For those of you unfamiliar with our ballooning escapades, I'll fill you in on a few extra details. In Laramie, after we launch our instruments, a few of us pile into a van and hit the roads in a valiant effort to recover the balloon and instrument package. We have all sorts of tracking equipment on both, and are usually able to locate both with no problems. Here on the ice, we only recover the instruments, but in a much different way.
Before we get to the recovery, how about some pictures, courtesy of the station dentist, Kim, from our last big balloon launch (Wow. There are too many commas in that sentence.)
Here is the whole set-up. We had two people holding the balloon (that was about 150 pounds that they had to hold down. Not easy to do.), two people on the rest of the balloon (we only fill a small portion of the balloon, the bubble. As the balloon ascends, the gas expands and fills the rest of the plastic until *POP*.), I am holding the parachute, Mahesh is holding the mast (with all of our tracking equipment on it), and Jen has Jupiter (the instrument. Not the planet.)
As the balloon rises, the instrument samples air and gives us information on the size distribution of particles in the atmosphere (Jupiter uses a laser to shine on the particles, based on the scattering caused by the particles, we get a size distribution).
So this picture above shows what we have to find out on the sea ice. And this is what it looks like on the sea ice.
This is the same instrument as in the launch pictures above. It was about 40 miles away from station on the sea ice. How, you may ask, did we ever find such a thing?Well, only by the greatest means of transportation ever devised. Helicopter.
That's me and our pilot. Pretty cool, no? Even I'm jealous of me.I was able to get some pretty amazing shots as we left McMurdo. Here is one of the station just as we took off.
And here is one of Scott Base (the Kiwi base).
It was a beautiful day and a thrilling adventure. Helicopter with a personal pilot who has years and years of experience is the only way to fly.Well, that concludes my four day Adventure Saga. I hope it was as thrilling for you as it was for me.
4 comments:
Heck yes it was! Oh man - what a trip! I am TOTALLY jealous!
Some say helicopter flying is a religion. I say, "It's much more important than that." (smile)
Your four-day adventure was great,full of fresh facts and action. It is amazing to view pictures of a land one has never before seen. You have a knack for cleverly capturing many of the beautiful manifestations of nature as well as the wildlife. I feel like you are providing the reader with a little lifetime of knowledge in a few months time.
I am loving reading about this trip. Take care of yourself, Leslie.
Leslie Baran! Who would have ever thought?! I LOVE it. You crack me up. I'm giggling because I'm so excited for you. Can I ask though-in the aerial of where you're staying, there is a very circular ball in the top left hand picture on top of a very large hill/mountain. Without sounding stupid-what is that? It reminds me of Epcot. Alright, thanks for letting me live vicariously through you for a few months!
Dana, That is the NASA radome. It is a giant antenna/satellite dish used to collect data from passing satellites. We refer to it as the "Golf Ball".
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