It is August 20 in Siberia and we are in Yakutsk, Russia en route to Tiksi, Russia. "We" are a group of scientists, program managers and infrastucture development specialists from both the United States and Russia. Tiksi is a small outpost town at the mouth of the Lena River delta, and the location of a Russian Weather Service (Roshydromet) station that will now also become the location of a new meteorological and hydrological observatory. This trip is an exciting step in a program that has been developing over the last 3 years to establish Tiksi as a flagship observatory in the network being coordinated by the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA).

It is summer in Yakutsk and yesterday our local Roshydromet hosts took us on a boat trip on the Lena River during our 24 hour layover. Whoever would have imagined that one would be lying sun bathing on a beautiful sandy river beach in Siberia surrounded by locals swimming in bikinis and speedos? Yakutsk is a bustling down busy with construction, including a new "Old Town" with cafes and shops housed in recreations of old style wooden Siberian buildings. Very cosmopolitan and relaxing. We were led to internet access this morning by Adam Wolf, a U.S graduate student studying isotope ratios of water, who is here independently en route to Cherskii, Russia. The Americans have flocked to their email like seagulls to a fishing boat. We cannot use USB devices so this posting will not have any photos of scantily clad Siberians...