So, February 4^th I traveled to the South Pole base. The South Pole base is named Amundsen-Scott, after the leaders of two expeditions trying to reach the Pole first. Scott made it second and unfortunately got caught in a severe storm on the trip back. They didn’t survive the expedition. We flew down on a “Hercules” airplane. The flight took about 3 hours, and I was originally scheduled to leave on the last flight out in the evening. Unfortunately there was an error in shipping my cargo down so I was unable to get to work until relatively late in the evening, so I got to spend the night. The meteorological observers provided a great deal of help in getting my work done.

The station, everything is one giant building.

The reason I needed to go to Pole was to move our test facility there, the cargo that needed to get sent down was the entire test setup, so without it all I could do was dig pits in the snow in preparation and wait. The South Pole is at a relatively high altitude, and the cold and pressure only act to amplify this altitude. While I was there it was about -23F, -40 with wind chill, and the effective altitude was about 10000 feet above sea level. This altitude generally makes people very tired, and have trouble catching their breath. Luckily this didn’t have a large effect on me, thanks to the medication the medical staff had me on, so I was able to dig and help carry things. After a little over an hour we had our 4 holes dug, 2 for the test facility, 1 for the batteries to be buried, and 1 for the solar panel mounting. Then it became a matter of waiting for the cargo to arrive so we could finish the project. While I waited I explored the station a bit, and found a “growing room”, which is a room with plants growing in it. This is done because it provides people with an area to spend time that smells like home, and a place to break the monotony of a barren white landscape with some color. I also found the geographic location of the South Pole. This point isn’t the magnetic South Pole, but the axial one. Nearby there is a ceremonial south pole surrounded by the flags of different countries.

The official South Pole

The ceremonial South Pole

I ran around both of these poles, which means I have circumnavigated the earth’s axis of rotation.

After the cargo arrived it was a short snow mobile ride out to the site, but unfortunately I didn’t have my neck protection and driving into the wind when was approximately -30 outside made it an extremely cold ride. By the end of it my beard was entirely white and frozen solid.

This is a lot colder than it looks.

The pits we dug weren’t exactly the correct size, so we had to dig and fill in to ensure things would fit right. After that it was a simple matter of wiring up the batteries, connecting the cables, and plugging things in. I think, while filling refilling the pits, one of my gloves fell in as I haven’t been able to find one since I flew back.

The test site all buried.

Whole lotta nothing on the horizon. It looked like this in every direction.

Looking out in every direction only to see nothing but a vast expanse of white was a bit eerie.  We then went about our digging, to recover the old battery boxes and replace them with new ones.  The pilots decided to try to clean the plane, but unfortunately their cleaning product was frozen so they decided to rest on the wings.

The black wings were a bit warmer than the rest of the area. Luckily there was no wind.

This was a rather quick trip, only taking about an hour to take all our measurements, replace the batteries, and get pictures.

Battery box burial

The twin otter pilots, Lexi and Lee, and me standing in front of the plane.

Eric Site:

For this site we were fortunate enough to have two people from town along to help us.  To keep morale high people who work in town get to go on what is called a “boondoggle” which basically means a day of doing something aside from their normal jobs.  A few of the possibilities I have heard of are taking pictures around McMurdo, getting a snow mobile ride out to Mount Erebus to get an amazing view of the surroundings, going out into the field on a day trip to help with science activities, and “sleigh” rides to the South Pole.

For this site we had to change the batteries and extend the tower up, and the helpers proved invaluable in recovering the batteries.  First by digging, while Matt and I raised the tower, and then by getting the battery boxes out of the pit.  The pit was over 6 feet deep, and each battery box is over 100 pounds, without the help I am not sure we would have managed to retrieve them in the time we had available.

Climbing down into the pit.

While we were there we got to see a mirage off in the distance.  There are two types of mirages, inferior and superior.  The inferior mirage is what most people think of, the stereotypical mirage in a desert, and it is basically caused by the air closer to the ground being much hotter than the air above it.  The superior mirage is caused by the air directly near the ground being much colder than the air above.  It causes the terrain to look like cliffs.

Mystery cliffs.

My next update will be on my trip to the South Pole, only 2 more days in Antarctica before I fly out.

The helicopter

We traveled to two stations, Ferrell and Windless Bight, and at both we needed to raise the Acoustic Depth Gauge arm so they wouldn’t be buried in the snow.  The way these work is by sending out a pulse of sound, and the recording how long it takes the sound wave to rebound and reach the gauge.  Using the temperature of the air, and the time it has taken the sound wave to travel we are able to calculate the distance from the gauge to the ground.  This allows us to track snow accumulation at our sites.

The bar extending outward from tower holds the acoustic depth gauge. This photo was taken at Windless Bight

Our day began by flying to Windless Bight, a site specifically named for the fact that it has lower than normal winds.  This is due to another area of Antarctica called Minna Bluff.  It has been found that the bluff acts to divert wind flows, causing an area of low winds.  The snow in this region was extremely soft, and in past years there has been concern that it is too soft to land a helicopter on.  After landing there I could see why, as after leaving the helicopter I placed weight on the steps to get back in and could feel the helicopter sink a little further into the snow.  Just while walking around carrying things I managed to sink up to my knees in the snow.  Other than the snow problems it was a beautiful day, with clear skies and no wind.  The lack of wind meant that when everyone stood still and quiet there was absolutely no sound.  The three sites I have been to, all on calm clear days, have been the quietest places I’ve been to on earth.  It is surprising how many sounds are going on in the background that I don’t notice, but I certainly noticed their absence.

Next we traveled to Ferrell site.  This site has been shifting about .7 miles each year, and this year it moved a bit more than expected.  That, combined with a fog bank still in the area, made it a bit more difficult to find.  Eventually we spotted it, and moved in to do our repairs.

The temperature probe, the cylinder near the ice, and the ADG needed raising. The snow was a bit more sturdy in this area.

I’ll have more pictures later.

Monday: Due to poor visibility on the runway and at the landing site we were weather canceled.

Tuesday: The weather at the site was still poor, so we were delayed and eventually canceled.  Wednesday: Things were looking better, with what was thought to be a thin cloud layer over the area, but still good conditions for landing, but as we got over the area it was obvious the clouds were thicker than expected, and they hid the fog beneath them.   This made it impossible to land, though we did get rather low in an attempt to see the ground.  It was rather interesting to feel the plane descending and not being able to see anything but clouds.

Thursday: The morning weather at the site was poor visibility and fog and at this point we wouldn’t be able to finish the installation before the plane scheduled to pick us up arrived so we have canceled the tower for this year.  Hopefully next year we will get another chance to do it.

Twin Otter, the plane I was supposed to use to get there

On the plus side I finally got a chance to climb Observation Hill, one of the local hiking routes in McMurdo.

Observation Hill

The climb was more difficult than expected, with the “path” being a steep ascent made up of loose rocks, sandy dirt, and the occasional heavier rock or level area to rest.  Despite the relative difficulty the view is more than worth the climb.

At the top of Observation Hill there is a cross to commemorate the group led by explorer Robert Falcon Scott.  Scott attempted to be the first person to make it to the South Pole, unfortunately he was beaten to the Pole by Roald Amundsen.  On the trip back Scott’s party ran into extremely bad weather and unfortunately passed away less than 11 miles from a supply depot.  In his final entry into his journal Scott wrote this:

“We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last [...] Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for”

More on the Tall Tower site in my next post.  The first AWS we worked on was at the airfield that is near to McMurdo, the airfield is named Pegasus runway, so it seems appropriate that the AWS is also called Pegasus.  We start all of our operations by taking a picture of the site prior to our presence, this allows evidence of any changes we make as we also take a picture at the end.  There were a number of problems with this site that we hadn’t anticipated, such as the cables to the solar panel and various instruments cracking and needing to be replaced.  The main reason we had to service the station is the aerovane mount wasn’t holding well enough so the system was able to move which throws our wind direction measurements off.

After climbing up and some work we managed to clamp the mounting in place better and we checked if it was still able to turn.  Unfortunately it was, and we didn’t have the tools to tighten it more/repair the mounting system so we returned to base with plans to return some time later in the season to finish the repairs.

Me holding the stuffed animals at the top of the station:

The Pegasus AWS station:

Climbing the tower, I am attached by a large metal clip at my waist.  That way I can use both hands to do work:

Don't try this at home unless you're trained and have a harness.

We returned later in the week to finish the repairs, it required snow mobile training.

The instructors returned around 9AM to take us back to the I hut for further lessons.  At this point we learned about the various forms of communication that are taken out into the field.  First we learned about the VHF(very high frequency) radios, which are hand held radios that work on a line-of-sight basis.  This means that so long as the radio can see another radio, or repeater station, it will be able to send a signal to it.  The other radio was the HF(high frequency) radio, which is somewhat more complex.  For this system you have to set up a large antenna, and it is able to project beyond line of sight, and the distance of communication is limited mainly by how much power you have available.

At this point we ran an emergency situation survival exercise in which we assumed that the plane we had crashed, one of the crew members broke his leg, and all we had available to us was a survival bag(which has a tent some sleeping bags, a portable stove, some food, and some other basics), and the HF radio.  Our group quickly broke into teams with most focusing on helping setup camp and getting the injured person into a shelter.  The rest of us, myself and two others, worked to setup the radio, and unknown to the rest of the group(myself included) one of the people was asked by the instructor to act as though she had hypothermia.  I noticed something was up, but wasn’t proactive enough in trying to get her to get up and warm up.  So basically I learned I need to trust my intuition and be more proactive when dealing with such things.  Others said they thought she was being lazy.

Next we moved on to a white out scenario.  A white out is basically visibility being so bad that you can only see a few feet.  To simulate this effect anyone who left the I hut during the scenario had to wear a bucket on their head, and in the scenario one of the instructors had left to use the rest room and hadn’t come back in about 40 minutes so we had to formulate a method to organize a search for him.

Both groups failed quite spectacularly, as our group sent only 2 people out, with the rest acting as anchors and planning a possible secondary sweep, while the other group sent everyone but one anchor out, with both getting lost.  After that we came back to McMurdo for some videos on helicopter safety and that finished the class.

We began the day with a basic meeting to discuss risk management and cold weather injuries.  For risk we discussed a few of the potential risks of doing field work in Antarctica, such as weather, sun burn, getting fresh water, etc, methods for reducing those risks, and the 4 steps of risk management.  Those steps are identify, reduce, execute, and reassess.  Then we discussed weather related injuries, the two most prominent of these being frostbite, and hypothermia, and how these are progressive injuries and it is better to catch them early and take care of them before they get out of hand.  Being from Wisconsin I had some knowledge of these types of injuries, but this course definitely helped me understand better ways of recognizing them and dealing with them.

Next we boarded our shuttle ride out to the camp site area to learn the skills we would need to camp out in Antarctica.  This experience began in the I-hut, learning how to use our portable gas stoves.

The group playing with stoves

These stoves are important, as they are the primary method of melting/purifying water along with our pots.

Next we went outside to begin making camp.  This involved a few discussions on where to build wind walls, the different types of tents and their various features.  The big yellow tent in the background is the scott tent.  It is extremely sturdy and capable of withstanding much greater wind speeds than the other tents so we incorporated them into our wall. The mountaineering tents, which you can see parts of in the bottom right of the picture can’t take as much wind so we place them behind the wall.  The wall we are building is out of our most abundant resource, snow.  As you dig down you get below the layer of fresh powdery snow, down to the compacted snow that will stay in block form, which the group then cut and stacked into a wall segment.

After we setup our tents and wind wall we needed to get a kitchen setup, which required another wind wall, as well as a pit.  The wind wall acted as a block from the wind while the pit adds to the wind block, creates a shelf, and gives us storage space out of the wind.  This kitchen is our water making station, and this adds emphasis to an important lesson I am learning down here.  The lesson is, stay hydrated.  Antarctica is a desert, and while it doesn’t match the stereotypical sand dunes and boiling hot sun, it is extremely dry and it is very easy to succumb to dehydration here.

Once the kitchen was up and running it was time to break out the cocoa

Our last lesson, before the instructors left us outside to camp for the evening, was one more emergency shelter and that is a snow trench.  What this amounts to is digging a pit in the snow about shoulder width as, slightly longer than body height, and deep enough that the ceiling won’t collapse on you.  After the basic pit has been dug, you expand the area underneath into a slightly larger area, keeping the central area the lowest part.  This acts to insulate you in several ways, all acting to keep you warm.  The ceiling keeps your heat down in the trench, and also acts to keep the wind away from you.  Your sleeping bag, sleeping pads, and anything else you might put underneath you acts to keep the cold floor from cooling you down.  Finally, the slightly lowered central area acts to pool the coldest, densest air away from you.  I didn’t sleep in one of these but from what I heard it wasn’t too bad.

I may not have slept in one, but that doesn't mean I didn't get a picture in one

We spent the rest of the night relaxing and eating dinner, I will have more on the second day of happy camper training tomorrow.

Also, to my nephew charlie who asked, “Where are the pictures of my bear?” Here is one of your bear, and your sister’s penguin, helping me in the lab

Some have asked me why I am here in McMurdo, Antarctica.  The short answer is, “For my research.”  The long answer(and probably more useful one), is my research involves Antarctic observations.   These observations are gathered with the AWS(Automatic Weather Station) network, which is a network of about 60 sites throughout the continent that have temperature, pressure, humidity, and depth sensors that transmit the data from these sensors back to Wisconsin.  This network requires maintenance, because of the harsh climate in Antarctica, so part of my research involves coming down to repair, install, and remove AWS systems.  As the month goes on I will have more pictures of going out to sites so everyone will get a chance to see what the stations look like.  If you’d like more information about AWS’s I recommend going to this site.(a new tab will open)

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the past two days.

Me getting off the plane(a C-17 I think on the Ice runway.  Note the big red parka, snow pants, and white “bunny” boots these are all parts of the Extreme Cold Weather Gear  we are issued for the stay.

The Penguins(I hope to get a chance to get a better picture)

The view outside our lab:

So, yesterday was a rather busy day.   The flights for that day were at first delayed 3 hours, then that changed to 24 hours of delay.  As there have been a few days now of flights being unable to make it down to McMurdo the flights have filled up considerably and only a handful of people were able to be added to those going today.  Unfortunately our group wasn’t one of the few.  This means we have been bumped to Saturday’s flight, assuming today’s flight makes it.  So far things look promising as far as weather goes for the next couple days so it seems likely we will get in Saturday.  So hopefully I will have a bit more to post on actually getting to the ice.

We had our clothes fitting, which means I got to try on all the extreme cold weather(ECW) gear in the 70 degree weather.  Unfortunately I didn’t think to take pictures of the stuff, but every picture from once I arrive in Antarctica will involve some form of the gear so eventually you will all see what it looks like.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around being a tourist.  I spent most of the morning wandering through the Botanical gardens, the Christchurch Cathedral, and the old Cantebury College.  Here are a few pictures from my wandering.

Me standing next to a statue of Explorer Scott

The Cathedral

The old Canterbury College, now Arts Centre