Field instruments, including low temperature anemometers, a pyronometer to measure net radiation loading at the ground or snow surface, a 20- channel data logging device suitable for remote low temperature use, and associated computing equipment are being used to improve undergraduate instruction in the Northern Studies curriculum. Field data concerning snow, ice and the lower atmosphere is being recorded and analyzed. In laboratory and field locations, the measurement and analysis of the micro-climatology of snow and ice is being done by students, for the first time in a new sophomore course, and with substantially increased scale and sophistication in the mandatory Senior Thesis program. The equipment is particularly well suited to the study of nearby snow and rime-ice environments at elevations above treeline in the Green Mountains of Vermont (an ongoing study at Middlebury College).
