tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31322126561533174022024-02-21T01:49:32.661-08:00Polar Ponderings: From Polar Bears to Penguins Antarctic and Arctic ScienceAndrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-73138499986862107782016-08-14T18:17:00.000-07:002016-08-14T18:17:45.557-07:00Terrestrial Sciences at Niwot Ridge, ColoradoNiwot Ridge (an hour and a bit away from Boulder, Colorado), has a long history of scientific research dating back at least 50 years. Today various entities such as the University of Colorado, which includes the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) netrwork, NOAA, NEON and NRCS have observing equipment in the area. The ridge spans a range of ecotones, from forest up to alpine tundra. NCAR's Terrestrial Sciences Section and associated researches such as myself went up to Niwot to check out some of the data sources used for developing and improving the <a href="http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/clm/" target="_blank">Community Land Model</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John talks about his strategy for measuring fluxes both above and below ground in the tundra zone</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Various instruments on a portable flux tower</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flux tower, DFIR precipitation gauge and associated apparatus belonging to the National Ecological Observing Network (NEON).</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the University of Colorado's "Tundra Lab".</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sean exploring local hydrology heterogeneity in the tundra zone.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Will explains the new wireless network of sensors that are being installed in a transect across the alpine tundra. The "Tundra Lab" can be seen in the background</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The large Ameriflux Tower at the Niwot forest site. Sensible heat, latent heat and carbon fluxes are measured at various levels, both above and below the forest canopy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The equipment in this shed is used to record the isotopic ratios of carbon measured on the flux tower.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosie (center) and Danica (right) gave us a basic introduction to sap flow measurements</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosie explaining how sap flow measurements work using heat flow meters (i.e. two spikes driven into the tree). </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John discusses a number of snow measurements taking place within the forest. These include measurements of snow depth in relation to trees as well as experimental systems for quantifying interception of snow by the canopy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Justin, John & Danica at the <a href="http://cires1.colorado.edu/~aslater/SNOW/HIST/05J42S.html" target="_blank">Niwot Ridge SNOTEL</a> station during the snow-free season. The large item in the center of the picture is the pressure transducer pillow that measures snow water equivalent (SWE).</td></tr>
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<span id="goog_105798220"></span><span id="goog_105798221"></span><br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0Niwot Ridge, Colorado 80466, USA40.0597085 -105.616946614.537673999999999 -146.9255406 65.581743 -64.3083526tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-66984462352391617642016-07-16T23:53:00.001-07:002016-07-17T20:52:44.571-07:00Permafrost Tunnel and Super-SitePermafrost, ground that is continually below 0C for two or more years, is a notable feature of the Arctic. The CRREL Permafrost Tunnel (drilled into a hillside) is a virtual time machine where ancient vegetation and fossils from long extinct animals can be easily seen entombed in the frozen ground. Ice wedges with an age of over a hundred thousand years are another amazing feature to be seen. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Many meters underground Misha K (with the flashlight) explains permafrost formation processes. We can see both the main tunnel and the offshoot tunnel (with yellow walkway)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hands-on experience (literally) with vegetation entrapped in permafrost that is well over 10,000 years old</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After being in the sub-freezing temperatures of the permafrost tunnel, everyone was ready for some sun at lunchtime</td></tr>
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Next stop for the day was the Super-Site flux tower which has been operated by IARC for over five years. This tower measures the energy, mass and carbon balance of a Black Spruce forest and aims to distinguish how much the upper canopy and understory vegetation each contribute to various fluxes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Super-Site Flux Tower has various instruments all the way up the tower</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizQBgdJOc0tmM-5l5cw57wvAUT5bACQmkQjTwqadB6Uz78M70C2kxIQ0dpwcHSHSw1GRLFikGXiFKF8CviLfG-D-wFoYowaNMhXqqnxpOgjFdu_32IhMGGU7sLva1dUjGzMJPB8si_leUe/w974-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizQBgdJOc0tmM-5l5cw57wvAUT5bACQmkQjTwqadB6Uz78M70C2kxIQ0dpwcHSHSw1GRLFikGXiFKF8CviLfG-D-wFoYowaNMhXqqnxpOgjFdu_32IhMGGU7sLva1dUjGzMJPB8si_leUe/w974-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guo explains the instrumental set-up at the tower and answers questions about observational methods</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vladimir, Marc and Sophia observing and probing the very wet and thick moss layer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIT4asXW3znyb6qNd6Yx6evWXBtwi7EfzJd-I-C18hUWcUr_bggvFdTxhyphenhyphensDZJyuvbsycmN_p8EQOEmJP4jFC-OQCcWqVdCH9VuGvoGZxruZTO0WtP-AGN3_mAndL_BtvIyDo71doNck_3/w981-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIT4asXW3znyb6qNd6Yx6evWXBtwi7EfzJd-I-C18hUWcUr_bggvFdTxhyphenhyphensDZJyuvbsycmN_p8EQOEmJP4jFC-OQCcWqVdCH9VuGvoGZxruZTO0WtP-AGN3_mAndL_BtvIyDo71doNck_3/w981-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm ... tasty blueberries direct from the Alaskan forest</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgC9Mk3ARdbvJJHXvopA5P0fNVxIepXWPBB9RdWOV19GhA3kdqQ8yz4MqM2hiO2iDHxtRgMk2qsGN4MSaAkN_1Gm92YLzMQPyJ4Tzwz5YRUKTGE0NRlyTB-eS7dZmvefUwogYmvIUq6bFC/w977-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgC9Mk3ARdbvJJHXvopA5P0fNVxIepXWPBB9RdWOV19GhA3kdqQ8yz4MqM2hiO2iDHxtRgMk2qsGN4MSaAkN_1Gm92YLzMQPyJ4Tzwz5YRUKTGE0NRlyTB-eS7dZmvefUwogYmvIUq6bFC/w977-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrea, Danica and Charles return from the forest with a bounty of blueberries</td></tr>
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A final stop was made at a section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. This engineering feat transports oil all the way from the Arctic Ocean, across a full North-South transect of Alaska, to the port of Valdez on the Pacific Ocean.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUf_wikX61spO_wqAbUgVo8a2lQwE9YhOAnhymqq3rEBP5Tps0LbEc44pSC7WvGT6fObaMYHELC3wawng0Es4qgWnBazSf9ypbiWQB4RIic9A0AFTX-YnZCnUD3iNCFgEgCNk6jVXkAAsV/w976-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUf_wikX61spO_wqAbUgVo8a2lQwE9YhOAnhymqq3rEBP5Tps0LbEc44pSC7WvGT6fObaMYHELC3wawng0Es4qgWnBazSf9ypbiWQB4RIic9A0AFTX-YnZCnUD3iNCFgEgCNk6jVXkAAsV/w976-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pipeline. The vertical silver items are cooling fins that form part of a thermosiphon (a device for keeping the adjacent ground cool so that permafrost does not thaw and damage the pipeline).</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-85770173926472871632016-07-16T00:08:00.000-07:002016-07-25T15:00:52.790-07:00IARC Summer School 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over my years of research I've probably visited University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) more than any other campus - and I'm back again to help teach the IARC (International Arctic Research Center) Summer School (I also taught at the <a href="http://penguinchasing.blogspot.com/2014_10_25_archive.html" target="_blank">school in 2013</a>). A diverse group of very bright graduate students and early career scientist have come up to IARC at UAF to learn about Earth System Modeling with an emphasis on the Arctic. Student backgrounds range from permafrost to sea ice to biogeochemical cycling and beyond.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4WnMdk9-oT4Gdyq1c_P2NmZOQKbUdI4W1j6i7iSM9gPbHjmu063R7NkBFguJBArvOTiW5u3iL6JfmvhI9BOmLW9dbhF0-UEDGXcLsk8G07sRszHjzDixxRjyovXhdXKgMGgFVX48BUM7/w1006-h564-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4WnMdk9-oT4Gdyq1c_P2NmZOQKbUdI4W1j6i7iSM9gPbHjmu063R7NkBFguJBArvOTiW5u3iL6JfmvhI9BOmLW9dbhF0-UEDGXcLsk8G07sRszHjzDixxRjyovXhdXKgMGgFVX48BUM7/w1006-h564-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pontificating about modeling: going old-school and using a (white) board</td></tr>
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On the first evening Vladimir, who has been running the Summer Schools for well over a decade, organized a BBQ.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh564M2kMGX9p9MAyg39KV3HQ0WDmZca-rBvHVhJ6PnPTH4UaEzEdO8RNF22cFtGD5YfUnyq8HkNIbcGJztoVOhReNdlTsyClHtEtvnKRx8AD3TP1ySIzIVtkqB2MTDyT6vBfbmEChmMST4/w976-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh564M2kMGX9p9MAyg39KV3HQ0WDmZca-rBvHVhJ6PnPTH4UaEzEdO8RNF22cFtGD5YfUnyq8HkNIbcGJztoVOhReNdlTsyClHtEtvnKRx8AD3TP1ySIzIVtkqB2MTDyT6vBfbmEChmMST4/w976-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vladimir and food for 30 (notice we are in the healthy zone of the supermarket!)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fellow Instructor Gijs de Boer is the burger patty master</td></tr>
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One afternoon we took a walk to a local research site to investigate some permafrost. For many students this was a new experience and provided a nice taste of the Arctic (complete with mosquitoes!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_869GXDvtu0pbGDfQNwnBqM9oi-j-KyaIhoe4bD7Gzv7rFDgezDoVRhrxfSbaO6nxMavjV7dsjQaqAGeRX9zClVMxCowHHnavlSHc1QasaIUG6M_KyWqAUeA9jeliZR5FEDr1jtpEeJX/w977-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD_869GXDvtu0pbGDfQNwnBqM9oi-j-KyaIhoe4bD7Gzv7rFDgezDoVRhrxfSbaO6nxMavjV7dsjQaqAGeRX9zClVMxCowHHnavlSHc1QasaIUG6M_KyWqAUeA9jeliZR5FEDr1jtpEeJX/w977-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vladimir, Santosh, Marc and Charles measuring the active layer thickness in local Fairbanks permafrost </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB_iTMu8KbQIy4kcKHEO-XELM2a1ylnsOZhW6yY8ZeyOY20hLmtwjvB7SrYxdgRI2ilKZogqcprNtImYZvBzvxp24bf9grZS8cbXs5490U-bkQ5MkV1lDfO6PO4iSG1w1KZvXhEG88Pgz/w977-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdB_iTMu8KbQIy4kcKHEO-XELM2a1ylnsOZhW6yY8ZeyOY20hLmtwjvB7SrYxdgRI2ilKZogqcprNtImYZvBzvxp24bf9grZS8cbXs5490U-bkQ5MkV1lDfO6PO4iSG1w1KZvXhEG88Pgz/w977-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hrishi (with the Infrared thermometer), Hyunsuk, Danica, Nicole (holding the moss plug) and Daniel in the forest site taking note of the temperature gradient in the moss. It was 26C at the top and only 5C at the bottom (after being exposed to warm air) </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCADP8KqSg64zTHvAFIpNlx3iqDMn00bR3q8P2rS6N570Iaxxa1IF2hxemRgLKF2QcP7dEtUFI4Es63pPaduJqz6ZN4KEWX_plRI7OrbC7-J2b0WzXvR7EswD4CY67bVLt_2uKRVrkSFf/w980-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCADP8KqSg64zTHvAFIpNlx3iqDMn00bR3q8P2rS6N570Iaxxa1IF2hxemRgLKF2QcP7dEtUFI4Es63pPaduJqz6ZN4KEWX_plRI7OrbC7-J2b0WzXvR7EswD4CY67bVLt_2uKRVrkSFf/w980-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicole and Marc taking measurements of subsurface ground temperature</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYxTz1gvMoGxOd6FPMo8biIKh-24_zZWJAzpkhqH5T60ENE2H0OOS0S-ke_ktOfZuHHfq-XWsbZOuYGwmrZ9Oty1kBou8BZeokB7tFASC9i_uS3DVT5EF0KlDpDrsFU9xiud8VHKYOuNr/w976-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYxTz1gvMoGxOd6FPMo8biIKh-24_zZWJAzpkhqH5T60ENE2H0OOS0S-ke_ktOfZuHHfq-XWsbZOuYGwmrZ9Oty1kBou8BZeokB7tFASC9i_uS3DVT5EF0KlDpDrsFU9xiud8VHKYOuNr/w976-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The temperature down near the permafrost was, as expected, near the freezing point. The infrared thermometer was registering temperatures of 0.0C to 0.2C</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTITtY-_nY3YUOQIiFiTiEuFy1A0bsoq1l_TKr55hpFGqgajp1yRfI0usY1Sfrx93z8y1su9DdYL0VMabFBL73Uxx5msPHsPZb4wwwjGvVYDG2DI0CHTVT1PE81WilGKMThYu6zGJRj9XU/w978-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTITtY-_nY3YUOQIiFiTiEuFy1A0bsoq1l_TKr55hpFGqgajp1yRfI0usY1Sfrx93z8y1su9DdYL0VMabFBL73Uxx5msPHsPZb4wwwjGvVYDG2DI0CHTVT1PE81WilGKMThYu6zGJRj9XU/w978-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hrishi, Niki, Lei and Danica getting first hand experience with organic soil and mosses</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQqmEGnP7hPzIM1uJyVr2Uq-68V3SXtkZOnHTCV-VNK6nFF6pEMaXfFVfzzPXg0jT-xb3YqPGQ_Bxgy5Dq6SDudF-qef0mLXpLVrMBFzRMl-7eZq7MkROgZ_lJ1tK6SbbroVqzNGmS685/w981-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQqmEGnP7hPzIM1uJyVr2Uq-68V3SXtkZOnHTCV-VNK6nFF6pEMaXfFVfzzPXg0jT-xb3YqPGQ_Bxgy5Dq6SDudF-qef0mLXpLVrMBFzRMl-7eZq7MkROgZ_lJ1tK6SbbroVqzNGmS685/w981-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Observation can involve all the senses - Julia is giving moist moss the sniff test</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GHt0vv6ST1dZOcUyziE2Ssq4E3I7LeeGUBbE2imf73AlkiY-KgzhG12FyqoF21fNtJOV4BJsVHFOqp5DKmbg-i6ypFy0X_ydEt3dGJTy4DFqkSIiDDzw7fC0b4AQzkLWiGrcHEAHDDpK/w978-h698-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GHt0vv6ST1dZOcUyziE2Ssq4E3I7LeeGUBbE2imf73AlkiY-KgzhG12FyqoF21fNtJOV4BJsVHFOqp5DKmbg-i6ypFy0X_ydEt3dGJTy4DFqkSIiDDzw7fC0b4AQzkLWiGrcHEAHDDpK/w978-h698-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 2016 IARC Summer School Crew</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-40014327293387044352015-10-03T21:28:00.000-07:002015-10-04T13:40:51.922-07:00How cold is cold?<br />
The coldest temperature recorded on Earth using a thermometer, was -89.2C (-128.6F) at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vostok+Station/@-76.8212418,108.6295326,3506928m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x1eabc47860874182">Vostok Station</a>, in Antarctica, back in 1983. However, my colleagues at the <a href="http://nsidc.org/" target="_blank">National Snow and Ice Data Center</a> believe they found a temperature of -93.2C (-135.8F) near Dome Fuji (Antarctica) using the Landsat 8 satellite. There is a hope to establish an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) at this location to record the temperature at 2m above the ground.<br />
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The warmest temperature ever recorded at South Pole was -12C (9F) - it is always cold at the South Pole! South Pole station sits at an elevation of 2,835m (9,300ft) which adds to the cold and the annual average temperature there is about -49C (-56F).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_tSFzJSZpOVnQse-L07HApE0C2AYPWu4-7_Gi27n6mDBWgj4iYBGcsR-pYRKKWclPnWILMJhUQ-vRLGS6bn3f9QxOzN70hQNXaUevuFmhrrPQgt8A687N0yoEXZhUwuTmz4rd_BFQPb4/s1600/IMG_1440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_tSFzJSZpOVnQse-L07HApE0C2AYPWu4-7_Gi27n6mDBWgj4iYBGcsR-pYRKKWclPnWILMJhUQ-vRLGS6bn3f9QxOzN70hQNXaUevuFmhrrPQgt8A687N0yoEXZhUwuTmz4rd_BFQPb4/s400/IMG_1440.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lars and Doug installing equipment on a cold and windy day. Ten minutes later Lars came back into the hut saying that his eyelids had almost frozen shut.</td></tr>
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Outside our instrument hut, Zodiac Camp, the still air temperature fell below -40 C/F (which is the same temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit) this WINFLY season. However, if you add a small bit of wind in such conditions, the "Wind Chill" temperature makes the cold feel all the more serious.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9ouVzTmfpLIqHdTSJecvUCTmYcK_GNxpQjcGacnaexX0CbJKnD3blst3N-7eTafMT3cWvS_-2JgXTMDiTpJV2CaNzwhQ6iwSQv_z2Sck3IBH43P_vbCma1ZoqIX0u_EjkII_zLOcobCP/s1600/windchill_new.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9ouVzTmfpLIqHdTSJecvUCTmYcK_GNxpQjcGacnaexX0CbJKnD3blst3N-7eTafMT3cWvS_-2JgXTMDiTpJV2CaNzwhQ6iwSQv_z2Sck3IBH43P_vbCma1ZoqIX0u_EjkII_zLOcobCP/s400/windchill_new.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The NOAA Windchill chart, with temperatures in Fahrenheit. Some basic conversions to Celsius: 0C=32F, -18C=0F, -40C=-40F. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_K6qvKj8SIKfq_6eN56qTZUToNc2hy83U4DZhFPUPSdW1Fh_WICtb-q1-kC-qxnCh5_-hkUezGiLOyBfucEgNCUXXiISS80v-6dLT_9AV6f6JvK2YOIMh9077pD2u5ycvDSUpLzP03jBj/s1600/zodiac_temperature_windchill_20150915.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_K6qvKj8SIKfq_6eN56qTZUToNc2hy83U4DZhFPUPSdW1Fh_WICtb-q1-kC-qxnCh5_-hkUezGiLOyBfucEgNCUXXiISS80v-6dLT_9AV6f6JvK2YOIMh9077pD2u5ycvDSUpLzP03jBj/s400/zodiac_temperature_windchill_20150915.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cold day at Zodiac Camp. At the start of the day exposed skin would be subject to frostbite within 10 minutes.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnxgHg4cxCKBrtMKrn0mdCqyY224gAydT1cZgc5EB_KKi1AGE2Swfpii3Emf0KNlpexsSGjLhmBsU7lFSyIc_CdXF2U0571hyVy24vGHoYALdeE0rWYDZRZM_nyvtsWPxkfqqGfC2HQFX/s1600/IMG_0966.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnxgHg4cxCKBrtMKrn0mdCqyY224gAydT1cZgc5EB_KKi1AGE2Swfpii3Emf0KNlpexsSGjLhmBsU7lFSyIc_CdXF2U0571hyVy24vGHoYALdeE0rWYDZRZM_nyvtsWPxkfqqGfC2HQFX/s1600/IMG_0966.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perhaps the coldest day of 2odiac Season 1 (summer) at the Lorne station up on the Ross Ice Shelf with Mike, Anita and Lars (November, 2014). We moved the Ozone sensing station back to the surface as it had been buried with accumulated snow. The station was heavy and the snow was hard; it was a solid day of work.</td></tr>
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For the Australian's reading this, the coldest temperature recorded in Australia was -23C (-9.4F), at Charlotte's Pass in the Snowy Mountains on June 29th, 1994.<br />
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The coldest temperature recorded in the United States was -52C (-62F), at Prospect Creek in Alaska, January 23rd, 1971. For Boulder, Colorado, the temperature once dropped to -36C (-33F) on January 17, 1930.<br />
<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-32330781746757068732015-09-28T12:52:00.000-07:002015-09-28T12:52:12.612-07:00Anemometers and windAntarctica is a notoriously windy place. The windiest place on Earth is said to be <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/66%C2%B054'00.0%22S+142%C2%B040'00.0%22E/@-73.2162391,155.9569769,4.28z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en" target="_blank">Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica</a>, where winds often exceed 240km/h (150mph) and the average wind speed is 80km/h (50mph). The cold dense air that forms high on the Antarctic plateau can rush
down to the coast at tremendous speeds under the force of gravity; these are known as Katabatic
Winds. On the night of 17th Sept. the peak gust at McMurdo was 67.5 knots (125km/h, 78mph).<br />
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Wind carries particles (aerosols) and blows snow around so it is an important quantity for us to measure. We are using two instrument for measurement; a traditional cup anemometer on our weather station and a sophisticated sonic anemometer. The "sonic" measures the travel time of pulsed sound waves, which will speed up if assisted by wind - it can measure wind speed and direction up to 20 time a second (20 Hz).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGu3rVEtLL3-3vh-L1-o73rph13P4Qb5Fo_fpT4bblMqSB_qkc2yxxpPod0dcrtDGS4A7onVkPFK3N6i6GZKZ6BFJI2CoL0ZKTU2aF12bqhLtu2NI7w1tBc48B-BgWGJQcGysHV6QXCMF6/s1600/DSCN4420.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGu3rVEtLL3-3vh-L1-o73rph13P4Qb5Fo_fpT4bblMqSB_qkc2yxxpPod0dcrtDGS4A7onVkPFK3N6i6GZKZ6BFJI2CoL0ZKTU2aF12bqhLtu2NI7w1tBc48B-BgWGJQcGysHV6QXCMF6/s400/DSCN4420.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our
weather station, with cup anemometer, at Zodiac Camp. A faint solar
halo can be seen around the sun; this is caused by light refracting off
ice crystals high in the atmosphere.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aligning cable to the sonic anemometer has to be done very carefully; we have to lay cables out quickly while still they are still warm as the very cold temperatures makes some cables brittle and they will shatter if moved too much afterwards. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRiDQev0MND7ncnnCa9D45-YJoDIEScsFD44mXBF6kbQaLr9kESotusbk-MXsWU8TxtxUiwlRB0Zgxm17hxj1_q3s8a9WE07l5TB5u7BCpTtR96CqhotNukpyJgrfmTMqRPFKKOmJvOP8/s1600/IMG_1326.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRiDQev0MND7ncnnCa9D45-YJoDIEScsFD44mXBF6kbQaLr9kESotusbk-MXsWU8TxtxUiwlRB0Zgxm17hxj1_q3s8a9WE07l5TB5u7BCpTtR96CqhotNukpyJgrfmTMqRPFKKOmJvOP8/s400/IMG_1326.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doug drilling anchor holes while Lars and Mike "supervise" and fine tune their shovel leaning technique. It was a very pleasant -20C/-2F during this installation so none of us are wearing our big jackets.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To anchor the mast of the sonic anemometer we drill a V-thread into the sea ice and loop the guy lines through it. The ice anchor is very strong and can easily take the body weight of a couple of people. (Photo: D. Goetz)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgPq3UZ8FzdMuLyVzuShRsj3wX0or8BKy-tvXX6fzgBDavPC3JcEGHNpuLe4CU4mB4H6DHGlT9TdvesbSqiOuovchQwtVHwdKlm5tS0bTJcCvPufiZx2vqaX5YlnkZ0J-c02xdfsHt_IZ/s1600/IMG_1340.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgPq3UZ8FzdMuLyVzuShRsj3wX0or8BKy-tvXX6fzgBDavPC3JcEGHNpuLe4CU4mB4H6DHGlT9TdvesbSqiOuovchQwtVHwdKlm5tS0bTJcCvPufiZx2vqaX5YlnkZ0J-c02xdfsHt_IZ/s400/IMG_1340.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The head of the sonic anemometer senses wind speed in 3-dimensions (north-south, east-west, up-down)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Once installed and guyed, we mark the lines so we don't trip on them in low visibility. (Photo: D. Goetz) </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYHhNpSjW3qmQhp_HdMCgG18aluwplxVeD4Olpeojpr0c-jpjQm5C22T58mOjfkV8j81jNwPsYpMqnF2aKIjGJ2AL0DBXCxuHKiYdKUXG0hZw8rmfTo0ZJeJns0hQp1FechxbppOrO8L2/s1600/zodiac_wind_rose_20150911_20150928.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYHhNpSjW3qmQhp_HdMCgG18aluwplxVeD4Olpeojpr0c-jpjQm5C22T58mOjfkV8j81jNwPsYpMqnF2aKIjGJ2AL0DBXCxuHKiYdKUXG0hZw8rmfTo0ZJeJns0hQp1FechxbppOrO8L2/s400/zodiac_wind_rose_20150911_20150928.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The wind rose from Zodiac Camp for 17 days of the campaign. The dominant southerly winds of Antarctica are wrapped around Mt Erebus on Ross Island to hit our camp from the east and south-east. We have chosen the camp location carefully so that we are sampling clean air and are not downwind of McMurdo Station. The maximum wind speed at Zodiac Camp was 31.3 m/s (70mph, 61kts, 113km/h).</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-50427015533826352732015-09-26T18:08:00.000-07:002015-09-26T18:24:38.106-07:00Science NeighborsThere are only four (4) science groups at McMurdo during WINFLY. It is a very friendly atmosphere among the science teams as everyone understands the difficulty of working in Antarctica. Radio chatter will often be about conditions near various science camps or observations that could be relevant to each others projects... and the opportunity to poke fun at another team is rarely missed. <br />
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Last Sunday we car-pooled (matt-track-pooled?) with members of team B-017 who work on understanding how seals navigate (see <a href="http://penguinchasing.blogspot.com/2014/11/science-seals-and-navigation.html" target="_blank">previous blog entry about B-017</a>). They invited us for "chips and dip" at their camps... though this isn't what you may be thinking - it refers to using an ice chipping bar and a dip net.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lars dip netting ice out of a seal breathing hole in order to keep it open and unfrozen. The plastic tube directs warmer air blown from the top of the tent down towards the hole in an effort to minimize refreezing. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chipper bars (left) that are used to maintain a breathing hole. The "cookie" is designed to plug up a hole. Lars (black) and Traci (red) had been shoveling ice out of this hole.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traci and Jason put the cookie in the hole.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzGi8HXfEwpoaMXpRka9RJL7DTJInVarOiaeI5F820rOCIqrFW6vco4G-cpcHnZ_14OEkw7TCF1uymvxWmWDGFcwnsFRzhzVHi0TCnTLZ4JM6Hz003U0YGwPcZC7sS50MYnGXsfeBEwga/s1600/DSCN4328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzGi8HXfEwpoaMXpRka9RJL7DTJInVarOiaeI5F820rOCIqrFW6vco4G-cpcHnZ_14OEkw7TCF1uymvxWmWDGFcwnsFRzhzVHi0TCnTLZ4JM6Hz003U0YGwPcZC7sS50MYnGXsfeBEwga/s400/DSCN4328.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A happy Weddell Seal.</td></tr>
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Another group working in our vicinity is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hofmannB134" target="_blank">B-134, who study Antarctic Invertebrates</a>. We rendezvoused with them out near the edge of the sea ice one evening as we were searching for frost flowers. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kevin (L) and Gretchen (R) of B-134 carry their samples back to their PistenBully. It's not a particularly good photo because all cameras were freezing up in the cold temperatures and there was not enough time to adjust exposure before the camera died. Frozen cameras are just one challenge of working in Antarctica. </td></tr>
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Team B-259, aka <a href="https://nobusinesslikesnowbusiness.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">SIMPLE</a>, work close to the McMurdo Ice Shelf which is quite a way from the other teams. They are putting a robotic sensor under the ice shelf to investigate the sub-ice ecosystem. I don't have any photos of SIMPLE in the field, but their team played a great set at the Carpenter Shop Party on Saturday, which signifies the end of WINFLY and start of Main Body at McMurdo.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter and Chris lead the vocals</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYeKSzsIqQRAyId_2APlfFBp46Ccg4S0ez4L68lLxr6S2EVmyrb1LIDctEnUa4sNxKsBakrYxvrR63Mjd2ocbzi_tT6Vxznhl1aiTbNbPa2Dbwk9ZJVId_LHSIlS31VZBl3ZZ1UJZtmLX/s1600/IMG_1449.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYeKSzsIqQRAyId_2APlfFBp46Ccg4S0ez4L68lLxr6S2EVmyrb1LIDctEnUa4sNxKsBakrYxvrR63Mjd2ocbzi_tT6Vxznhl1aiTbNbPa2Dbwk9ZJVId_LHSIlS31VZBl3ZZ1UJZtmLX/s400/IMG_1449.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team SIMPLE rock out</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-76052036036480354202015-09-24T18:56:00.002-07:002015-09-24T19:44:23.347-07:00SnowAntarctica is the coldest, highest and driest continent in the world. It is largely a desert, with most places receiving less than 250mm of water equivalent each year. Despite low precipitation, snow is often mobile at this time of year (September) due to unsettled weather, very cold temperatures and some very high wind speed events. The interplay of wind speed and snow surface conditions create many patterns in the snow as the battle between snow deposition and erosion takes place.<br />
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Surface forms in snow can be similar to those in sand, but an important difference is that snow crystals will sinter and bond with each other, meaning that some erosion derived forms, such as sastrugi, are only found in snow. The rate of bonding is a function of temperature, so in the cold of Antarctica snow can remains mobile longer than more temperate snow climates.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9rw64tRK6LNYUVOtDcNPbaOPtKYZLKuzYUou1l-_CM33BKIRR7EcnHwFkbhKb5J3R6msATdRsR3KIC-IDlPfEMlYkKrr2TnCwRbRAv66GcYk75y2F0cd4ofH42b6Vzsh2_utIhk6eNft/s1600/DSCN4237.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9rw64tRK6LNYUVOtDcNPbaOPtKYZLKuzYUou1l-_CM33BKIRR7EcnHwFkbhKb5J3R6msATdRsR3KIC-IDlPfEMlYkKrr2TnCwRbRAv66GcYk75y2F0cd4ofH42b6Vzsh2_utIhk6eNft/s400/DSCN4237.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anondo collecting samples among the drifting snow.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patterns of wind affected snow. The whole photo is about 30cm (1ft) across.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Striated, wind eroded snow (left side) along with some pit marks on the upper surface </td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TaCWbcHu1rw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="332" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TaCWbcHu1rw?feature=player_embedded" width="400"></iframe></div>
The sound of snow in Antarctica. The main point of interest in this video is the sound of my boots walking across the very cold, dry and well packed snow - the snow crystals are crushing or grinding against each other. It sounds (and feels) a bit like styrofoam.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Footsteps in time? Pressure caused by footsteps (in the foreground) sintered previously deposited snow, making it harder and more resistant to erosion during the next wind event</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Small sastrugi, created by erosion, can be seen in the foreground. Mt Erebus is in the background.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barchan/Dune like formations. The Gerber multi-tool is about 11cm (4.25") tall. The wind has blown from left to right, with the darker eroded tail on the left side and the brighter deposition zone on the right side </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snow ripple formation, similar to that seen in a stream bed</td></tr>
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This post is inspired by recent work from colleagues in Alaska (<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JF003529/abstract" target="_blank">Filhol & Sturm, 2015</a>).<br />
<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-32505389944615353332015-09-22T20:07:00.001-07:002015-09-22T20:16:50.723-07:00Fata MorganaPolar regions can produce some interesting optical effects due to extreme temperatures and/or low sun angles. Yesterday was beautifully calm at Zodiac Camp and an inversion formed (i.e. when air closer to the surface is colder than the air above it - normally air temperatures decrease with altitude). The colder, denser air near the surface has a higher refractive index compared to the warmer (though still cold) and less dense air above it. The difference in refractive index acts like a lens, bending light.<br />
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Yesterday's inversion produced a Fata Morgana; a phenomenon where, to the observer, an image of the underlying surface is mirrored in the air above it. Often it looks like the horizon line is stretched.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fata Morgana can be seen as a white bar (probably as a result of the underling snow and sea ice) on the horizon. The blue line give a partial outline of the faintly visible Royal Society Range of mountain.</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-2183256403894031482015-09-18T15:48:00.001-07:002015-09-18T16:06:57.057-07:00Instrument SurguryThe scientific results from field campaigns are well reported in academic journals, often with text such as "measurements were taken during ...". However, the effort required to produce these results, including all the problems that had to be overcome, are rarely documented in full.<br />
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2odiac 2015 has not been a simple case of transporting instruments to Antarctica and deploying them. One instrument (the UHSAS) was completely destroyed during shipping; very disappointing, particularly for team member Anondo.<br />
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Our primary instrument, the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS), then suffered a power unit failure, but the ingenuity of McMurdo came to the the fore. Inquiries across the base resulted in the offer of two old power transformers. Using some master engineering skills, Team 2odiac rigged a solution and measurements could continue.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike, Doug and Lars assess the power module situation and contemplate a solution. Lars is wearing an anti-static bracelet.</td></tr>
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With measurements running, it is important to monitor incoming results to ensure that good data is being collected. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike checking the status of the AMS</td></tr>
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Some anomalies in results suggested that there might be a problem with one of the pumps on the AMS, so further investigation is required.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All hands on deck. Doug (hiding behind the AMS), Mike and Lars dealing with removing the troublesome vacuum pump </td></tr>
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The pump was removed and the pump-to-AMS seal serviced.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The troublesome pump gets a servicing. Mike is wearing a hat and gloves to ensure minimal contamination. This is a delicate instrument - the fan/turbo in this pump spins at an incredible 70,000 revolutions per minute.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWF4F4ohYZ5nAmdbZ4GEICrhB7SaC_O1nbg-m8xk4_lSyccSFQvRv9KJtonqCNTTKbAM3VC_PkNclxyOhQau1MRi_fov9kkdSvRg8iYyhArqYVpGEfGiQIbWZpeGUu_Q2cZ-ZHLsyOPsL7/s1600/DSCN4223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWF4F4ohYZ5nAmdbZ4GEICrhB7SaC_O1nbg-m8xk4_lSyccSFQvRv9KJtonqCNTTKbAM3VC_PkNclxyOhQau1MRi_fov9kkdSvRg8iYyhArqYVpGEfGiQIbWZpeGUu_Q2cZ-ZHLsyOPsL7/s400/DSCN4223.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lars and Mike reinstall the pump.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsf5YWy7nv3NRkAnwWcooEJLtQv2oZAeJje2iykW9iCe_ONvbLOMQ8GpLITWyh_xTsQcsp2frDSByrIM0xWSeWLicoXzsch-P5jhlI93z-QGGMhFkN-PNYpcfXAyPM3znHpF3OGRx4b86/s1600/DSCN4228.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsf5YWy7nv3NRkAnwWcooEJLtQv2oZAeJje2iykW9iCe_ONvbLOMQ8GpLITWyh_xTsQcsp2frDSByrIM0xWSeWLicoXzsch-P5jhlI93z-QGGMhFkN-PNYpcfXAyPM3znHpF3OGRx4b86/s400/DSCN4228.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doug bends over backwards during pump installation </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More
hands in the delicate environment of the AMS. The NOx, CO2, Ozone
analyzer and the computer server are on the right edge of the picture.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6JsllBmjdeXkoaxo51FudmGHoE553O5iv0Qh0KrClb0cr1wJonGjEAFFuLXZJ8uVDmV_7FOubEWUL_YnEoYai5QwagRWn2r_MajfmMq_4VRriy6Rm4UGt8jnDDhQzI_FpeydC85y0Ksw/s1600/DSCN4268.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6JsllBmjdeXkoaxo51FudmGHoE553O5iv0Qh0KrClb0cr1wJonGjEAFFuLXZJ8uVDmV_7FOubEWUL_YnEoYai5QwagRWn2r_MajfmMq_4VRriy6Rm4UGt8jnDDhQzI_FpeydC85y0Ksw/s400/DSCN4268.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even when things stray from the original plan it's good to have a sense of humor. Mike and Doug share a joke as everyone discusses the situation. I have enjoyed working with Anondo, Doug, Lars and Mike.</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-13755829752791078922015-09-16T20:14:00.000-07:002015-09-16T21:40:34.334-07:00FlaggingThe weather in Antarctica is notoriously fickle. It can be sunny with glorious views of glaciers, ice sheets and mountains, but within an hour a raging storm may engulf you in a white-out. A <i>white-out</i> is just that - blowing snow and winds mean that all you see is a white void and having any sense of direction can be extremely difficult.<br />
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Many research sites (including ours) are located on the
barren white landscape of the sea ice - yes, we are driving over the
ocean! A white-out poses a serious travel risk so all main routes to
research sites on the sea ice are set with flags spaced at 25m (~80ft).
This is a time consuming, but very important, process.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A blowing snow event and a row of flags marking the road to research sites</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/s_vi/81KcZLZ2Z1A/default.jpg?sqp=CKzS6K8F&rs=AOn4CLBRKYnjSzoPdXHno0gmviYIkLaXhg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/81KcZLZ2Z1A?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe> </div>
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A ground blizzard en route to Zodiac Camp. The flag in the top left corner is only 25m away, but can barely be seen. </div>
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To set a flag line, we use a Kovacs Ice Auger and drill holes using either a battery powered drill, or a gas/petrol powered drill (called the Echo drill) or some good old muscle with a brace-and-bit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XHmPoGHDHKTuFErFvqxYq5SyV-sSKihWTUwLUbwvBtBS_JMhQh3LuGOxmC5xfd1KL4HEA-ba-5TKBoxGpXQBA3y13o1_xv3wPL0yw0MUe__p1h1ENR8-W0Z5Bs4_O07TEpblyrrDKrK8/s1600/IMG_1277.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XHmPoGHDHKTuFErFvqxYq5SyV-sSKihWTUwLUbwvBtBS_JMhQh3LuGOxmC5xfd1KL4HEA-ba-5TKBoxGpXQBA3y13o1_xv3wPL0yw0MUe__p1h1ENR8-W0Z5Bs4_O07TEpblyrrDKrK8/s400/IMG_1277.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going old-school (after the batteries died on the DeWalt and the Echo drill wouldn't start). Doug and Lars put in some muscle to drill a hole with the brace</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lars runs the Echo drill, while Doug readies the flags.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtrKjvQf8APXUXGusESd74R_GDZxeSNFcjiBrvBmmvxk6u074RiV9gSaqM9dk4bxKsztOmnTKM5FRpCVLYhooWur_nePW6DEZDITJLOzlDbPjJZG0chOgmQUH4igotTpOL0H1VHlMjtRh/s1600/IMG_1282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtrKjvQf8APXUXGusESd74R_GDZxeSNFcjiBrvBmmvxk6u074RiV9gSaqM9dk4bxKsztOmnTKM5FRpCVLYhooWur_nePW6DEZDITJLOzlDbPjJZG0chOgmQUH4igotTpOL0H1VHlMjtRh/s400/IMG_1282.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Turkey-tail of flags marking the turn off to Zodiac Camp. Lars drilled all the way through the sea ice at this location. The ice was 2m (6.5ft) thick.</td></tr>
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Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-65856871136091146742014-12-15T21:22:00.000-08:002014-12-15T21:29:02.912-08:00Sea CreaturesOn the third level of the Crary Lab, ichthyologists (scientists that study fish) have set up research aquarium facilities that includes a "touch tank". You are allowed to carefully put your hand in this tank and touch some of the creatures. The water in the tank is from McMurdo Sound - naturally it is very cold and keeping your hand in there is only possible for short periods. Some of the photos are taken looking through the water so they may seem a bit fuzzy.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxEeHVDA6MKHS6DowZXfCbZDaSlZ_rkovRvH9AN_LPTefOJ-fo-cNAyYsb7dB6-yKd3fGqYz1ZaUkndI3hdAmbUjLXouEVPgnWXdaUBy64Kqw5RMH9bg0puzd1kwAXZM6JlqlH0eyGJUpL/s1600/DSCN3436.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxEeHVDA6MKHS6DowZXfCbZDaSlZ_rkovRvH9AN_LPTefOJ-fo-cNAyYsb7dB6-yKd3fGqYz1ZaUkndI3hdAmbUjLXouEVPgnWXdaUBy64Kqw5RMH9bg0puzd1kwAXZM6JlqlH0eyGJUpL/s1600/DSCN3436.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The research aquarium in the Crary Lab</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3OsNJkGR5Gqm1raJBd_tJ20p6u8W1PDRY-OpVLKEBfee3CYij0HYDrmRwG3mI7btDrwMuG38Nu3NZzXV4gm_8JVz-wCkQcpzDP4Pth3b4kvKYTqB0na0kKoa61SH83TIf2NLWho43EBa3/s1600/DSCN3430.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3OsNJkGR5Gqm1raJBd_tJ20p6u8W1PDRY-OpVLKEBfee3CYij0HYDrmRwG3mI7btDrwMuG38Nu3NZzXV4gm_8JVz-wCkQcpzDP4Pth3b4kvKYTqB0na0kKoa61SH83TIf2NLWho43EBa3/s1600/DSCN3430.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pink sea urchin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The underside of a sea star and an all white sea slug.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70zugWaL-Jlf0JQx8aD2wyvvcplA34TX6rX8VobSrjnKm9mPG6KfEZLzPmzdC2OK4xr_Bwyh2DiwMeMIadcn7keU6Zu_ENac5ZbAVeaRth-u1j8oWAV2vZgWrnmJINja_wZhxJwF3n-m7/s1600/DSCN3438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70zugWaL-Jlf0JQx8aD2wyvvcplA34TX6rX8VobSrjnKm9mPG6KfEZLzPmzdC2OK4xr_Bwyh2DiwMeMIadcn7keU6Zu_ENac5ZbAVeaRth-u1j8oWAV2vZgWrnmJINja_wZhxJwF3n-m7/s1600/DSCN3438.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The orange and white creature is a sea anemone. The all white item is a sea slug</td></tr>
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Sea slugs are shell-less molluscks. Their scientific name, <i>Nudibranchia</i>, means naked gills; it describes the feathery gills and horns that are on their back.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyinoz9kztJK4KwXJdZAl8LKM6FtyfaYc54tnSqFwjSHNSrPSwBaMxalzNdOch10DiwHBdilFRbConOA92KDLKBaUrZ7ICGSHcKZIWH-_rMvm6tyBRy00tuprCMy-z1qL0YSomeXMNf-LQ/s1600/DSCN3423.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyinoz9kztJK4KwXJdZAl8LKM6FtyfaYc54tnSqFwjSHNSrPSwBaMxalzNdOch10DiwHBdilFRbConOA92KDLKBaUrZ7ICGSHcKZIWH-_rMvm6tyBRy00tuprCMy-z1qL0YSomeXMNf-LQ/s1600/DSCN3423.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another species of sea anemone, with white tentacles, can be seen in this picture. </td></tr>
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There are various species of sea anemones in Antarctic waters. They are predatory and can feed upon pencil sea urchins, sea stars and occasionally jellyfish which get close enough to the sea floor<br />
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Rockcod have adapted to the low and stable temperatures of sea water in McMurdo Sound, which is almost constantly at -1.86C (28.65F). They live on the sea floor, feeding on prey by ambush or hunt-and-peck feeding.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiKKxICb_P7KSF3f7u5U-UHomFa3O4ssn773OwrM0T3OeZZnwRfxwvdviWmwdmgOt3TmkoXc8QtN5NL3SHw7cOwweQPCxQdaAQH7ay7xqPByE2OQDxJRmuxav77S-_gU_Bc58vnwXTlmb/s1600/DSCN3434.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiKKxICb_P7KSF3f7u5U-UHomFa3O4ssn773OwrM0T3OeZZnwRfxwvdviWmwdmgOt3TmkoXc8QtN5NL3SHw7cOwweQPCxQdaAQH7ay7xqPByE2OQDxJRmuxav77S-_gU_Bc58vnwXTlmb/s1600/DSCN3434.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The yellow balloon looking creature is a lamellarian gastropod. They range from about 1.5 to 7cm (0.6 to 2.75 inches) long. The gastropod does not have a shell for protection but it appears to be protected by emitting a chemical that deters predators. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gxwS3U2biNR6J5mJLIYIK7F33y1glfOmaSh0oKQo_R53yFDxwdleUZ8rb-iJZmfwAl_dyKKGDvzxySpxeDAVz45mlxUtpuVL7cSIiSUSMxeO2lnNmUvTC-BuSZvPM3eqwcq9wgUXrNV2/s1600/DSCN3424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gxwS3U2biNR6J5mJLIYIK7F33y1glfOmaSh0oKQo_R53yFDxwdleUZ8rb-iJZmfwAl_dyKKGDvzxySpxeDAVz45mlxUtpuVL7cSIiSUSMxeO2lnNmUvTC-BuSZvPM3eqwcq9wgUXrNV2/s1600/DSCN3424.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this picture you can see the pink upper side of the sea stars as well as their under side.</td></tr>
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The pink sea stars (<i>Odontaster validus</i>), which can also be cream coloured, is the most abundant sea star in the shallow waters (15-200m) around Antarctica. They are extremely slow growing, taking bout 9 years to reach 30grams (~1oz) wet weight. Based on observed growth rates, it is believed that sea stars can live to be over 100 years in age. They can sense light and dark in "eyes" that are found at the end of each arm. This sea star feeds by inverting its stomach to engulf and digest prey. The sea stars feel like a cushion covered with mild sand paper. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidELejIhCqrOWLA9s6k0X0JIA3z48cZwnMLZR4S_3W2rU_Egm_qeKA8Ew7YZiT6j6tD72UJ6qEImc4edp9_DwoYED3Hj5PMJhGczlHjSmV-VPv8iqjozPfD3SKhD-3CJh3owOQJibgblk2/s1600/DSCN3435.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidELejIhCqrOWLA9s6k0X0JIA3z48cZwnMLZR4S_3W2rU_Egm_qeKA8Ew7YZiT6j6tD72UJ6qEImc4edp9_DwoYED3Hj5PMJhGczlHjSmV-VPv8iqjozPfD3SKhD-3CJh3owOQJibgblk2/s1600/DSCN3435.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This isopod looks brown and hairy! It's only about 10cm (4 inches) long.</td></tr>
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Isopods of the species shown above (<i>Glyptonotus antarcticus</i>) can grow to be up to 20cm (7.9inches) long. They are omnivorous and will eat whatever it can find, including small Isopods of its own species - yes, cannibalism!). They prefer darker periods and are considered nocturnal, hunting for food at night. This isopod species must feed twice a week to stay healthy. <br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/LJDEHoJg-lA">A video of some sea spiders is best viewed at this link </a><br />
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-44744697092066920552014-12-14T11:54:00.000-08:002014-12-14T20:58:00.904-08:00Installing a new AWSThe weather has been quite variable in Antarctica over the last week or so. It may be a fine day at McMurdo, but more distant places could be cloud covered or winds could be enough to create a ground blizzard, thus landing an aircraft (e.g. the Twin Otter) is not possible. Within the ups and downs of constantly being on standby for flight, we have managed to get to a number of locations to work on some AWS stations. I thought I would post some pictures of a typical installation. This is the new Emma AWS station, which is located far south on the Ross Ice Shelf (84.00S, 174.36W).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkUvPzP5W38dIUbiG4S4tBaPrNmJUwsK-G2_WOMh6OP_8ztxLihNiGL7eayBhpu44CYAg56p-T9e2HLz75EuVYBefU0xNogCZ4556A1w6Yode8FhnnUcBemtz7MbRxUbGcXhSBJ2bWMWz/s1600/DSCN3062_annotate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkUvPzP5W38dIUbiG4S4tBaPrNmJUwsK-G2_WOMh6OP_8ztxLihNiGL7eayBhpu44CYAg56p-T9e2HLz75EuVYBefU0xNogCZ4556A1w6Yode8FhnnUcBemtz7MbRxUbGcXhSBJ2bWMWz/s1600/DSCN3062_annotate.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Choose a location and assemble all the required equipment and instruments. Set up the high precision GPS (Global Positioning System) to get an exact location so we can find the AWS in future years.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP7uptxQLvLETFOHqGedxr1betaOemGiEC9LdFnj9zrcwNOjFRCaPm1rniV_-S4tu-5zW7u8IMXKH16DKNIpMl2ERMpCqmoXAKjuGZKkgDEjwBAIHGbqJfmwczPp5bkx2dmYCK7HOcLwD/s1600/DSCN3066_annotate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP7uptxQLvLETFOHqGedxr1betaOemGiEC9LdFnj9zrcwNOjFRCaPm1rniV_-S4tu-5zW7u8IMXKH16DKNIpMl2ERMpCqmoXAKjuGZKkgDEjwBAIHGbqJfmwczPp5bkx2dmYCK7HOcLwD/s1600/DSCN3066_annotate.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dig a 1m (3ft) pit for the tower and put the base plate in the bottom. We will put the bottom of the tower on this plywood base. Next, install three "Deadman" T-Anchors for guying out the tower once it has been raised.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrD8UudJgHLwcD7Cgd3wHXF2jm4B90WZ4yMOC8pfa4VZVCQz_j8LriiCLYSeWPhzjqYhvITHIBHoBVoF5ubo2LxY0xjajLkplJ_oiNYqQlqNgO_BUpYro34tDqCC-1i1Fqa8IzHLomslTa/s1600/DSCN3068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrD8UudJgHLwcD7Cgd3wHXF2jm4B90WZ4yMOC8pfa4VZVCQz_j8LriiCLYSeWPhzjqYhvITHIBHoBVoF5ubo2LxY0xjajLkplJ_oiNYqQlqNgO_BUpYro34tDqCC-1i1Fqa8IzHLomslTa/s1600/DSCN3068.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A properly set tower with the main pit and anchor pits all filled in. The tower can now support the weight of a person climbing on it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmKUV88C3zEepzWod1oU6MsTbpfpTno27TIK-7lRcW2ORNFkJqOTnUZCiRfDt9vDDgE5Mt_Jt5lWXY1io4Fbtz17adW4IqwLI6rS5RVROkwniumyt57KekFlZxtP5jKBw9PC2ShMiJdSc/s1600/DSCN3069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmKUV88C3zEepzWod1oU6MsTbpfpTno27TIK-7lRcW2ORNFkJqOTnUZCiRfDt9vDDgE5Mt_Jt5lWXY1io4Fbtz17adW4IqwLI6rS5RVROkwniumyt57KekFlZxtP5jKBw9PC2ShMiJdSc/s1600/DSCN3069.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installing the instruments, starting from the top down. The first item is the anemometer. We also have to determine which direction is true north and correctly align the wind direction detector.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cKz6eGLctMNdvF9mpqEBS18HC9evdtLJ1_HQnK8pLDBAs9CVxvuW-I8UWlxN23qazNmV_UJ-zm7Uc5fucQ-xto4XI4oSQgwGg1VdFXSILoTL3Q7sH5K4m_JhffsVNIO2hyphenhyphenAdZupDgVLV/s1600/DSCN3082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cKz6eGLctMNdvF9mpqEBS18HC9evdtLJ1_HQnK8pLDBAs9CVxvuW-I8UWlxN23qazNmV_UJ-zm7Uc5fucQ-xto4XI4oSQgwGg1VdFXSILoTL3Q7sH5K4m_JhffsVNIO2hyphenhyphenAdZupDgVLV/s1600/DSCN3082.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add all the additional instrument and the data logger box. Connect all the wiring from each instrument in the correct location.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52Qm2SQKSMm72unh-Vj_cbdsIlOprKNvJUwRKGP6d1XKyJS8dTqdANuLmCKMqYb8RpoZCXOKeZkEIxyXGoqia1Kz6lcnSqDGjjP0PGc22MFau-mBbB-FEs9fa0LsOXNt3AegaUIxZ5Z3n/s1600/DSCN3077.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52Qm2SQKSMm72unh-Vj_cbdsIlOprKNvJUwRKGP6d1XKyJS8dTqdANuLmCKMqYb8RpoZCXOKeZkEIxyXGoqia1Kz6lcnSqDGjjP0PGc22MFau-mBbB-FEs9fa0LsOXNt3AegaUIxZ5Z3n/s1600/DSCN3077.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connect the power system (in the orange cases) and we have a completed installation.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MV6iiq-Mf5SJlWgS_mp6WnOVg7Xi4zqYU4nRZQI0CeuUvHSqiMR0Hccc5W6F_gsgVSpt8fgbvMoKU35lyYsa8w6_AkJphse11bGhfcBCGtXPqayVmXFLUsKa7ljLB3yAK3bcC30pSx6E/s1600/DSCN3079.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MV6iiq-Mf5SJlWgS_mp6WnOVg7Xi4zqYU4nRZQI0CeuUvHSqiMR0Hccc5W6F_gsgVSpt8fgbvMoKU35lyYsa8w6_AkJphse11bGhfcBCGtXPqayVmXFLUsKa7ljLB3yAK3bcC30pSx6E/s1600/DSCN3079.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lastly, we need to check that data from the instruments is being correctly transmitted in real-time. This unit picks up the same signals that are transmitted to satellites (and ultimately back to the University of Wisconsin) and shows the codes on the small screen. </td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-9367412317621538742014-12-13T00:29:00.002-08:002014-12-13T00:29:32.638-08:00Emperor Penguin SightingA late evening bit of excitement happened today. On the way home from a long day in the field at "Tall Tower" (a 100ft AWS station) we were treated to seeing an Emperor Penguin as we drove from Willey Field (the airport where the Twin Otter aircraft fly from) back to MacTown. I had really hoped to see an Emperor, but time was running out and the sea ice edge was still over 40km (25miles) away so it was exciting to actually see one. This penguin had gone for a long walk!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inspecting the snow</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tasting the snow</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A slow walk</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belly sliding! When sliding, the penguin moved faster than walking</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6J6NJNHADM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The above video is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6J6NJNHADM">best viewed here</a>. Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-38134443961179710102014-12-11T01:26:00.000-08:002014-12-11T01:26:29.838-08:00Science: The Fabric of IceIce cores have been drilled and extracted at various locations on the major ice sheets of the world e.g. Greenland, West Antarctica and East Antarctica. The ice is formed as snow slowly compacts over thousands of years. The ice on these sheets can be very thick - over 3km (2 miles) thick and the deep ice can be over 200,000 years old. The extracted ice cores are used to understand the climate over such a time span. Gases trapped in tiny air bubbles are analyzed to gain insight into atmospheric composition over time, while the chemical and molecular (isotopic!) make up of the ice can tell us about large scale temperature regimes of the past.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/AntarcticSun/science/images3/wais_voigt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/AntarcticSun/science/images3/wais_voigt.jpg" height="313" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don Voigt working on an ice core. I spent a fascinating evening talking with Don, learning about how ice core drilling is done. To successfully retrieve a prefect ice core from 3000m below the surface requires technical and engineering expertise. Photo: antarcticsun.usap.gov</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/AntarcticSun/science/images/WAIS_drill1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/AntarcticSun/science/images/WAIS_drill1.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The coring drill at WAIS Divide (WAIS = West Antarctic Ice Sheet). You can see the ice core in the drill casing. Photo: antarcticsun.usap.gov</td></tr>
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A couple of technical engineers were assembling an intriguing instrument in the lab next to me. In the borehole created by extracting an ice core, they will be sending down an instrument that will use beams of light to detect the crystal form of the ice found at these great depths. The scientist on this project want to understand the 'fabric of ice' meaning they want to know how dense the ice is, how large the individual ice crystals are and how these crystals are aligned. This instrument package will be slowly lowered down the borehole and will stop at various depths to remotely sense the ice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHj9GkSUuMlT7EA1zh2ocgZTFAv-cNGZn4G2PaGRnEg4TZkXoQiuxKbAsQG_KjzyAdornOnBZBIcMLiznKapLVJoAnR1cgm-YU1eNm20l0TqJBFvm1OSEP6OzYDlERta68Hq-MEBjepBJ/s1600/IMG_1058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHj9GkSUuMlT7EA1zh2ocgZTFAv-cNGZn4G2PaGRnEg4TZkXoQiuxKbAsQG_KjzyAdornOnBZBIcMLiznKapLVJoAnR1cgm-YU1eNm20l0TqJBFvm1OSEP6OzYDlERta68Hq-MEBjepBJ/s1600/IMG_1058.JPG" height="400" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe and Merlin working on the small rack of instruments that will be placed in a robust casing. The whole assembly has to be able to slide down the hole left by extracting an ice core; the hole is only 15cm (6 inches) in diameter. I will explain the instruments below.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1Lqru1ZoiP-W2kpL7o1mmBOzfxhxpDSLLl3zNGfw_YBPVlv49MJ4rFCmjpx_WvFPAZbMmXUouhZ-DToA1SQZBqqZ66N813jxkV9gOI_v9-DdYVzoKuHPoRxmDAAwda0MNE4-fFJwmUd_/s1600/IMG_1063.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1Lqru1ZoiP-W2kpL7o1mmBOzfxhxpDSLLl3zNGfw_YBPVlv49MJ4rFCmjpx_WvFPAZbMmXUouhZ-DToA1SQZBqqZ66N813jxkV9gOI_v9-DdYVzoKuHPoRxmDAAwda0MNE4-fFJwmUd_/s1600/IMG_1063.JPG" height="400" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The casing to hold the instruments has to be very robust as it has to withstand high pressure. The borehole is filled with fluid (like anti-freeze) so that the hole stays open, but 3000m of fluid above an instrument creates high pressure. There are three small windows on the casing to allow light (or laser beam) from the instrument to shine on the ice.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4AjZwbNlube6xHjasvR1D4sU3D00F1WHqz2KaVgaknIGdE1NYXIcnq7_JiQ7ejlbwr5IqoKg68pxYnTBM6E91WDu1astacsWQWFfw34DL3_BddRNjnp8SCankqTWGHcHrkP_zOaEPXKT/s1600/IMG_1059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4AjZwbNlube6xHjasvR1D4sU3D00F1WHqz2KaVgaknIGdE1NYXIcnq7_JiQ7ejlbwr5IqoKg68pxYnTBM6E91WDu1astacsWQWFfw34DL3_BddRNjnp8SCankqTWGHcHrkP_zOaEPXKT/s1600/IMG_1059.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two silver knobs on the instrument in the picture above are laser emitters and detectors. These knobs are actually angled slightly towards each other. One knob shoots a laser beam of light at the ice and the time it takes to reach the detector tells us about the density of the ice.This is due to the process of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction">refraction</a>.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDhkWHRsKumSqalIxWJIqFCw9D4osUR_XRFDPkvUxQHMSTMXYk2khuxFCxUqZDUNXCuzmXL_kAR6o814Y0d3gfzR7K9l-WNPJZAwvcvRBAyNb7aQcuQRrKQ-4T7HBE9g9cq2AObCeXB8JM/s1600/IMG_1062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDhkWHRsKumSqalIxWJIqFCw9D4osUR_XRFDPkvUxQHMSTMXYk2khuxFCxUqZDUNXCuzmXL_kAR6o814Y0d3gfzR7K9l-WNPJZAwvcvRBAyNb7aQcuQRrKQ-4T7HBE9g9cq2AObCeXB8JM/s1600/IMG_1062.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three Light Emitting Diodes (LED's), each of which pulses a different color of light at the ice in the borehole. The amount of light reflected back for each color tells us about the form of the ice crystals.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnClCRAbR9UoTe-0N1Qzf5Jos0OZyphI8gCmEJmpzBWbTGqq4wi-B76zUm4B9DCpNVZyCzU8D49GOdZEzARmSV0P3Ical9Ik5pfzxUJDO_UQ0iupdKRv9bOpqeMHdQ-DajgSQrHPHzazE/s1600/IMG_1061.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnClCRAbR9UoTe-0N1Qzf5Jos0OZyphI8gCmEJmpzBWbTGqq4wi-B76zUm4B9DCpNVZyCzU8D49GOdZEzARmSV0P3Ical9Ik5pfzxUJDO_UQ0iupdKRv9bOpqeMHdQ-DajgSQrHPHzazE/s1600/IMG_1061.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The LED detector processing unit.</td></tr>
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To learn more about ice coring follow this link to <a href="http://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/about/">WAIS Divide Ice Core Science</a>.<br />
<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-1679622039877597852014-12-09T20:49:00.000-08:002014-12-09T22:28:22.082-08:00Observation Hill and a view of McMurdoSitting just to the east of McMurdo Station is Observation Hill, known locally as "Ob Hill". It is 230m (750ft) high and provides a nice hike when the weather is good. Scott Base, which is the New Zealand research base, is just on the other side of the hill.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJDKD4chtIe0-Fc9-BykrzSh5qmRtfH8PVJ76hTXREMtBLkVPCJ5qQpn7IJ0-qNdlLeKNV8uuC-diD1Y9wdZRGxPwjhbQ9hGdUW-rfY8h0V4y03HAJRy8eg0HGbaixiZZqGWINN4A6fd4/s1600/IMG_1047.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJDKD4chtIe0-Fc9-BykrzSh5qmRtfH8PVJ76hTXREMtBLkVPCJ5qQpn7IJ0-qNdlLeKNV8uuC-diD1Y9wdZRGxPwjhbQ9hGdUW-rfY8h0V4y03HAJRy8eg0HGbaixiZZqGWINN4A6fd4/s1600/IMG_1047.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Observation Hill is the dominant view to the east when in McMurdo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne9kN7msUiE65B0Z1k0a72_UpqwoEHye_I-a88cgfR4saI0cKHSmwGz1ju4rDQaW1GS2efeXNgqrm66YViN0Q38LxK_7L-vSV8-js2rQUHoyyHxulkIuYRnmSZSXE7FY73Cpao16e1QeZ/s1600/DSCN2819_annotate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne9kN7msUiE65B0Z1k0a72_UpqwoEHye_I-a88cgfR4saI0cKHSmwGz1ju4rDQaW1GS2efeXNgqrm66YViN0Q38LxK_7L-vSV8-js2rQUHoyyHxulkIuYRnmSZSXE7FY73Cpao16e1QeZ/s1600/DSCN2819_annotate.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large scale view of the area around McMurdo</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The lay of the land surrounding McMurdo. I took this picture from a helicopter.<br />
<ol>
<li>McMurdo Station</li>
<li>Observation Hill 230m (~750ft)</li>
<li>Scott Base</li>
<li>Mt Erebus 3,794m (12,448ft). The southern most active volcano in the world</li>
<li>Williams Field (airport/runway for ski enabled planes)</li>
<li>The edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS). The blue line marks the transition between the sea ice and the ice shelf. The sea ice can melt out each season and is the result of sea water freezing. As I posted before, the RIS is floating ice that has come from the glaciers on land.</li>
</ol>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudWf9pHZgXWaPLnPqzAftu6Oi9tKRMA9VtOlbD3YAiKzfNsJm0s6VZ3HKeRkQDSxybmb2jWPfEKsGLSTtXWn0TiMg0HwpcG1-3Nt3dup-pt8BWlHzMT2OExhw1yKv6zkEih-Vu42WrU7_/s1600/DSCN2834_annotate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudWf9pHZgXWaPLnPqzAftu6Oi9tKRMA9VtOlbD3YAiKzfNsJm0s6VZ3HKeRkQDSxybmb2jWPfEKsGLSTtXWn0TiMg0HwpcG1-3Nt3dup-pt8BWlHzMT2OExhw1yKv6zkEih-Vu42WrU7_/s1600/DSCN2834_annotate.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McMurdo seen from a helicopter. Mt Erebus sits behind us, but it cannot be seen when in town.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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A few items to point out in the above photo:<br />
<ol>
<li> Building 155 which contains The Galley (i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner)</li>
<li>The Crary Lab</li>
<li>The dorm I'm staying in (203A)</li>
<li>The helipad</li>
</ol>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_sqc9IfllAX5iQeM4nGv0t5bY80_oSrzCAcqsGVkmbPoMYJzxCgq5MB-_otIdSEsQB0SsgUvFtzoaCe-t8aIkmCe1OcPUEgAj-bjdk-0_RTqYOMLogYH0QiuWyA2tZWVnMxPAVANhnxX/s1600/DSCN3107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_sqc9IfllAX5iQeM4nGv0t5bY80_oSrzCAcqsGVkmbPoMYJzxCgq5MB-_otIdSEsQB0SsgUvFtzoaCe-t8aIkmCe1OcPUEgAj-bjdk-0_RTqYOMLogYH0QiuWyA2tZWVnMxPAVANhnxX/s1600/DSCN3107.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the top of Ob Hill you can see Scott Base</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDfol-9Wcf_UVmzcURN9X0_11wX_wwkfGyi0JNwn5hhhamg8bwmfIQ-akFeHj99uuGBVTm1gEGO2ZWpv_pNqGy4N2tP_Qr4AterIUC9uGQ1zj4YsfitcvAIkOUU4g-nA4AsugsS1gz5am/s1600/DSCN3132.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDfol-9Wcf_UVmzcURN9X0_11wX_wwkfGyi0JNwn5hhhamg8bwmfIQ-akFeHj99uuGBVTm1gEGO2ZWpv_pNqGy4N2tP_Qr4AterIUC9uGQ1zj4YsfitcvAIkOUU4g-nA4AsugsS1gz5am/s1600/DSCN3132.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scott Base is much smaller than McMurdo Station</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotvs0oPvuAHOUY52N4tEtgFVM35xAIZ2xcybksKttyF7Hy-GBpLUiTmgbQDCKZK8n_Vd5gIZeZVhdryitsou1eblNhXiNDO3H-TRq-rWPiwLrUXyAUPyKa96hC8R9XUBnl9NAjNlP6Pd1/s1600/DSCN3109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotvs0oPvuAHOUY52N4tEtgFVM35xAIZ2xcybksKttyF7Hy-GBpLUiTmgbQDCKZK8n_Vd5gIZeZVhdryitsou1eblNhXiNDO3H-TRq-rWPiwLrUXyAUPyKa96hC8R9XUBnl9NAjNlP6Pd1/s1600/DSCN3109.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A good view of the Helipad is available from Ob Hill</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXSLKM8OqBWCa16ipBEpda2_r-Dab0pwWUwcM3i2jJZs9TNIwQw7z6VRzcfxiZBnqut0SX7fypJNueQax4yzm4rS3kXPYWjY5Nw1W_COlwQ3VG2MbkVixViMwlmdyrNEQoQr90bue4lyT/s1600/DSCN3106.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXSLKM8OqBWCa16ipBEpda2_r-Dab0pwWUwcM3i2jJZs9TNIwQw7z6VRzcfxiZBnqut0SX7fypJNueQax4yzm4rS3kXPYWjY5Nw1W_COlwQ3VG2MbkVixViMwlmdyrNEQoQr90bue4lyT/s1600/DSCN3106.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This A-Star helicopter was sling-loading a net full of gear</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcRIrKXrBKmH9aHxTXNNHeETZ9mcPJ7lzUCYIUNg6an6R_4itkFkyGyRjOgt0wv1QX70vMdMPc_h4CGShKa27O4nVfyM5i042JLRU2v03vPAhyphenhyphenNBoE55p_hfA5pcaA3I6JcFTBQ4_3tEN/s1600/DSCN3110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcRIrKXrBKmH9aHxTXNNHeETZ9mcPJ7lzUCYIUNg6an6R_4itkFkyGyRjOgt0wv1QX70vMdMPc_h4CGShKa27O4nVfyM5i042JLRU2v03vPAhyphenhyphenNBoE55p_hfA5pcaA3I6JcFTBQ4_3tEN/s1600/DSCN3110.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McMurdo Station, as seen from the top of Ob Hill</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRzoCVLcFZfzoUWU9XEGLZv5KjDBmceK8SHwezKW9ejmMDpnTwbiGL-BaBTNttzoKMFLcl7JH8nf75fj_NY3L_XvzlEdSmKqDuXwnf16ZMyx9Qt9fQynUHSGr3gXpHe4AuJ9JC_LQ32qsO/s1600/IMG_1037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRzoCVLcFZfzoUWU9XEGLZv5KjDBmceK8SHwezKW9ejmMDpnTwbiGL-BaBTNttzoKMFLcl7JH8nf75fj_NY3L_XvzlEdSmKqDuXwnf16ZMyx9Qt9fQynUHSGr3gXpHe4AuJ9JC_LQ32qsO/s1600/IMG_1037.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myself (in red) and Atsu Muto (in black) on the summit of Ob Hill. Atsu did his graduate studies at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (University of Colorado), which is where I work. He studied the recent (50-year) temperature history of the East Antarctic Plateau and is now at Penn-State University working on detecting changes in ice mass via gravity. It was great to see an old friend in MacTown.</td></tr>
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The cross in the photo above was erected in 1912 in memory of Robert Falcon Scott's party that attempted to reach the South Pole and return. The party perished on the Ross Ice Shelf after reaching the Pole.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3al1IVvfdBFKF_xxyPeaC2VrBpjpSioa8T3lXsBAWACYzkOhhbtwIQXNYL2_mkRJ4wWqN7BRzgLYnKBNWTJ__03LZzABMLbvVFCugNvdFbjsBgXWcHgNXuWAcexrlIEAptxjbUShThxJT/s1600/DSCN3130.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3al1IVvfdBFKF_xxyPeaC2VrBpjpSioa8T3lXsBAWACYzkOhhbtwIQXNYL2_mkRJ4wWqN7BRzgLYnKBNWTJ__03LZzABMLbvVFCugNvdFbjsBgXWcHgNXuWAcexrlIEAptxjbUShThxJT/s1600/DSCN3130.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The plaque with information about the cross </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYV3P_CQVQUveH_mLNA9lneS-fHxWWV3fLpKTEYzTK5g6bbV5xmL2uPxZ9a6GWOU9HuUmr2ieLZK4h6WfE_7-PNNIPOeBx4mqzsQfUKCLMyUYzVZc2MPlRbgEIIc7pKjyIX0uKDFdDquDO/s1600/IMG_1040.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYV3P_CQVQUveH_mLNA9lneS-fHxWWV3fLpKTEYzTK5g6bbV5xmL2uPxZ9a6GWOU9HuUmr2ieLZK4h6WfE_7-PNNIPOeBx4mqzsQfUKCLMyUYzVZc2MPlRbgEIIc7pKjyIX0uKDFdDquDO/s1600/IMG_1040.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While on the summit we heard someone playing a saxophone - it was Jon Reese (a seal biologist) who carried up his instrument to play while taking in the view of Mt Erebus.</td></tr>
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Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-90655751300104027992014-12-04T12:27:00.000-08:002014-12-04T12:29:43.070-08:00Science: PenguinsMany of the younger blog followers like penguins, so today I'm going to post some paraphrased portions of a conversation with Jean Pennycook. Jean has been coming to Antarctica for<b> </b>well over 10 years and is as friendly as the little penguins she studies. Jean left McMurdo Station to go and camp at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cape+Royds+Ad%C3%A9lie+Penguin+Rookery/@-77.574114,166.1063883,21038m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!1m3!3m2!1s0xaf70d49f053fac5f:0xfbb31828d1c01133!2sShackleton%27s+Hut!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0x126c9862cc53487a">Cape Royds</a>, to observe the Adelie Penguins for the rest of the summer. As of the last week in November, the Adelie penguins at Cape Royds have eggs on their nests and the parents are taking turns to go out to sea for feeding excursions. They have to walk from the rookery to the sea ice edge, which is about 1.5km (~1 mile) away - that's a long way for a little penguin to walk! At Cape Royds penguin chicks will hatch in mid- to late-December.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpM-9iBt5BhtCSj-kXxlFpArwMmIRLtImsFzzrJ0T1grYJA5wAlnc5mw9wdNlOXls9MFoSdz0f5-D_3gcxBTEzkSCE5Dq1H0Tg1CA2OLYquP4zpdTVQMlt3sId_6uXSXnkfNbq44tGGITA/s1600/DSCN2386.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpM-9iBt5BhtCSj-kXxlFpArwMmIRLtImsFzzrJ0T1grYJA5wAlnc5mw9wdNlOXls9MFoSdz0f5-D_3gcxBTEzkSCE5Dq1H0Tg1CA2OLYquP4zpdTVQMlt3sId_6uXSXnkfNbq44tGGITA/s1600/DSCN2386.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jean Pennycook, always ready with her camera</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">Q: How many species of penguins live in Antarctica?</span><br />
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There are four species in Antarctica - the Emperor, Adelie, Gentoo and Chinstrap. However, there are over 15 species of penguins. Penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere and large numbers are in the colder regions such as Antarctica or the Sub-Antarctic Islands e.g. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Macquarie+Island,+Australia/@-50.2815294,149.3848612,5z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xa9091ebfbc0960c1:0x4926cd0684c37223">Macquarie Island</a> or <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/South+Georgia+and+the+South+Sandwich+Islands/@-58.5264909,-50.6099581,4z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xb93db6e252a87925:0x7ee37cda884db0bd">South Georgia</a>. Various penguin species can also be seen in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina.<br />
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A common confusion is to forget that Penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere and Polar Bears only live in the Northern Hemisphere. Polar Bears and Penguins will not meet! ... and don't forget that a penguin is a bird, it just happens to be flightless (but penguins are excellent swimmers). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0E0UcRAjbvwctIGFeuS_u2acpbPd-ODA4yyTNBVybxCS3Vryy64VBM13pVXhaaOPMBYlVQ5EeJzMbvquhxAWLSUpUPSKgt4wAZDbKEhdH_oGN9nYIvi0WCgvSGBO3aIyGVLUESHgsRv-/s1600/DSCN2410.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0E0UcRAjbvwctIGFeuS_u2acpbPd-ODA4yyTNBVybxCS3Vryy64VBM13pVXhaaOPMBYlVQ5EeJzMbvquhxAWLSUpUPSKgt4wAZDbKEhdH_oGN9nYIvi0WCgvSGBO3aIyGVLUESHgsRv-/s1600/DSCN2410.JPG" height="287" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Emperor Penguin colony seen from the air on our way to Cape Hallett a few weeks ago. The black dots are penguins, but the brown colour/color is due to penguin guano (poo! - ooogh). The discolouration of the ice has been useful for tracking penguin populations by satellite.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4v_GjYPTiuZIVggPintUyU6vFUZv4BJLNBY5_4sc48rftd4dzX8H79pUXS93ph9vHZ-ZHzh70m1QauSeM4v3IS89sWTEwDTKp6XZ2iP-iECMVTnzUax59eHdw63V01CzktR0t6UFxoXkH/s1600/DSC01416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4v_GjYPTiuZIVggPintUyU6vFUZv4BJLNBY5_4sc48rftd4dzX8H79pUXS93ph9vHZ-ZHzh70m1QauSeM4v3IS89sWTEwDTKp6XZ2iP-iECMVTnzUax59eHdw63V01CzktR0t6UFxoXkH/s1600/DSC01416.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emperor Penguins being inquisitive as McMurdo researchers prepare instruments. Photo: Lars Kalnajs of team <a href="http://www.2odiac.com/">2odiac</a> </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_v_UIfxTTXzsJwxKysejGZHeuft2sgG0mNRK_nsDO7sCTnP1kD4unEA96Y9lkYOsZc5pxxTNl-zzSViRF3Jrh1rIUvC1KJsEAtDfd386hrIwpMyTsYPrHFto8GUdt9HDYGCB6b1DE9VB/s1600/DSC01422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_v_UIfxTTXzsJwxKysejGZHeuft2sgG0mNRK_nsDO7sCTnP1kD4unEA96Y9lkYOsZc5pxxTNl-zzSViRF3Jrh1rIUvC1KJsEAtDfd386hrIwpMyTsYPrHFto8GUdt9HDYGCB6b1DE9VB/s1600/DSC01422.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Emperor Penguins on the Ross Sea. Photos: Lars Kalnajs of team <a href="http://www.2odiac.com/">2odiac</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">Q: What are the largest, smallest and most common species of penguins?</span><br />
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The largest is the Emperor Penguin and they live in Antarctica. If we travel out to the edge of the sea ice near McMurdo Station, we would occasionally be able to see Emperor Penguins. The smallest is the Fairy (or Little Blue) Penguin, which can be found in Australia and New Zealand. Adelie's are the most numerous of all and Yellow-Eye (in New Zealand) are the most endangered.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0MPTXNsGmmoU6fni9TBvpR1mrDd8hbFGl71DzCK-CK7uQ3yMR3hSiI4xLFMMzSx-uEVCvu7MCC5YcZx-KwtLz5lQZ1v4Fj1nUJK2tRVsGR12ifmSQh6Ko78etMhWq9REhWV_bEK35xqqe/s1600/DSCN2491.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0MPTXNsGmmoU6fni9TBvpR1mrDd8hbFGl71DzCK-CK7uQ3yMR3hSiI4xLFMMzSx-uEVCvu7MCC5YcZx-KwtLz5lQZ1v4Fj1nUJK2tRVsGR12ifmSQh6Ko78etMhWq9REhWV_bEK35xqqe/s1600/DSCN2491.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A curious Adelie Penguin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Adelie penguin about to belly slide - some penguins can move considerably faster than walking by sliding on their belly if the ice or snow conditions are right.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">Q: What is the lifespan of a penguin?</span><br />
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Adelie Penguins live to be about 15-20years old<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgej1LDYHTHW1uhyphenhyphenqNEbX0mygRTrnZZkTTX2i3z7Rt3YEvoeBAbEwrUTwoj_NTuNSzfEJN0O541q-Gbup3FQLNAs5di0eKZt4Rnm1w98JorEhlbXhKcL4hZYC3Y5olbr08v0ebwKbhCdM-x/s1600/DSCN2907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgej1LDYHTHW1uhyphenhyphenqNEbX0mygRTrnZZkTTX2i3z7Rt3YEvoeBAbEwrUTwoj_NTuNSzfEJN0O541q-Gbup3FQLNAs5di0eKZt4Rnm1w98JorEhlbXhKcL4hZYC3Y5olbr08v0ebwKbhCdM-x/s1600/DSCN2907.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jumping cracks in the sea ice is as close to flight that this little penguin may get.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zWPiKyfNptOmrdtrw4TTVab7Y9W50uSDe6oiTZ7l9K3GuBXLP8J9TEyUKsuJuSq2SF3x9R9EP6N0ISgUdxohFFNCelVyqKbPzut6KdXYN120h5Gs8ndIQBjE_pIOZyfU-z9LGYtaklQW/s1600/DSCN2916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zWPiKyfNptOmrdtrw4TTVab7Y9W50uSDe6oiTZ7l9K3GuBXLP8J9TEyUKsuJuSq2SF3x9R9EP6N0ISgUdxohFFNCelVyqKbPzut6KdXYN120h5Gs8ndIQBjE_pIOZyfU-z9LGYtaklQW/s1600/DSCN2916.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"> Q: What do penguins eat?</span><br />
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The penguins in Antarctica live on a diet that is composed of krill, fish and squid. Krill are small crustaceans, much like shrimp/prawns.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Q: Do penguins live in Antarctica all year long?</span><br />
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Yes, they follow the edge of the sea ice in winter and summer as the sea is their food source. Breeding time is summer for most penguins when the sea ice is close to its lowest extent (except the Emperor Penguin). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKLSr4G8OtH1MqOTKvM2WM_HpBKdBJa3INKTUdDES3cU9ce5XVBhIMRTXVhuMjb53SKZvxBRbDmrdtBRjaTPSDQ__TkqQvmjhtDXjp3yuBPDM4ws3iQHuMRW467sumDhLNlOk7yOFhzlt/s1600/climatology_81-10_min-max_conc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKLSr4G8OtH1MqOTKvM2WM_HpBKdBJa3INKTUdDES3cU9ce5XVBhIMRTXVhuMjb53SKZvxBRbDmrdtBRjaTPSDQ__TkqQvmjhtDXjp3yuBPDM4ws3iQHuMRW467sumDhLNlOk7yOFhzlt/s1600/climatology_81-10_min-max_conc.jpg" height="205" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Average minimum and maximum Antarctic sea ice extent for 1980-2010. Source: <a href="http://nsidc.org/">NSIDC</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI32YjImTk4UU3EEX7gOBec9EAs4lZ1jP_Z_EaIOFcWKCtM6D9CvGgIU0i1wMj2V7WWISQxFfzLIRaTrfgjg0RlFR57bEoUoVFxVL9M348ZPffJC9ckpXXSGixDV8DyqUgUceHHqoG-Vtt/s1600/DSCN2961.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI32YjImTk4UU3EEX7gOBec9EAs4lZ1jP_Z_EaIOFcWKCtM6D9CvGgIU0i1wMj2V7WWISQxFfzLIRaTrfgjg0RlFR57bEoUoVFxVL9M348ZPffJC9ckpXXSGixDV8DyqUgUceHHqoG-Vtt/s1600/DSCN2961.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adelie Penguins making the long walk across sea ice, out to the ocean.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">Q: The Antarctic has been experiencing change in recent years, for example, the Peninsula region has been warming, but the maximum extent of sea ice has also been reaching record levels. How do these changes impact penguins?</span><br />
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One impact we have seen is that Adelie Penguins are no longer living on the Antarctic Peninsula. The sea ice conditions in summer are not favorable for them any more. Other breeds of penguins, such as Gentoo's, have become more prevalent on the Peninsula.<br />
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Mean annual air temperature in some parts of the Antarctic Peninsula have risen 2.8C (5.0F) during the last 50 years of measurements. This is the region of greatest temperature change in the Southern Hemisphere.<br />
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To learn more about penguins, have a look at <a href="http://penguinscience.com/">penguinscience.com</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcgZf13dJSVNAoAvRu_X75zUFhnEkiLmLdijHmRRxTcjh9LDcljVwI78nekbnyxL6AuzPQLWEf1qM4K-KlWJIISjsd9WSl9Jbu2pObRSEe2CJwRI5hmJtnBdyI9n4vZ7s-3E4ZhKHqy-j/s1600/penguin_patagonia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcgZf13dJSVNAoAvRu_X75zUFhnEkiLmLdijHmRRxTcjh9LDcljVwI78nekbnyxL6AuzPQLWEf1qM4K-KlWJIISjsd9WSl9Jbu2pObRSEe2CJwRI5hmJtnBdyI9n4vZ7s-3E4ZhKHqy-j/s1600/penguin_patagonia.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magellanic Penguins in Chile. I took this photo back in 2003. Magellanic Penguins are only found in Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-50734582009920421212014-12-02T10:25:00.000-08:002014-12-02T10:25:30.449-08:00A visit to the "Ob Tube"The "Ob Tube" (observation tube) is a 4-5m (12-15ft) tube with viewing windows at the bottom that has been put through the sea ice, just offshore of McMurdo Station. The tube is wide enough for someone to climb down into the viewing chamber and have a look at life in the sea under the ice. With most of the snow cleared off the sea ice surrounding the tube, a fair amount of light can filter down into the water to enable viewing.<br />
<br />
Weather was poor for flying the other day so we were unable to visit any AWS stations, but an afternoon trip to the Ob Tube was a great use of time.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5NiLiQksDhtuTy2MR3yZmIzBKwGlVWS3f9FCesp1o2PNETx_9oIQhZvLDYG9YU6hIWFYJUL1g9CNfgTiCGgC8tNbUYIhU2hcu_LWNydAPpjee73zpvrN6GctM0Oc-u4UzBW-0K-gHGYX/s1600/DSCN3001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5NiLiQksDhtuTy2MR3yZmIzBKwGlVWS3f9FCesp1o2PNETx_9oIQhZvLDYG9YU6hIWFYJUL1g9CNfgTiCGgC8tNbUYIhU2hcu_LWNydAPpjee73zpvrN6GctM0Oc-u4UzBW-0K-gHGYX/s1600/DSCN3001.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The top of the Ob Tube is the green cylinder and a "Tomato Hut" is on the right. I was standing on sea ice when taking this picture.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit55tpFa3An2N8PfB4WuRgzb3_qHIkDIdFB9PuewTnyTJ_URALFtlk0r2MqAClap_znOWproofizz6g2ELiE0Ys7zD3may5CDvJPvejTRq1CtXtOjg-adcqWePXOOXQniIX0hpfTvpkqwx/s1600/DSCN3006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit55tpFa3An2N8PfB4WuRgzb3_qHIkDIdFB9PuewTnyTJ_URALFtlk0r2MqAClap_znOWproofizz6g2ELiE0Ys7zD3may5CDvJPvejTRq1CtXtOjg-adcqWePXOOXQniIX0hpfTvpkqwx/s1600/DSCN3006.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the Tomato Hut. These huts are often used as emergency shelters or warming huts at many locations in Antarctica</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgeIBZuH7vN-qjGfIYcJCm8vYnWeyeCpZRVX35x95cFqNBbGwKR5q5oJp-h7JPHLKG17zaG4iy6tJHozb9jTSav9Axo1IKPEqlW-hybTchdQBiDNcv-yEuilO8aTUndkyEu7NQGubBVC5/s1600/DSCN3010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgeIBZuH7vN-qjGfIYcJCm8vYnWeyeCpZRVX35x95cFqNBbGwKR5q5oJp-h7JPHLKG17zaG4iy6tJHozb9jTSav9Axo1IKPEqlW-hybTchdQBiDNcv-yEuilO8aTUndkyEu7NQGubBVC5/s1600/DSCN3010.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm about to go down the tube. It's a tight fit! There are steel rungs on the inside of the tube and finally a rope ladder at the end.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_J5vCWfKI5z9MK61hcstA7_WpiiVGZ4OOuToD4yUiUD3CVzoS0ZJPI5w9l4uH3EZFo72J3qfPUUIa0kBUADttdqxIeOeIgUh4YLJ0e1JrOBttjh77oxNQIqO3fc007sNxS274xt33yZpS/s1600/DSCN3017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_J5vCWfKI5z9MK61hcstA7_WpiiVGZ4OOuToD4yUiUD3CVzoS0ZJPI5w9l4uH3EZFo72J3qfPUUIa0kBUADttdqxIeOeIgUh4YLJ0e1JrOBttjh77oxNQIqO3fc007sNxS274xt33yZpS/s1600/DSCN3017.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A picture of the sea floor from the viewing window. Can you see the starfish? </td></tr>
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An interesting feature seen from the underside of the sea ice is a "brinicle" - at the top-right side of the above picture there is a (faint) yellow-ish
finger of ice. Brine is a mix of salt and water. The more salt contained in water, the lower the freezing point, so if very salty, but very cold
water is able to flow into the sea water in a concentrated form, it will freeze the
less salty seawater that it comes into contact with, forming a tube. If very saline brine continues to flow, the brinicle will grow downwards. During the formation of sea ice, salts are rejected from the freezing sea water and brine is formed. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUKrPsmrOypeVsX0rqF-VkmbdPENR7af99_q7JHqYv-yczPY98BnUfhnYW8F8DaHjOQx3pDDSVEwHA8uh1e8jVlJ53KiW-64xhNB46j8ipzWL-QAuqSge4y6Me6q93gbljqr_kujV_lkE/s1600/DSCN3018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUKrPsmrOypeVsX0rqF-VkmbdPENR7af99_q7JHqYv-yczPY98BnUfhnYW8F8DaHjOQx3pDDSVEwHA8uh1e8jVlJ53KiW-64xhNB46j8ipzWL-QAuqSge4y6Me6q93gbljqr_kujV_lkE/s1600/DSCN3018.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The underside of the sea ice - algae and ice crystals</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Despite being very cold water, the sea is teeming with life. I could see many small invertebrates and several varieties of small fish. Occasionally you could hear seal calls through the water, though I didn't see any seals.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXsgoQ48KHZM-jY6XEHs4eKBr8kv4266jhMEaMja9qvZvGVopzLsUDH52DLbyNf-1sQrlIf_u0UsWU9KIw2tyRhUUfWrP65fH5cPPdVyWbiWhYDUeJvN3lQTLKXFtmndbS0X1fOvmbytA/s1600/DSCN3019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXsgoQ48KHZM-jY6XEHs4eKBr8kv4266jhMEaMja9qvZvGVopzLsUDH52DLbyNf-1sQrlIf_u0UsWU9KIw2tyRhUUfWrP65fH5cPPdVyWbiWhYDUeJvN3lQTLKXFtmndbS0X1fOvmbytA/s1600/DSCN3019.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are lots of small fish swimming around. The sea is rich in life down here.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-35650606980367580932014-11-30T16:05:00.000-08:002014-11-30T18:33:06.998-08:00Thanksgiving on IceFor the non-US readers, Thanksgiving is a major holiday in the US - a time traditionally spent with family and friends over a big meal with turkey as the main dish. It is held on the last Thursday in November. At McMurdo Station the science doesn't stop, but there is a Thanksgiving holiday. Saturday was denoted as a holiday on base, meaning that all non-essential services have the day off. There was a traditional dinner served in waves; we have 900 people on base at the moment and we can't all fit in the Galley at once. Everyone could sign up for Turkey dinner at either 3pm, 5pm or 7pm. The Galley Staff did a wonderful job and we all had a grand dinner with merriment. There was certainly a feeling of camaraderie and festivity across McMurdo. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJF8ZDE-5mJoLYk0YVL6MFHi-n9tg4IVeLPmyy3FdxdCSmZOsZ6sdtEL2isl0uff1EZ6oIA4YTo78zbDqRCNCIf4XbF9I5eX7PMkVHTpn_r-M3hbViTkLFUteFuLQD_byBVVfJpqRrDhu/s1600/IMG_1019.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJF8ZDE-5mJoLYk0YVL6MFHi-n9tg4IVeLPmyy3FdxdCSmZOsZ6sdtEL2isl0uff1EZ6oIA4YTo78zbDqRCNCIf4XbF9I5eX7PMkVHTpn_r-M3hbViTkLFUteFuLQD_byBVVfJpqRrDhu/s1600/IMG_1019.JPG" height="400" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The notice board outside the Galley on Thanksgiving Day at McMurdo. "Freezing Man" refers to the after-dinner party.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFNbee6QrJue-JNcE5xPivA1MRZXHrPw5enWvw2bgwGff_KkSEtLuy3uj2lxGv9y6IZufY0-Rp7Bs7IKwP7dHUpCnJcUZOsO4OCvqQLQo9if5N5ymgX0L7C0OmMVACS1wldoIlKJ5Ogc1l/s1600/IMG_1011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFNbee6QrJue-JNcE5xPivA1MRZXHrPw5enWvw2bgwGff_KkSEtLuy3uj2lxGv9y6IZufY0-Rp7Bs7IKwP7dHUpCnJcUZOsO4OCvqQLQo9if5N5ymgX0L7C0OmMVACS1wldoIlKJ5Ogc1l/s1600/IMG_1011.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The big line for the 7pm dinner. McMurdo is a field work station so few people pack formal clothing, but most made an effort to dress up a bit for dinner.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhQlumi_mP83B3TWQQO5LtJMonOy2IdbDR9Vj6uCCiAWKyaLRsxrMMqzyx2wElnwvw244fHVygSyOq-StIAvZBuYbpJksKy74G2YTsH1xzOoDiy-1RAZ4qhftrM3bBgmFPMguFgtJpkS2R/s1600/IMG_1014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhQlumi_mP83B3TWQQO5LtJMonOy2IdbDR9Vj6uCCiAWKyaLRsxrMMqzyx2wElnwvw244fHVygSyOq-StIAvZBuYbpJksKy74G2YTsH1xzOoDiy-1RAZ4qhftrM3bBgmFPMguFgtJpkS2R/s1600/IMG_1014.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Galley Staff put in a good effort to set out a nice dinner - with fresh veges!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gGaoT1kuRnd4RD9xKaad_24iJVI9boHoz0azPpTy7R7rokea8WV1aadwnHsQxVIbpTOO9BPGCPWsbTnXtHwLgP2xzqB1mXxQeP4Gmbg_5-QOBQYQKa0FolVOqdcn-NlJQCQKdkLD6ijR/s1600/IMG_1015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gGaoT1kuRnd4RD9xKaad_24iJVI9boHoz0azPpTy7R7rokea8WV1aadwnHsQxVIbpTOO9BPGCPWsbTnXtHwLgP2xzqB1mXxQeP4Gmbg_5-QOBQYQKa0FolVOqdcn-NlJQCQKdkLD6ijR/s1600/IMG_1015.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baked goods and dessert</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwIlAArwAsn2fsDHRlKrIA53v1OibKPQJ30KLdQA1VHtdyaFsD5iAZqH3cp-UbMrKQODqQGTUzcIJOm4yAGzRhUhX0cfLl3XM-s91CzldVcS4Eye8NoDi76sUUNTrTs9q460L0FA_kWWHx/s1600/IMG_1016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwIlAArwAsn2fsDHRlKrIA53v1OibKPQJ30KLdQA1VHtdyaFsD5iAZqH3cp-UbMrKQODqQGTUzcIJOm4yAGzRhUhX0cfLl3XM-s91CzldVcS4Eye8NoDi76sUUNTrTs9q460L0FA_kWWHx/s1600/IMG_1016.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fun dinner with friends, old and new.</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-51685590423744932932014-11-26T12:03:00.000-08:002014-11-26T14:21:23.711-08:00Science: Seals and Navigation<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->How does a Weddell Seal navigate in the dark world under the
ice or during an Antarctic winter when there is no sunlight? Remember that a seal is a mammal and has to
come to the surface, or an opening/hole in the sea ice, in order to breathe. Weddell
Seals can swim up to 1.5km (~1 mile) from their breathing hole and might be able to remain underwater for up to 80 minutes, though they prefer to dive for periods of only 20 minutes. In order to be able to feed in all seasons with changing
sea ice conditions and return to breathing holes, Weddell Seals must have an exceptional navigation system.
How do they do it?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLen9B5GEIJDiVr0ZgGCqHv0dzkzFVCOwAr9gjrhTfK4k-FswL2EIScc5VRK-Uxw2SU8HXRv5m2LRA5DbxDqz1DNHzcy1OkrQ37qC39gRgCUok2kzz0tT7AnwCKYurtm2FmEVXg-Rch0Co/s1600/RIMG0739.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLen9B5GEIJDiVr0ZgGCqHv0dzkzFVCOwAr9gjrhTfK4k-FswL2EIScc5VRK-Uxw2SU8HXRv5m2LRA5DbxDqz1DNHzcy1OkrQ37qC39gRgCUok2kzz0tT7AnwCKYurtm2FmEVXg-Rch0Co/s1600/RIMG0739.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Weddell Seal and Pup. Photo: Erin, from <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
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A group of biologists, including <a href="http://www.tamug.edu/marb/no-show_facultyProfiles/Davis.html">Randall Davis (Texas A&M, Galveston)</a>,
<a href="http://williams.eeb.ucsc.edu/">Terrie Williams (U. California, Santa Cruz)</a>, <a href="https://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/component/cobalt/item/9-marine-science/6-fuiman-lee?Itemid=550">Lee Fuiman (U. Texas, Austin)</a>, colleagues from University of Auckland, graduate students and analysts have come to
Antarctica to shed light on this question of navigation - they are "<i>Seal Team 8</i>".</div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span></i><i><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span> </i></i><br />
<i><i>Seal Team 8</i> </i>pose a hypothesis that seals have an ability to sense the
magnetic field in the Earth and use it much like a compass. The team believes that seals use specific swimming patterns to help calibrate their internal compass and might provide them with an understanding of the magnetic field in their local environment. Once the seals have this understanding, they can swim back to
their breathing hole in an efficient manner after traveling in many directions while foraging for food (e.g. following fish).</div>
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To test this hypothesis, <i>Seal Team 8</i>, have carefully instrumented some
seals with devices that record the depth, direction and distance traveled (plus the device has a near-infrared video camera, which is sensitive in low light conditions). The device causes no harm to the seals and is removed after a week or so. The
team hope to collect data from over 1000 seal dives at three different breathing
holes, each of which has a different local magnetic field. Do the seals dive in a different pattern depending up the local magnetic field? The team are also investigating
how seals behave when they are moved to a new and previously unseen breathing hole; what
does a seal do to understand its new surroundings? <i>Seal Team 8</i> will analyze their data to answer these question once they finish work in Antarctica.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVrC4jwuZNPGotzXRkkaZK6sey0nMGU32pdUHmNlEQUcws5zoHG7P5E6-QiOgTuyhyTIjOWOItH7dwSoGrc4uu-DOJN4QLPu9mWJzRaIA5x4MylK5B8rNXEAvT2hyphenhypheniZLnNsDqhutFg1UUD/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11252014+85430+PM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVrC4jwuZNPGotzXRkkaZK6sey0nMGU32pdUHmNlEQUcws5zoHG7P5E6-QiOgTuyhyTIjOWOItH7dwSoGrc4uu-DOJN4QLPu9mWJzRaIA5x4MylK5B8rNXEAvT2hyphenhypheniZLnNsDqhutFg1UUD/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11252014+85430+PM.jpg" height="252" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist rendition of a Weddell Seal wearing a recording device. The device near the head is the camera and motion detecting device (shown in next picture) and the other module is the power pack.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9t1LahoAeCmlH0SVcVLhlWQk7MJQitwGhS3PCzINrqr3ahUr8qUk1aN42ofsdXhwv5EnoLnUspoASyuziSVCfbSEt6ljhDVfFEvnIX63ACUcOzLJE4T0iqIACq918SJARLmVjTi0YPWL/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11252014+85612+PM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9t1LahoAeCmlH0SVcVLhlWQk7MJQitwGhS3PCzINrqr3ahUr8qUk1aN42ofsdXhwv5EnoLnUspoASyuziSVCfbSEt6ljhDVfFEvnIX63ACUcOzLJE4T0iqIACq918SJARLmVjTi0YPWL/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11252014+85612+PM.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The motion detecting device and camera, compared to a pen. Photo: Courtesy of <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMyR5uqLVyUDhpxi1dcuajkIaWvK2hMOVA05ktE_KDG14ANbeQK8AHf4f31JKOsdIkfaWqJslUcxiRjuVBVu2NOdMULyu7tF8ipzk7m-xTqdKLrC4-SKYQTixQDCM4BQjreaWFgtAvalL/s1600/RIMG0640.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMyR5uqLVyUDhpxi1dcuajkIaWvK2hMOVA05ktE_KDG14ANbeQK8AHf4f31JKOsdIkfaWqJslUcxiRjuVBVu2NOdMULyu7tF8ipzk7m-xTqdKLrC4-SKYQTixQDCM4BQjreaWFgtAvalL/s1600/RIMG0640.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After a seal subject returns from a diving and feeding excursion to haul out on the ice, <i>Seal Team 8</i> must find it in order to retrieve the data from their recording module. They track the radio signal from the device using a directional antenna. Photo: Erin, from <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9L2C7whMySkItJ7Co0B-kUdbTuMftVBy9kRHo5IfTNrajR8N6UR6hPMzQQUiQevCA2bqHWdgprXiGj_4QRd2eGE4HLG6DFMwQtQOmyCGPUhbqB-otVK0tAOL3rBzuNh2MCov1dxREKau/s1600/RIMG0349.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9L2C7whMySkItJ7Co0B-kUdbTuMftVBy9kRHo5IfTNrajR8N6UR6hPMzQQUiQevCA2bqHWdgprXiGj_4QRd2eGE4HLG6DFMwQtQOmyCGPUhbqB-otVK0tAOL3rBzuNh2MCov1dxREKau/s1600/RIMG0349.JPG" height="287" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike and Lee testing ice at potential research sites. Photo: Erin, from <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmL6041HFmnIH3w8vp2dIhrczMQFzqsoiCTlHp2hmdSLRP6NaGQwosR-gYEQxGJE352vjv_8I-EsC1RoMjNRvLnIo63jl_1O18tWsTGmuv8st0hm8epUzSJmHy2RIoBlO3CyW_h5-oi1L/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11262014+125250+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmL6041HFmnIH3w8vp2dIhrczMQFzqsoiCTlHp2hmdSLRP6NaGQwosR-gYEQxGJE352vjv_8I-EsC1RoMjNRvLnIo63jl_1O18tWsTGmuv8st0hm8epUzSJmHy2RIoBlO3CyW_h5-oi1L/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+11262014+125250+PM.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of data captured by the recording device during a seal dive. We can see how far and deep a seal traveled as well as the speed it was moving during different parts of the dive.</td></tr>
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Weddell Seal Facts:</div>
<ul>
<li>A fully grown Weddell Seal generally weighs between 400-600kg (or 900-1300lbs)</li>
<li>Weddell Seals live to an age of about 30 years </li>
<li>Fish, krill and squid form the bulk of a Weddell Seal’s diet</li>
<li>A Weddell Seal can dive to over 300m (~1000ft) depth </li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEF_1Ap7auSPQVKuv6rmRyiSgJodwYaR3B5MsU-6Hbl8Siv9pJCDc7idV2BB6GTtEjmDfUcjN81QjJCtyMWgBnEfCLgCsWkBxZnvJH378WsEoeKtlpe2ltuVThFlUbgj6CSprxjr96Sfc/s1600/RIMG0730.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEF_1Ap7auSPQVKuv6rmRyiSgJodwYaR3B5MsU-6Hbl8Siv9pJCDc7idV2BB6GTtEjmDfUcjN81QjJCtyMWgBnEfCLgCsWkBxZnvJH378WsEoeKtlpe2ltuVThFlUbgj6CSprxjr96Sfc/s1600/RIMG0730.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seal pup. Photo: Erin, from <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFt64PFKmopj3KmDsBzkZCEbbEh7cKh43_zsqGK3hZCpusOmn5ZeEjrJIkkO_x43eo0cCxZMXvgcBjo3hznfyFsWbk40PTo1OyhdHM11xkPj4OW6Kt5x6A9camp4NBCu_uJ_yGYJk440M/s1600/RIMG0761.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFt64PFKmopj3KmDsBzkZCEbbEh7cKh43_zsqGK3hZCpusOmn5ZeEjrJIkkO_x43eo0cCxZMXvgcBjo3hznfyFsWbk40PTo1OyhdHM11xkPj4OW6Kt5x6A9camp4NBCu_uJ_yGYJk440M/s1600/RIMG0761.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More seal pups. Photo: Erin, from <i>Seal Team 8</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-84454127455555273962014-11-25T00:58:00.000-08:002014-11-25T00:58:21.456-08:00TrashA short post today about trash.The USAP Waste Management group ships back over 300 containers of waste to the US each year. Of that waste, over 65% is recycled. In order to achieve such a high rate of recycling all waste/trash must be separated. There are over 20 different categories of waste - that's a lot to remember. Everyone has to take a training class at the start of their time at McMurdo about the waste system - if you forget what to do, you can consult the <a href="http://mcmurdo.denver.usap.gov/community/general/trashmatrix.pdf">Trash Matrix</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBv-tYMA2KiAZKlwO_cZ5DMrBhV9Nh37GRroJMBQ8e_Yl5hgL_MVeoCOP74yTh4n7PtpW8bK50wnmlHpyhxl-94rCpVpVxArkL1ybjXb4UxeF3LXnTWMipNor39w3NlQ62IRWoH5ebznhq/s1600/IMG_0943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBv-tYMA2KiAZKlwO_cZ5DMrBhV9Nh37GRroJMBQ8e_Yl5hgL_MVeoCOP74yTh4n7PtpW8bK50wnmlHpyhxl-94rCpVpVxArkL1ybjXb4UxeF3LXnTWMipNor39w3NlQ62IRWoH5ebznhq/s1600/IMG_0943.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The trash bins in Building 155 (which contains the Galley)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The above photo shows bins for:<br />
<ul>
<li>Light Metal</li>
<li>Fabric</li>
<li>Food Waste (which is blocked as there is a food waste bin around the corner)</li>
<li>Skua - this is where you put things you think others may want e.g. speakers for a small stereo</li>
<li>Batteries</li>
<li>Aerosol spray cans</li>
<li>Empty aluminum/aluminium cans, preferably not crushed at McMurdo, but crushed if at a field camp or South Pole station</li>
<li>Paper Towels - used for drying hands (only)</li>
<li>Mixed Paper e.g. newspaper or magazine</li>
<li>Glass - not broken e.g. wine bottles</li>
<li>Plastic - i.e. plastic that has a "recycle" symbol on it (category 1-7)</li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkPqMHcYJI_IJTNAGBPdw042hsRmFBIm00eyGURLPEHKq5JKxRPDkfqg0UoVzno7WPe8GLm86GjDphdwektPaJ3JKR3nxW9C19hVTgI6yXcQ3EjyvkTZ3nGjgAkcl2aMnqdpko88Ta1R8/s1600/DSCN2862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkPqMHcYJI_IJTNAGBPdw042hsRmFBIm00eyGURLPEHKq5JKxRPDkfqg0UoVzno7WPe8GLm86GjDphdwektPaJ3JKR3nxW9C19hVTgI6yXcQ3EjyvkTZ3nGjgAkcl2aMnqdpko88Ta1R8/s1600/DSCN2862.JPG" height="200" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bins outside our lab space in the Crary Lab</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Outside our lab we have:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A small bin for batteries which is behind the Lab Glass bin </li>
<li>Lab Glass Only (e.g. test tubes, beakers and other science glassware)</li>
<li>Mixed paper</li>
<li>Glass (ordinary glass, not broken)</li>
<li>Aluminum/Aluminium cans</li>
<li>Light metal</li>
<li>Plastic</li>
<li>Non-recyclables (air filters, pens, broken glass etc.)</li>
<li>Lab debris (lab gloves, tubes, items with chemical residue)</li>
</ul>
Each bin also has a list of item not to be placed in it (you can see the big red "NO" in each sign - for example you should not put welding rods or wire in the Light Metal bin or brown corrugated cardboard in the Mixed Paper bin (such cardboard has its own category). It feels like there are always multiple trash bins in every room.Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-74716633224121142652014-11-23T01:32:00.000-08:002014-11-23T01:32:11.654-08:00It's all about logisticsLogistics can be considered the art of managing the flow of supplies from a point of origin to a required destination. Undertaking scientific research in a harsh and remote location such as Antarctica requires considerable resources e.g. food, shelter, fuel, transportation vehicles, scientific equipment, waste management and so on. A central hub of logistics in Antarctica is the Science Cargo unit. They have to ensure that all the hardware of a scientific project, as well as requirements of a deep field camp, gets to where it needs to be.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTT0qimdrhdg8jQYSkqZZIqPxj6rcRpLUtv7tAT4Gr_ieM0tim_aDYW9xuaC3PcEnLRgZ52TyuLX2oa-9mg0UjvkF8M2hZcLCfujaOl6G5B7c6aOG6f5ZUm7yR7gG7IfXQlMX-GEIKR_4/s1600/IMG_0945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTT0qimdrhdg8jQYSkqZZIqPxj6rcRpLUtv7tAT4Gr_ieM0tim_aDYW9xuaC3PcEnLRgZ52TyuLX2oa-9mg0UjvkF8M2hZcLCfujaOl6G5B7c6aOG6f5ZUm7yR7gG7IfXQlMX-GEIKR_4/s1600/IMG_0945.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well weathered blue building Number 193 - Science Cargo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLe3ITw6ZO0J4FsRKs3zhnOqrMh96uAHEjF0Bl76w7UU-luH4LKRQvV3BDtPxMbeZvQrYgn90mATQjyuC43o1J0VP8BfBkhJGGcgDmtlUDJWMyXQtKajjBWA2YR5sneVO6fHdNXsqwNMc/s1600/IMG_0947.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLe3ITw6ZO0J4FsRKs3zhnOqrMh96uAHEjF0Bl76w7UU-luH4LKRQvV3BDtPxMbeZvQrYgn90mATQjyuC43o1J0VP8BfBkhJGGcgDmtlUDJWMyXQtKajjBWA2YR5sneVO6fHdNXsqwNMc/s1600/IMG_0947.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The organized chaos of Science Cargo - goods and people moving everywhere</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYPOeuxEEziZPHsm6boScoAdWr_KDzUCzhiPu4ylly_7G_d3AMDg1jwdsH-iJGvcFnxROZeol_qn5vjFhoO5lD00JgKOFOgglZ2ci4fGl4Ek6cgesCV0O6VILaDyz2eHawlg3-kShBcmdc/s1600/IMG_0953.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYPOeuxEEziZPHsm6boScoAdWr_KDzUCzhiPu4ylly_7G_d3AMDg1jwdsH-iJGvcFnxROZeol_qn5vjFhoO5lD00JgKOFOgglZ2ci4fGl4Ek6cgesCV0O6VILaDyz2eHawlg3-kShBcmdc/s1600/IMG_0953.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The people that work in Cargo are very friendly and helpful. Somehow they get everything where it needs to be.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8te6gP4yyJSyfw4_reOmHVLx9_S2v-HYOqbLMmbiHUETLxFENlEKCCjf9bGkA3-0i-LOeWEwwLuoPoAWPKxq3WnKkMCiRKKHL11rtbPr_hE-bv289PtDLWcEogVbqYCcrQYRYy-wFCS-8/s1600/IMG_0950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8te6gP4yyJSyfw4_reOmHVLx9_S2v-HYOqbLMmbiHUETLxFENlEKCCjf9bGkA3-0i-LOeWEwwLuoPoAWPKxq3WnKkMCiRKKHL11rtbPr_hE-bv289PtDLWcEogVbqYCcrQYRYy-wFCS-8/s1600/IMG_0950.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Equipment for a field party that will be camping and conducting research in a remote location.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDsc5H9ba2xRvvbBBKNB5kUEJYpeCDF7KiGXQQvVQhlH8ode6S160UY1d31fXtlNUHYFPgWfysYNZwm4xfecZLceKInkpNZiuYCv6lnGlgYgESkljBusDNjZDXySr0uOvN7gssFO3n1bE/s1600/IMG_0951.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMDsc5H9ba2xRvvbBBKNB5kUEJYpeCDF7KiGXQQvVQhlH8ode6S160UY1d31fXtlNUHYFPgWfysYNZwm4xfecZLceKInkpNZiuYCv6lnGlgYgESkljBusDNjZDXySr0uOvN7gssFO3n1bE/s1600/IMG_0951.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three AWS stations all packed up and ready to be shipped. This includes tower sections, battery boxes (black & orange) and boxes full of instruments (grey and green)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiLNCzWbh5-b_cGp6ZcDp_dHGU_xqQWrS-yO9hOfrOHsnjEkZms9KDwMxLNHoi3_aUb3JttdXVLMF5cNf38NFPFo1agk6GGo_707HPy2sGFHHTQ6WNed5eBVEBb3ApphFKcBv3qgKdBcIG/s1600/IMG_0952.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiLNCzWbh5-b_cGp6ZcDp_dHGU_xqQWrS-yO9hOfrOHsnjEkZms9KDwMxLNHoi3_aUb3JttdXVLMF5cNf38NFPFo1agk6GGo_707HPy2sGFHHTQ6WNed5eBVEBb3ApphFKcBv3qgKdBcIG/s1600/IMG_0952.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every item shipped has to have a shipping form. We filled out 15 forms today.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You have to be fill out a form for every item shipped so that the Cargo Dept. knows what each item is, where it is going, how it should get there, how much it weighs, how big it is and whether it contains hazardous material.<br />
<br />
ROS Date: Required On Site<br />
Put-in? Is this shipment for the establishment ("put-in") of a deep field camp?<br />
Cube: How many cubic feet?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7LzXYrLg_BByfoTrqTi_va0P67waoDT8oNsGPw4KHCRCfhumDglpcPNmarzb7tBmXW8ALowWLKwXu1piDK5VogXWVbHIwSijyDsopwWS9lXwxQXdozbdGPJMPbFqDHu8iNSW2xwLlJFj/s1600/IMG_0954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7LzXYrLg_BByfoTrqTi_va0P67waoDT8oNsGPw4KHCRCfhumDglpcPNmarzb7tBmXW8ALowWLKwXu1piDK5VogXWVbHIwSijyDsopwWS9lXwxQXdozbdGPJMPbFqDHu8iNSW2xwLlJFj/s1600/IMG_0954.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This vehicle is called a "Pickle" - partly because it is green and is articulated (i.e. bends) in the middle, so can resemble a pickle, but also because it is a fork-lift that picks everything up.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This door has had a hard but productive life.</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-32257146199715347592014-11-18T15:04:00.000-08:002014-11-30T12:39:35.079-08:00Science: Seismology on the Ross Ice Shelf At the very beginning of my Antarctic adventure (when I landed in Christchurch, NZ) I met a group of scientists that were coming to Antarctica to study how the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ice_Shelf">Ross Ice Shelf (RIS)</a> interacts with ocean waves. We stayed at the same hotel in Christchurch and then did much our McMurdo training together. They are a fun bunch of characters and their research is very interesting so I thought I'd share some of it here. I call this group "Team IceVibes" - Peter Bromirski (Uni. California, San Diego; UCSD), Ralph Stephen (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; WHOI) and Peter Gerstoft (UCSD) are the lead investigators along with Ron Flick (UCSD).<br />
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As I mentioned in a prior post, an ice shelf is a floating mass of ice formed when glaciers or ice
sheets flow over the coastline. Because it is already floating, if an
ice shelf melts or disintegrates it will not contribute to sea level
rise (but it's removal could prompt terrestrial ice to flow into the
ocean at a faster rate). Sometimes <a href="http://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/larsen_B/2002.html">ice shelves collapse in spectacular fashion</a>, but the mechanism for this is not completely understood, hence their study.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Map-antarctica-ross-ice-shelf-red-x.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Map-antarctica-ross-ice-shelf-red-x.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) marked with a red "x". McMurdo is on the right hand edge of where the RIS meets the Ross Sea in the above image. Source: Wikimedia</td></tr>
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"Team IceVibes" are going to camp out on the RIS for three weeks and their aim is to see the effect of oceanic infragravity waves upon the RIS - i.e. do these waves make vibrations in the ice? And if so, how strong are these movements? Could these movements contribute to ice shelf collapse? Infragravity waves are formed when "normal" wind waves (surf and ocean swell) interact with shallow water regions and transfer some energy to a longer wavelength form; these longer waves can travel vast distances e.g. from the coast of California all the way to Antarctica. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismometer">Seismometers</a>, which detect movement in the ground, will be used to see whether these waves make the ice shelf move vertically. <u>Correction/Update</u>: The item being detected is a velocity (motion of the ice) and the displacements are on the order of picometers (1/1,000,000th of a millimeter). The unit of measurement is called a a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microseism">Microseism</a>. The instruments need to be very accurate and precise! (Thanks to Peter G for the additional information.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0SwVjaETQoePr0WdxJ6-_6wC8JxYwy1-wAWwvoDyz4CkWgGGXPa21EIJhj7mDssGIFuwBLmES6qw0TaJIvmekSL5UARw1LwgoEsm2ngTZmevIiUE4Kv_21aAC8gyeCzcWdB4mY_-Ei29/s1600/RIS_StationMap_latest.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0SwVjaETQoePr0WdxJ6-_6wC8JxYwy1-wAWwvoDyz4CkWgGGXPa21EIJhj7mDssGIFuwBLmES6qw0TaJIvmekSL5UARw1LwgoEsm2ngTZmevIiUE4Kv_21aAC8gyeCzcWdB4mY_-Ei29/s1600/RIS_StationMap_latest.png" height="325" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team IceVibes are installing seismometers at all the black stars. Another team has seismometers at all the red stars - the scientific teams will be pooling all their data so everyone can have a better understanding of what is happening. The RIS is outlined in black and blue lines (with north being towards the top of the image).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujUmOUYVcoeH9DjEPY5bbZ966L0RIsoBjzM5n8zcYaMlie1VOmhRfdbvmdzdUH-UsEWUd7xO_qG7CkcgdbsBHV0wMmhW8WOIm1QMdM9Pm3i1CWoyNlOSIybGmvv9G9Xy4KDQ_RQbUUpTI/s1600/IMG_0901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujUmOUYVcoeH9DjEPY5bbZ966L0RIsoBjzM5n8zcYaMlie1VOmhRfdbvmdzdUH-UsEWUd7xO_qG7CkcgdbsBHV0wMmhW8WOIm1QMdM9Pm3i1CWoyNlOSIybGmvv9G9Xy4KDQ_RQbUUpTI/s1600/IMG_0901.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team IceVibes staging vast amounts of equipment in the Crary Lab. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ralph and Peter G discuss the details of an instrument control unit in the Crary Lab</td></tr>
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The team flew out to "Yesterday Camp" and installing instruments at many locations. The camp gets its name from being on the other side of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line">International Date Line</a> compared to McMurdo Station.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjANVkbjdknnz3ALsLuvkPIUiKhUqpsngmPUWZwcEf2FdrLGnKWrcXgLVlQn75QUlJ5ahQ-ZeHPp87hgyyQKJZ8a5lHPUUyVp7VC-VZhU16_NRP5cJIp9Iv8lsjHdybBU_7KvbZXVIpQVOJ/s1600/big_yesterday_camp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjANVkbjdknnz3ALsLuvkPIUiKhUqpsngmPUWZwcEf2FdrLGnKWrcXgLVlQn75QUlJ5ahQ-ZeHPp87hgyyQKJZ8a5lHPUUyVp7VC-VZhU16_NRP5cJIp9Iv8lsjHdybBU_7KvbZXVIpQVOJ/s1600/big_yesterday_camp.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kitchen, dining and science tents at Yesterday Camp. Sleeping tents are behind the photographer. It is flat and white in every direction! Photo: Team IceVibes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installing a seismometer on the Ross Ice Shelf. Power is provided by the "lampshade" of solar panels and a GPS units tracks the horizontal motion - remember that ice shelves are constantly (though very slowly) moving towards open water in the ocean and can calve off giant icebergs. Data is transmitted by satellite to computers back in the US. Photo: Team IceVibes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj2gonsrAoWxhTs4Ue8a2EG9RZIpZHoBRt09QcLxeP2YSHy77vqHW5YLs1kktfBZWSA7W48M-Q2O2RHFpLIQrFGr6i2EXdEgKofaSOUrFVoYATewpPvvHKlsrofjlQ81DqdubimQZe9f5Z/s1600/IMG_1118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj2gonsrAoWxhTs4Ue8a2EG9RZIpZHoBRt09QcLxeP2YSHy77vqHW5YLs1kktfBZWSA7W48M-Q2O2RHFpLIQrFGr6i2EXdEgKofaSOUrFVoYATewpPvvHKlsrofjlQ81DqdubimQZe9f5Z/s1600/IMG_1118.jpg" height="283" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The actual seismometer is the cylinder buried deep in the hole. The instrument is set to level and pointing true north. Photo: Team IceVibes </td></tr>
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For more information about the science of ice shelf vibrations, visit the <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/centers/iceshelfvibes/background/">website of Team IceVibes</a><br />
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-8424108196268810652014-11-17T14:49:00.000-08:002014-11-17T14:49:35.087-08:00Helicopter to White Island & Minna BluffWithin a radius of about 160km (100miles) of McMurdo Station a large amount of transportation and logistics can be performed by helicopter. There are two types of helicopters used at McMurdo - a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_212">Bell 212</a> (which some might know as a "huey") and an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_AS350">A-Star</a>. The 212 can take up to 9 people and some equipment, while the A-Star is smaller and can fit 5.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A twin engined Bell 212 helicopter, on base at McMurdo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An A-Star helicopter at Minna Bluff </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The helicopter operational center (Heli-Ops) is a busy place with the staff trying to accommodate all the different projects needing flight time.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The instrument/control panel in an A-Star. There is a GPS, fuel gauge, horizon meter, air speedometer, VHF radio control, power panel etc.</td></tr>
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The AWS on White Island needed its radio antenna replaced and the AWS on Minna Bluff had suffered some damage, so it required servicing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Maps image of the region around McMurdo Station</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The heavily rimed AWS at White Island. Mt Erebus is in the background</td></tr>
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The White Island AWS was heavily coated in soft rime crystals. When moisture condenses in the air (for example fog or mist) and the temperature is below freezing with a very light wind, the moisture can freeze to objects. Rime builds up in the direction from which the moist wind is/was coming i.e. the windward side.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeuBicf4c9XIhRh1kWJZurSavoVUsbeLSPzSpwuetV49wmpEUaFL-ZH5e_8yiw87Z6QrBu47rFJwRFp_egxEN8_tAJuzkekS8EY7Sv8GuTrSQlui-FZhzGJ_d-Ree0HXFuazqkJahFAK_/s1600/DSCN2721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeuBicf4c9XIhRh1kWJZurSavoVUsbeLSPzSpwuetV49wmpEUaFL-ZH5e_8yiw87Z6QrBu47rFJwRFp_egxEN8_tAJuzkekS8EY7Sv8GuTrSQlui-FZhzGJ_d-Ree0HXFuazqkJahFAK_/s1600/DSCN2721.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The propeller on the anemometer has been coated in rime as it always faces into the wind. However, we can see rime on the cable (which doesn't spin around like the anemometer), so we know which direction the moist wind came from.</td></tr>
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Minna Bluff is renowned as an extremely windy site. Indeed, the wind had destroyed some of the instruments on the AWS - it literally blew them off the tower. The wind can also be strong enough to lift rocks into the air, which can then hit the instruments. The AWS tower on Minna Bluff is collocated with instruments that measure ozone (a trace gas in the atmosphere).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKwtlRUKZSyJbrLOgk5SweQi8ZGtvdluNpFlDjET-kwOFtZ-6AH6WwznjoUAa8qei7MMNkm1IbzujN-xfuhWXEEUXRMhSDA4xxWPVdSp8zmaUu8gA9vnf1D9dxrkkld0vlNwCSwhEQs-K/s1600/A_aerovane_minna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKwtlRUKZSyJbrLOgk5SweQi8ZGtvdluNpFlDjET-kwOFtZ-6AH6WwznjoUAa8qei7MMNkm1IbzujN-xfuhWXEEUXRMhSDA4xxWPVdSp8zmaUu8gA9vnf1D9dxrkkld0vlNwCSwhEQs-K/s1600/A_aerovane_minna.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Minna Bluff AWS and Ozone site (with the wind damaged aerovane on the ground)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flying over the back side of Minna Bluff</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-59146574500146483152014-11-16T14:42:00.000-08:002014-11-16T14:42:33.244-08:00Far SouthOur most recent trip to the field was to retrieve two AWS stations that had been deployed for specific projects and were no longer needed in those locations - the instruments can be used elsewhere. These two stations, name "<i>Marlene</i>" and "<i>Eric</i>" were far south and required long flight times in the Twin Otter aircraft.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Removing instruments from the <i>Marlene</i> tower. Out pilots (Mike, on the left and Henry, in the yellow jacket) are always willing to lend a hand and they have years of experience flying in Antarctica.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Digging for the battery boxes at <i>Marlene</i>.</td></tr>
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The flight to Marlene is long and we needed to refuel the Twin Otter. For this journey we stopped at the <b>C</b>entral <b>T</b>rans-<b>A</b>ntarctic <b>M</b>ountains (CTAM) camp and fuel cache, where there are number of 55-gallon fuel barrels. CTAM is located at 84.0 degrees South. This is the furthest south I have been on Earth. The furthest north I have been is 85.0 degrees North, while on the icebreaker ship, Akademik Federov, last year. I have not yet been to either the North or South Pole.<br />
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<b><u>Quiz for the classroom:</u></b> What is the furthest North and
South each student has traveled (i.e. been on the ground or in a boat)?
What is the latitude span achieved by the whole class?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lee moves heavy (200kg, 440lbs) fuel barrels from the cache at CTAM.</td></tr>
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Both <i>Marlene</i> and <i>Eric</i> are located on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ice_Shelf">Ross Ice Shelf</a>. An ice shelf is a large region of ice that is the result of glaciers and ice sheets spilling out into the ocean. Ice shelves float in the ocean and the ice can be hundreds of meters thick. As snow accumulates on glaciers and ice sheets that feed ice shelves they continue to move outward to the sea. This means that <i>Marlene</i> and <i>Eric</i> have been moving since they were installed. To balance the input of new ice at their source, portions at the ocean end of ice shelves can calve off and become icebergs. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only 40cm (16 inches) of the <i>Eric</i> station was above the snow, but our pilots found it. The solar panel was buried so the batteries had completely discharged, meaning that the station had stopped collecting or transmitting data.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/aws/images/station_images/eric2010b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/aws/images/station_images/eric2010b.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eric</i> station in January, 2010. Over 2.5m (100 inches) of snow had accumulated since this photo was taken.</td></tr>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3132212656153317402.post-77077654908816865262014-11-14T10:11:00.001-08:002014-11-14T10:11:34.123-08:00Science: Automatic Weather StationsWhy do we have Automatic Weather Stations (AWS's) and what is on an AWS?<br />
An AWS typically measures variables that describe the near surface hydrometeorology i.e. aspects of water and energy. AWS data is useful for a many reasons; a few of the most common are:<br />
<ul>
<li>Long terms monitoring of climate, e.g. some of the Antarctic AWS's have been in place for over 30 years. Have regions of Antarctica been warming, cooling or staying the same? Without AWS data we could not answer these questions and would not understand what is happening on our planet.</li>
<li>AWS data that is transmitted in real-time is used as input to weather forecast models. If the computer models used to forecast weather have better knowledge of the atmosphere-ocean-land-sea ice system, the more likely it is that their future predictions will produce better results. AWS data can also be used for verifying previous forecasts so that we can assess how accurate our prediction have been. </li>
<li>Knowing the atmospheric conditions at a given time and location can help us understand how larger scale geophysical systems work together, for example, how far inland will a warm front move, or how much snow accumulates at the coast and might this impact penguin nesting?</li>
</ul>
An AWS can be mounted with different instruments depending upon the intended purpose of the station. Below I list some of the more common items seen on an AWS.<br />
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<ol>
<li>Data logger box. At this station a solar panel is mounted behind the box. </li>
<li>Net Radiometer - upward and downward of both solar and longwave radiation</li>
<li>PAR meter (PAR = photosynthetically active radiation, the portion used by plants for photosynthesis)</li>
<li>Upward and downward looking pyranometers (for solar radiation)</li>
<li>Anemometer, giving both wind speed and direction</li>
<li>Radiation shielded air temperature and humidity probe</li>
<li>Sonic snow depth sensor</li>
<li>Ground temperature probe (measured at a number of levels)</li>
<li>Battery pack (very large in this case as the station is visited rarely) </li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#1 - The bottom of the data logger box with the connectors for all the different instruments. In a prior post, I showed you what is inside this box</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxPxgj2Fcccy5oPdKMyl6K1TYM3sHby8BC4I468LYxiKph5jhNE4Dn9K8_Ol5HUxg6yBPIVIa-DocajzT-S1lGz52V10m-iFEmykXjb79AclNcq1gc6wT2ZxglLc1O-Y661pLZjLAL59B/s1600/DSCN2457-001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxPxgj2Fcccy5oPdKMyl6K1TYM3sHby8BC4I468LYxiKph5jhNE4Dn9K8_Ol5HUxg6yBPIVIa-DocajzT-S1lGz52V10m-iFEmykXjb79AclNcq1gc6wT2ZxglLc1O-Y661pLZjLAL59B/s1600/DSCN2457-001.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a net radiometer. It measures to total of solar (or shortwave) radiation and longwave radiation both up and down. Solar radiation is from the sun - the sun is very hot, around 4000C or 7200F, so it emits radiation at short wavelengths. The Earth radiates at a much lower temperature, e.g. -70C (-94F) to 45C (113F), so the radiation it emits is of a longer wavelength i.e. Longwave Radiation. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_NrzVDoZq7MT8fztVDC8Q4ouU5MvfoLj_ZpN4tJabdoZC0sZfr9tMZoDnMpWVRqzlCSG6d_3P47_Zr5y4Dh55Ew2eMqAQjeZPAuTh0_LlZvkxkoHtcwgoVlLWbKGrGRURroWUJls4Lt0m/s1600/DSCN2458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_NrzVDoZq7MT8fztVDC8Q4ouU5MvfoLj_ZpN4tJabdoZC0sZfr9tMZoDnMpWVRqzlCSG6d_3P47_Zr5y4Dh55Ew2eMqAQjeZPAuTh0_LlZvkxkoHtcwgoVlLWbKGrGRURroWUJls4Lt0m/s1600/DSCN2458.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set of upward and downward looking pyranometers. These measure solar radiation. The ratio of upward to downward radiation is called albedo and it tells us how much solar energy was absorbed by the surface. Snow reflects the majority of solar radiation, so it has a high albedo, while dark rock or soil have low albedo.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIpiCExq44y-oGYWIuyp6LUD5p9cbUowllo6-wf4qbE01NWKvPvTnGhbMMgZfTwtgxdz9Vc6asLhiLMZ60oZcZB-BsfTJhU0wYKirmUNdA_w_KSIsNI5yYv-kcD-UqZWkcd7HBEcVPL6o/s1600/IMG_0929.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIpiCExq44y-oGYWIuyp6LUD5p9cbUowllo6-wf4qbE01NWKvPvTnGhbMMgZfTwtgxdz9Vc6asLhiLMZ60oZcZB-BsfTJhU0wYKirmUNdA_w_KSIsNI5yYv-kcD-UqZWkcd7HBEcVPL6o/s1600/IMG_0929.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pyranometer from a different company (with a US quarter dollar coin on the bench).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZ2A2dE3eNEIsPZp7b7Iwg8CCbXAomUNM_eRx5ocWcmtW11fJW1qeTvNclKpUN6g8bPKg9qE5a1GCnz_9DKXxUTVGWlEaKiSPesBzyfaOfd-98MEG2DEQf2qH7XeKPvBtMBt0bwKTH8-w/s1600/DSCN2460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZ2A2dE3eNEIsPZp7b7Iwg8CCbXAomUNM_eRx5ocWcmtW11fJW1qeTvNclKpUN6g8bPKg9qE5a1GCnz_9DKXxUTVGWlEaKiSPesBzyfaOfd-98MEG2DEQf2qH7XeKPvBtMBt0bwKTH8-w/s1600/DSCN2460.JPG" height="285" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#5 - A propeller anemometer </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlvtV9kLXDSQxPGFrZqH7KVDoxnmNjllutJPv55xgVR_oK6JtUQDnQ7OOkhyphenhyphenjgBwYyoteNxFc4vi0WDJ0EardMvgbUHeradFEluzP2D5BbBuTU0M_u1925jQk1E6nQHRPIS9DhN60UcHr/s1600/IMG_0935.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlvtV9kLXDSQxPGFrZqH7KVDoxnmNjllutJPv55xgVR_oK6JtUQDnQ7OOkhyphenhyphenjgBwYyoteNxFc4vi0WDJ0EardMvgbUHeradFEluzP2D5BbBuTU0M_u1925jQk1E6nQHRPIS9DhN60UcHr/s1600/IMG_0935.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#6 - Radiation shield for the air temperature and humidity probes. This shield keeps the probes in the shade but allows for an easy flow of air, thus we can get a measurement of the air without instruments being influenced by solar radiation. A US quarter dollar coin is sitting on the bench.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIJvd4xYVZ5kT3NQ78xBNM3lUHow_yJBZ5Dt_HQWw6K0DQU3Q_96VXoDmDueP-M_WspFQeQiNxeBtCnLAZzF1H9AKuZz4FZrMPnYuuNPOdpHO2QH__dpAabL9CUipVe8BK74qgegM9mCh/s1600/IMG_0919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIJvd4xYVZ5kT3NQ78xBNM3lUHow_yJBZ5Dt_HQWw6K0DQU3Q_96VXoDmDueP-M_WspFQeQiNxeBtCnLAZzF1H9AKuZz4FZrMPnYuuNPOdpHO2QH__dpAabL9CUipVe8BK74qgegM9mCh/s1600/IMG_0919.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An air temperature and humidity probe (with yellow protective cap still on). This is what is inside the radiation shield.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvo5tyq6aoaS6QvzXT-SfHtJ9XIkzBbRXsOlE7cFK1VQ-w92jphJ08KeqMnOTDsxpaJAwqZJr2h6K6mMtl5S8BfrXGlmnTEHmft-213nw17Ir1gZnKCbjqIovAgTcYF_nnUwzn9OhuJqe/s1600/IMG_0922.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvo5tyq6aoaS6QvzXT-SfHtJ9XIkzBbRXsOlE7cFK1VQ-w92jphJ08KeqMnOTDsxpaJAwqZJr2h6K6mMtl5S8BfrXGlmnTEHmft-213nw17Ir1gZnKCbjqIovAgTcYF_nnUwzn9OhuJqe/s1600/IMG_0922.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#7 - A sonic snow depth sensor. A sonic beam is sent from the bottom of the instrument (the mesh area) and the time for it hit the ground and return indicate how far away the surface is. If snow falls, the surface moves upwards, closer to the sensor, so the beam takes less time to return to the sensor.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uc1PiMByJNsh5v1qLkT31d-alWacM07SocY2OFPycZOMh2ofPQlKRomZxoEWJDrvfie4PvsvRndTliZnSH8ef8LWZVDTUPGpjZun_amxV0AhMArhwjtjoL90Tj5stq1NzI5wSJ12_L3w/s1600/IMG_0933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uc1PiMByJNsh5v1qLkT31d-alWacM07SocY2OFPycZOMh2ofPQlKRomZxoEWJDrvfie4PvsvRndTliZnSH8ef8LWZVDTUPGpjZun_amxV0AhMArhwjtjoL90Tj5stq1NzI5wSJ12_L3w/s1600/IMG_0933.JPG" height="286" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A solar panel and voltage regulator. Power from the panel is used to recharge the batteries</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Bh-PBOr8U1a0WXbDyTLiFuzp3l7Q3UohsNjygP1nY5SiyzjZKzs-Ty0P4fQdPns3xnfkQ0OHPPrARhb5l28_nn7WqFL8F62tHrpN3BY8qa6QIrupc6zQYbSxf4-V-U-FpeDoVaShSm2S/s1600/IMG_0937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Bh-PBOr8U1a0WXbDyTLiFuzp3l7Q3UohsNjygP1nY5SiyzjZKzs-Ty0P4fQdPns3xnfkQ0OHPPrARhb5l28_nn7WqFL8F62tHrpN3BY8qa6QIrupc6zQYbSxf4-V-U-FpeDoVaShSm2S/s1600/IMG_0937.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A set of batteries in an insulated and waterproof case (once the lid is closed).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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We downloaded data from the Cape Hallett station the other day, so we'll have a quick look at it. Three variables - daily average of air temperature, solar radiation and ground temperature - have been plotted for the period March 2013 to the end of August 2014.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnQ_CzmJbFne2NCpKGlWs7SEj2bCT902YZu8nQFfH7fqAhC6Vec2UXyApyGe62hwgHb3OS74JyoY6z8sLf5FRNpbkkuwIFWUMa9kuVPrxZjyj2JMxpYtx7zIdVccocdBnozCmnXHjxzh71/s1600/hallett_plots_2012_2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnQ_CzmJbFne2NCpKGlWs7SEj2bCT902YZu8nQFfH7fqAhC6Vec2UXyApyGe62hwgHb3OS74JyoY6z8sLf5FRNpbkkuwIFWUMa9kuVPrxZjyj2JMxpYtx7zIdVccocdBnozCmnXHjxzh71/s1600/hallett_plots_2012_2013.png" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2Tlkojx_wEK4zFLK17nqvacLhpBccGZYcxJlX0lZuZ-5cyUgDW-tR7jWecyiGCjZM-9_SQyzc8J1pgvHOwNnrVpG1Ml2kv-HTDTYxYD2m8hV4cFwPTrf75a4RteSM7r-R7m1PhPThgga/s1600/hallett_plots_2012_2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">.</a></div>
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Some interesting features can be seen e.g. <br />
<ul>
<li>Maximum solar radiation is in late December (as we would expect, given that solstice is Dec. 22nd), while the winters receive no solar radiation as we are at a higher latitude than the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circle">Antarctic Circle</a></li>
<li>Maximum air temperature is a little bit later than the solstice (early January), and air temperature only creeps above freezing (0C, 32F) on a few occasions.</li>
<li>Maximum ground temperature at 1.5m depth is in February because it takes extra time for the summer heat to diffuse through the ground to this depth. The temperature does not go above freezing, so this ground is probably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permafrost">permafrost</a> (we need 2 years of data to confirm that diagnosis)!</li>
</ul>
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<br />Andrew Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619276645363335860noreply@blogger.com1