If you do your PhD at a university like the TU in Delft, education is one of the tasks PhD-students are busy with other than their research. This year the Department of Geosciences and Remote Sensing went to Reykjahlíð, at lake Myvatn, to do their Master field work trip for the third year in a row, this time with me as one of the team members.
It was the task of the students to estimate the geological formations at the volcanic area, Krafla. To do that, they had to use a lot of surveying techniques. The students placed GPS, went for leveling, triangulation and did gravity measurements as well. Their second task was measuring atmospheric variability, so they would be able to give an estimation ash and gases distributions in case the nearby volcano would erupt. To do so, they set up weather stations in the surrounding and collected model radiosonde data. The background aerosol concentration was measured with sun-photometers.
So I had the change to join field work for the second time. I really liked to improve my interaction with student as well as my education skills. The work with my colleagues from the geodesy section of the department was nice as well and I got a really nice overview on their techniques. All in all, it was a really nice representation and overview of the science done in our department.