Helicopter recovery

We finally got on the helicopter yesterday, and now all of our instruments are safe and sound in the lab. It was a little windy in town yesterday, but we decided it was good enough to take off, to see what it was like by our instrument. Here we have take-off:
This is McMurdo. It is a bustling metropolis. Our instrument was about 50 miles east of town, smack in the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf. Flying over that, there isn't much to see except for mount Erebus and lots and lots of white. The flight was pretty bumpy, and we could see the wind kicking up a lot of snow on the ice surface:
See all that blowing snow on the surface? It was windy.. Hugh didn't think he wanted to go outside. The view from my knee was good enough for him:
"Burr...it looks cold out there. Leslie, you're nuts."

Actually, it wasn't that cold out there, only -24 (sheesh...Antarctica really warps your sense of what is cold and what isn't..), but those winds. They were crazy. I'd say they were about 25 or 30 knots. But, we got the instrument and I got a picture:
I look terrible, but it was windy! After this, we got back in the helicopter and headed for home. It was a great adventure, and our pilot, Marko, was awesome.

I also captured another "Monet" shot this morning. I call it "Flags".
That's it for now. Courage.

Short post

Hello. I know, I know. It has been a long time since I've posted. Here's the thing down here: there isn't a whole lot to do. Especially when the weather is bad and you're trying to finish your thesis. BUT! I have good news to report: my thesis defense date is set, and I will be presenting my work on November 13. Which is a Friday. Excellent...

First up: When traveling to Antarctica, you must have at least one picture taken of a close-up of your face, completely covered up, except for the eyes. So many people look like this on a daily basis that I'm sure you'd never recognize them in the galley if you ran into them. And yes, I'm smiling in this shot.


Here we have one from a short walk to Hut Point:
That's Scott's Hut behind me with station further behind the hut.
And finally, this is the only picture of a balloon launch that I've been able to not only get my hands on, but actually post on this blog. I don't know what the deal is: sometimes Blogger doesn't want to work.
Here is our last big instrument launch of the season. We are getting the instrument ready to go, and there are some people in the background holding the balloon. We have already gotten two of these instruments back, with the third and final one still on the ice. Stephanie, Mahesh and I are supposed to go out on the helicopters tomorrow to get it back, weather permitting. I'll update again after the helo ride!

Sea Ice and Seals

Yello.
Well, it has been a fun filled couple of days. On Tuesday, we had our Sea Ice Training. No, not Happy Camper. Thankfully, I don't have to camp out in the freezing cold again. Sea Ice training is a class that teaches you all about what to look for when you're out driving around on the sea ice in the different vehicles on station. We learned how to spot cracks, and how to determine whether it is safe to drive over a crack. The rule on station is: 1/3 of your track length and 30" thick ice. So for a wheeled vehicle with 12" of tire in contact with the ground, the crack can't be bigger than 4". The 30" ice thickness is a standard rule of thumb for most of the vehicles on station.

To determine how thick the ice is, you have to drill to the bottom.
Here, Stephanie is drilling down through the ice near a crack we found. We drilled 30", with no problem. But we wanted to see how thick the ice was, so we kept on drilling until the drill popped out of the other end. Then we dropped a weighted measuring tape down the hole to determine how thick the ice was. 175 cm. Not too shabby. Almost 6 feet thick.
Here is a close up of our ice crack and our drill:
The image is at a weird angle, but you can see our crack and where we drilled. We dug a hole near the crack that went down to the sea ice (it was covered in snow), and inside the crack was a slushy water. Ooh. Frightening. :-)
This picture is one of me. Drilling away. Our snazzy vehicle we took out onto the sea ice is behind me. It is called a Hagglund. You can go for rides on them in Christchurch at the Antarctic Center for the low low price of around $20. Or, you can go all the way to Antarctica and get to cruise around on them for free. Your choice. I have some nice, artistic Hagglund shots, but you'll just have to wait for Calendar '10.

Now that we were all sea ice trained, we could go out to the seal group's camp. They are doing a study on the feeding habits of Weddell Seals (remember him from last year?). They catch a seal, gear him up, and release him to collect data. I couldn't take any pics of the seal release we got to see, but it was really cool. They are incredible animals. However, it was so beautiful on the ice, I thought I'd share some of the pics I did take:

That's Ross Island. McMurdo is in the front, near the shore. That Monstrous behemoth behind station is Mount Erebus. Oh volcanoes. You are so intimidating. Here's another, closer shot of McMurdo with Erebus in the background. If you click on the thumbnail of this one, you'll be able to see the station a little better.
Well, I hope you enjoyed some sights around McMurdo. In a couple of days, the summer flights will start coming in regularly, and we'll get some fresh food. We haven't had a flight since the end of August.

Hugh gets "cabin" fever

A few days ago, Hugh got fed up with hanging around my bed all day long, so he decided to go out for an adventure and find some sights and some food. He headed to Scott's hut at Hut Point. Here he is with the hut behind him:
Hmm... no food there. Continuing on to Vince's Cross, Hugh had to stop and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Very pretty. He also wanted to stop and get a picture of himself with the station in the background. Very nice, Hugh. Who's taking these pictures?
It was beginning to get windy and cold out there, so Hugh decided it was time to get back to bed, without a meal. Besides, I was going to be home soon, and he couldn't let me catch on to his schemes. But I know now...oh, I don't get how this works.

But wait!! What's this?
Oh, rats! While this is food, it is 100 year old food. So, rather than eat the 100 year old seal, Hugh posed for a photo.

This concludes Hugh's journey to Hut Point. He didn't get inside the hut, but when I do, I'll post some pics.

Courage

McMurdo town

Hello again! All is still well on the other side of the world. We have launched a few more balloons, but no more big ones. Bummer. We're waiting for all the elements of the universe to come together for those. It is tough.
I took a walk around station yesterday, and got some pictures of some of the buildings in our neighborhood. The first is the most important, Building 155:
This building houses one of the dorms and the most important place of all: the galley. I'll get some pictures of the inside soon. Across the road from Building 155 is the medical center:
Also in town is the coffee house, one of my favorite buildings:
You can go there to have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and sit and read a book, or play a board game with some friends. We are planning a Risk Epic Game soon.
There is also a gym, called the Gerbil Gym:
I go here as often as I can to walk a bit and I've even tried indoor rowing. It is a nice place to get away for a little bit.

Finally, on one end of town is the chapel. Inside the chapel, as in most, is a beautiful stained glass window. But the one in Antarctica has to have some Antarctic flair. Enjoy!
Well, that concludes our mini tour around McMurdo. I'm sure there will be more to come. Have a good week!

Second week

Hello! Nothing much new has been happening around here. Except for the insanity of cold and wind we had for a few days. We had lows of -50 F with wind chills as low as -90 F. That was pretty cold. It lasted a while, too. Everyone was shocked by this cold. I don't think that happens very often at McMurdo. To celebrate the conclusion (hopefully) of the cold weather, I had my picture taken by the McMurdo Station sign yesterday:
Hello Fluther! For this picture, it was only -20 F (or so) with moderate windchills (-60?). Balmy weather, compared to what we have been experiencing.

We've also had some more spectacular polar stratospheric clouds (nacreous). Check them out!
I can't get enough of these things. They are so beautiful. Everyone on station loves them, too. As the sun sets, the colors can change really fast, so they look like they are changing all the time.

As for my photo project, I snapped some shots during one of our most recent high wind and cold weather days:
Ob Hill looks a little fuzzy because of some of the blowing snow all around it. As we watched, we could even see little whirls near the peak. I like this shot. I think it has a very nice crisp look to it, despite the fuzziness.

We launched one of our big balloons a few days ago and got great data. Tonight, we are hoping to launch another one, but this time we hope to launch when there is a polar stratospheric cloud above us. That would be a great measurement for us. Wish us luck.

Courage

Yes, I really am here

Thought you might like some actual verification that I am here in Antarctica. Problem is, I like being behind the camera, not in front of it. But, I try to please all, so here are some "action" shots.

First up, "Look! A mountain!" (I wasn't actually trying to point at that mountain, but that's how it came out.)
Just being silly. This is our view from Building 70 (our remote receiving station). Here is a shot of me just chillin' outside of Building 70:
We call it the telephone booth. Because it isn't much bigger. Spending 3 hours in this hut during a balloon launch can be a little boring, so we have to remember to bring plenty of things to occupy ourselves (read: crossword puzzles).

Finally, here is the beast we get to drive around station. The wheels are too big for the wheel wells, so you can't turn the steering wheel all the way around, or you'll rub the tire.
So there you have proof of my being on the ice. Yesterday, it was -30 F with wind gusts of up to 40 mph. I don't think I have to say that it was C O L D.

That's it for now. Courage.

One Week Complete

We've been here for one week! Tonight is Italian night in the galley, which is always an enjoyable feast. It's the one meal a week we can have a glass of wine with our dinner, so it is pretty nice. Everything has been going fairly well on the other side of Earth. We launched another balloon a couple of days ago (don't worry; I'll post some launch pictures as soon as I can get my hands on some). The launch went really well. During the launches, a couple of us drive up to the top of this hill just outside of town where there is a communications building. We have one of our receiving stations in there because it has a great view of the sky all around it. When we left the building this time, this is what we saw:
For this one, you really have to enlarge the thumbnail to get the best perspective, but isn't that cool? This is looking pretty much due North, and the sun was setting. The lighting was just right that the sky was brilliant orange and back lit the mountains. Pretty awesome.

As for my photo project, enjoy "McMurdo Fog":
It is dark like that because that is exactly what it looked like for us. Notice how Ob Hill is pretty unrecognizable. Hopefully, we will get a Condition 1 storm (visibility = zero) and I can take a shot then.

Hope things are well in the Northern Hemisphere. More posts to come!

Fixed picture problem

UPDATE: Problem fixed! Many thanks to the folks in the seal group on station for helping me diagnose the problem I have been having with Firefox. I now have four internet browsers on my computer... I think I'll keep them. They make me look geeky.

Here are some bonus pictures.

This was the view yesterday as the sun rose over the station. These are the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.

And here is picture number one for my photo project:

This is Observation Hill with the National Science Foundation's Chalet in the foreground. This one is "Sun rising over McMurdo". I'm going to take the same shot every day (or every other day), at different times of day the whole time I am here. Like Monet.

Anyway, things are OK here. We launched an ozonesonde two days ago. The next instrument we'd like to launch is one of our particle counters. Hopefully, we can do that tomorrow.

Courage.

I have arrived!

UPDATE: Pictures are now linked. Click on the thumbnails to view the full sized picture.

Hello! I writing to you from Antarctica! After two delays in Christchurch (which ended up being a nice break), we woke up on Saturday at 2:30 am and headed to the airport to gear up and board the plane. We took off at about 7:30 am New Zealand time, and arrived over McMurdo a little over 5 hours later.

Landing in a C-17 is strange. You can't see anything, and all you can do to figure out where you are and how far away from the ground you are is to try to "feel" the way the plane is moving and shaking. The crew told us it was about -25 F on the ground at McMurdo, and boy, they were right. Cold! But this year, I was prepared. I managed to capture a few pictures of my first moments on the ice.

Here's a view of the plane behind me as I walked away from it. The air was full of ice and diamond dust particles, so I think these images are quite impressive.

Here are all of us Antarcticans boarding Ivan the Terra Bus to be taken back to McMurdo. I didn't ride on Ivan but on a bus, instead.

It has been pretty nice here, and it is only day 2. Tonight, as well as last night, there were pretty spectacular polar stratospheric clouds (or, nacreous clouds) all over the skies surrounding the station. This evening, I couldn't help myself, and had to take a couple pictures.

How about them apples? If you are new to my blog, and you're not sure what these strange things are, I explain the phenomenon a few posts back. We try to take ozone measurements when these clouds are present because they are key in the destruction of ozone. To measure these clouds, we use a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to measure the light scattered from the clouds. The characteristic green LIDAR beam is well known around station, and here is my best 4 second exposure shot of it:

For now, it is time for me to get ready for bed. We have another long day of getting all of our gear in order and ready for a launch. Hopefully, we can launch tomorrow. Until next time: courage.

Day Four in Christchurch

We are on our second 24 hour weather delay today. I suppose the weather in McMurdo is not good for flying. Christchurch is a beautiful city, but I'm ready to get to work and measure some ozone. Maybe the third times the charm.

Hugh is my adventurer again this year. He had such a good time freezing on the ice last year that he decided to join me again. I'd put some pictures up, but the wireless here isn't letting me. Oh well.

We have had nice weather since we've been here. That makes biding the time a little easier. We don't really know what we're going to do today, but I'm fine with just taking it easy and relaxing a little.

Well, I'll keep you all up to date on when we get to the ice. Hopefully, tomorrow's the day.

I'll be back!

In case you haven't heard and are still following this, I'm going back to the ice this August!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!