in mid-January we are working with the College and our colleagues in Iceland to plan our time there during June. One of our field sites, the Skalanes Nature Preserve, has experienced a number of mudslides this winter, destroying parts of Seydisfjordur and making travel along the fjord very difficult.

View to the North over the Eider colony at Skalanes. Image credit Charlie Peck.

And we’re off, again, hopefully…
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Today is the official re-start of our National Geographic Society supported near-Earth survey work in Iceland (Earlham’s press release). Like many other scientists we have been unable to travel to field sites since the onset of the pandemic, the National Geographic graciously gave us a one year deferral for our grant, and now we are beginning to plan towards working in Iceland this coming June. Our project is based on commonly available UAV technology, our group is designing and building inexpensive, open, software and hardware systems for domain scientists to easily measure a variety of Earth surface parameters. Our first two disciplines are archaeology and sustainability, both of which depend on a variety of sensing modes. A few details about the gear and workflows are below, and in subsequent posts we will describe them in more depth.

Our group is a collection of students, faculty, and professionals primarily based at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and at Skalanes, outside of Seydisfjordur, Iceland. Together we cover archaeology, biology, computer science, geography, storytelling, and sustainability. The faculty and professionals are: Emmett Smith, Craig Earley, Rannveig Thorhallsdottir, Olafur Petersun, and Charlie Peck (me). The students we are currently working with are: Dung (Kate) Nguyen, Tamara Blagojevic, Davit Kvartskhava, Pyone Win, and Yujeong Lee. Over the next year you will learn more about all of us as we write posts that describe the specific aspects of the project which we focus on. For the most part we fancy ourselves as generalists, but in reality each of us brings lots of domain knowledge and focus to our work where it is blended into solutions.

Our goal for this cycle is to make it easier and cheaper for archaeologists to locate subterranean points of interest within a known or suspected cultural activity area, and for environmental scientists to quickly survey large areas for e.g. invasive species measurement or erosion. Our approach combines three relatively recent advances in drone, sensor, and machine learning technologies. 

1) Consumer grade drones capable of doing basic field science tasks, at accessible costs. 
2) Significant growth in the types of sensors available, and at low cost. 
3) Powerful, relatively easy to deploy open source machine learning libraries, which can extract deep patterns from large, noisy, multidimensional data sets. 

These three trends can support an approach to subterranean feature detection that is faster, cheaper, and more accessible to a wider range of practitioners than existing methods. Rather than depending on a single very sensitive, often expensive and complicated sensor to detect subterranean features, e.g. satellite or aircraft based LiDAR; our Terrestrial Mapping Platform (TMP) makes it possible to do ground based surveys, in a combination of sensor modes, and then use machine learning algorithms to combine those data sets into a single analysis to detect subterranean anthropogenic features and characterize surface vegetation.

Lunch during a day of soil sampling and aerial surveying at Sólheimajökull, an outlet glacier of the Mýrdalsjökull icecap on the southern coast of Iceland, June 2019. Image credit Porter Libby.

Preliminary notes on the Parrot Anafi
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After three extremely short flights, these are my notes about the Parrot Anafi drone.

We’re experimenting with different UAV’s as part of the Iceland terrestrial surveying program (we’re being optimistic about travel in 2021…). These are some notes with my initial observations.

This is based on the base case: taking the craft out, taking off, flying for at most a few minutes, and touching back down. As such, don’t take a single word of this as gospel – it’s just preliminary opinions for the historical record. 🙂

Short version of the review: holy portability! One thing I don’t like about the DJI Phantoms is that they are so heavy (both the craft and the RC-tablet unit). If it’s a pain here on-campus, where trips are short, I imagine it’s a pain in the field. The Anafi is ludicrously lightweight and doesn’t feel like a chore to carry around.

Video quality on the built-in camera is fantastic (4K etc.).

It’s not a perfectly seamless integration with our existing workflows. Within our group, for example, we usually use tablets, which are handy for their big screens. The Anafi seems built around the assumption of a phone. That’s true all the way down to the RC unit being designed to accommodate a phone but not a tablet. That’s different, but if we can only get this app for phones I am not necessarily sad about it.

There are many X factors I haven’t yet been thorough enough to review. For example: battery life, stability in breezes (heavy winds make most UAV’s hard to use), and the software/developer ecosystem.

These have been my extremely preliminary notes about the Parrot Anafi. It’s not even close to a comprehensive evaluation of everything we care about. Still, those usability factors are important if this is going to scale and be useful for others. So for now, I’m impressed.

This is a cross-post from Craig Earley’s personal website.

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