SARtastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Frazden

[Some content in French] Scene 7 starts with one side of a conversation between Prof. Tahtiavain and Ogilvie. It’s a tough year for Ogilvie because he is grieving the loss of his youngest son, who died in Jan 1895. Despite the pain, Ogilvie must return to the Yukon in Oct 1895. Will he be able to travel with Prof. Tahtiavain in Dec?

Fast forward to 1976 where Aaranya is reading an 1898 report by Ogilvie that’s written in French. She had read an 1899 report by Arthur St. Cyr, but that was an easy read because the paper was in English. Aaranya is obviously struggling and mispronouncing so many words that native French speakers probably want her to stop reading.

Before Ogilvie’s report, she had started reading Les Anciens Canadiens par Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, but she was able to get to only some part of a verse on the title page – that’s what you hear at the start of this episode. She will read this book someday.

Scene 8 is a brief conversation between Prof. Scamander
and Aaranya. After this conversation, Aaranya takes a break from French by revisiting two papers by Tempelman-Kluit (1979 and 2012) before her trek to Mount St. Cyr, northwest of Quiet Lake.

Aaranya is referring to the following resources:


Evidence of arc-continent collision (Tempelman-Kluit, 1979)
Geology of quiet lake and Finlayson lake map areas
(Tempelman-Kluit, 2012)
Guide officiel du Klondike: Le grand
champ d'or du Canada, le district du Yukon (Ogilvie, 1898)
Les anciens canadiens par Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (1877)


Note: This is a work of fiction, so everything herein is imaginary with some dangling facts. This is a MeriPelle episode, so you will hear a few seconds of the house song (Pohjola by Olli Halonen). As always, expect Aaranya to croak again - background help from this YouTube video (O Canada in French)



Almost six months since Frazer enfolded...

In Prof. Long's notes, Aaranya finds a reference to an 1899 report that describes the topography of the Teslin-Quiet Lake area. She's back on Canol road near Sidney Lake (south of Quiet Lake) that is a tributary of the Nisutlin river. She will be here for two weeks, traversing the same routes taken by Arthur Saint Cyr during his 1898 exploration of the Nisutlin and Big Salmon rivers.

As Canada switched from the Imperial to the Metric system in 1975, Aaranya is converting all the measurements indicated in Arthur's report before she heads out the following morning.

Scene 6 opens with a conversation between Prof. Abbott and Prof. Scamander at the Frazden school in Lapland. Hannah is concerned about Aaranya's field trip to this secluded part of the Yukon, but Prof. Scamander assures her that Aaranya is safe and happy to help.

You will hear your host give you some context throughout this episode, which includes an excerpt from Wolves of the Yukon by Bob Hayes.

Aaranya will howl - nothing new. You will also hear her read aloud quite a lot of this 1899 report because she is placing markers on her maps for her upcoming study.

References in this episode are as follows:


Wolves of the Yukon by Bob Hayes (2010)
Geology of Teslin-Quiet Lake area, Yukon (1936)
Exploration of the country east of Teslin Lake (1899)
The Yukon Connection (an episode from your host's other podcast - Arctic HOWLs)

Note: This podcast is a work of fiction, so everything herein is imaginary with some dangling facts. Aaranya is attempting to sing O Canada in French, and here's the YouTube video she used for practice.

A bone-chilling cold snap below minus 43 degrees Celsius kept Aaranya away from her field site near the Quiet Lake batholith. Canada switched from the Imperial to the Metric system only a few months ago on April 01, 1975. So, Aaranya is keeping track of both the systems during her January 1976 field trip. She is still studying the Yukon-Tanana terrane for clues about the deathly hallows.

Prof. Scamander is back at the Frazden school in Lapland, so Aaranya has no valid reason to ignore the textbook she is commissioned to write.

It is time to start thinking about the first SARtastic beast and the first paper that Aaranya had read when she started her research on radar imaging. This beast is from the MeriKotka house, so the episode starts with a brief mention of DJ Bohm (its founder).

Aaranya reads some content from a 1999 paper on a near-field 3-D synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging algorithm. As she is thinking aloud and this is a crude draft, you will hear her talk about how this paper led her down a certain path and led her to other research papers from 2001, 2015, 2021, and 2022.

As this beast is from the MeriKotka house, you will hear how the founder of the house inspired Aaranya over the years and how a dialogue between DJ Bohm and a biologist helped Aaranya finally understand what the 1975 song (Kuinka Voit by Hector) from scene 3 was telling her about the formative field.

Aaranya is referring to the following papers:


Historical roots of gauge invariance (2001)
3-D radar imaging using range migration techniques (1999)
Deep learning and quantum annealing methods in synthetic aperture radar (2021)
A Review of Synthetic-Aperture Radar Image Formation Algorithms and Implementations: A Computational Perspective (2022)
Overcoming polar-format issues in synthetic aperture radar multichannel autofocus (2015-2016)

Note: As this podcast is a work of fiction, everything herein is imaginary with some random facts. You will hear a few seconds of the MeriKotka house song (Kaikista maailman maista by Petri Laaksonen) because our first SARtastic beast belongs to MeriKotka. Aaranya will croak again.


153 days since Frazer enfolded...

In this episode of season 2, Prof. Scamander is curious how Aaranya knew where to find the next clue related to the deathly hallows. She thanks Prof. Longbottom and Ted Irving for this paleomagnetic clue near the Quiet Lake batholith and the Yukon-Tanana terrane.

Aaranya reads a 1976 paper to get a sense of the stratigraphy of the area and start exploring the anomalies in the Pelly mountains.

As this is a fictional setup, expect Aaranya to go on a tangent to set the stage for the next few episodes. Also, this is a MeriPelle episode, so you will hear a few seconds of the house song (Pohjola by Olli Halonen).

Aaranya is referring to the following papers:


Whence British Columbia by Ted Irving (1985)
Yellowstone in Yukon⁠ by Prof. Johnston (1996)
The Baja BC series by Prof. Nick Zentner (2022 - 2023)
Geological Survey of Canada (Report 1A, 1976)⁠ | See page 112 for the paper on the Pelly mountains | Tempelman-Kluit, D. J., Gordey, S. P. & Read, B. C. (1976). Stratigraphic and structural studies in the Pelly Mountains, Yukon Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper, 76-1A, 97-106. https://doi.org/10.4095/104174

In this episode of season 2, Aaranya Susipetonen questions Prof. Scamander about misdirecting her research on Occamies and Thestrals when she was at Old Crow, YT.

A long explanation ensues about Copernicus' prediction related to the chief healer and the founders of the Frazden school. Aaranya learns about Prof. Wanderson, the founder of the MeriMies house, and his immense contribution to the muggle and magical world.

MeriPelle gets a spot award (100 points), so you might hear a few seconds of the house song, Pohjola by Olli Halonen. As this episode is about the founder of the MeriMies house, you will also hear a few seconds of their house song (Mä en pelkää by Lauri Tähkä). The episode ends with Prof. Scamander requesting Aaranya to read a few pages from Prof. Wanderson's 1994 paper.

Note: This podcast is a work of fiction with some random facts, and you might hear your host croaking often.

In the last episode, Aaranya Susipetonen introduced us to the founder of the MeriKotka house (DJ Bohm). In this episode, she looks back at how the founder of her MeriPelle house explored the trails of Wayeeses in the far north.

As she reads an excerpt from his book, Northern Trails (1905), she admires the courage of her MeriPelle founder to stand alone and view Wayeeses through a different lens.

For those interested in the wolves of Labrador, Aaranya recommends a documentary by Andrew Manske.

Note: This podcast is a work of fiction with some random facts, and you might hear Aaranya singing the theme song of her MeriPelle house (Pohjola by Olli Halonen).