- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2006
- 2007
Week 7- December 9, 2001 to December 15, 2001
Date:12/15/01
Latitude:77.05 degrees South
Longitude:89.12 degrees West
Temperature:–11°C( 12°F)
Wind speed:8 knots
Wind Chill:–18°C( ––1°F)
Wind direction:Northeast
Meters of ice collected:648
Notes on daily life:
The storm that we knew was building hit us full force during the night. Strong winds and blowing snow reduced visibility to the point that one train was not visible from the other, although they are parked only 50 feet apart. Things had calmed considerably by morning when we woke to find huge snowdrifts around camp. By midday, the storm had ended completely and we returned to calm and sunny conditions.
Even before the good weather returned, groups were out working. Mark had some repairs to do on the 3" drill that required him to work with gloveless hands in biting cold. Susan and Dan began preparing the core processing line. Paul and Lynn used the 2" drill to collect short cores for Markus and Dave. Late in the afternoon, Mark, Paul, Susan and Dan recovered a 20 m core for Mary Albert and then 8 m of the 200 year core (also making the hole deep enough to leave the drill barrel in overnight to stay cold). Before lunch, Blue mapped surface topography. In the afternoon, he and Gordon installed a new coffee can site 1 km uphill from camp.
Our current location has another great view of the Ellsworth Mountains. Now, the closest peaks are only 50 km away. We are also less than 2000 km from the tip of South America. Unfortunately, our journey home takes us back to Byrd, then to McMurdo, up to New Zealand and then across the Pacific – definitely a longer way home.
Date:12/14/01
Latitude:77.05 degrees South
Longitude:89.12 degrees West
Temperature:–16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed:8 knots
Wind Chill:–24°C( –11°F)
Wind direction:Northeast
Meters of ice collected:614
Notes on daily life:
We arrived at Site 5 at about 4:00 AM and went immediately to sleep. After waking, Steve A. processed his radar data from the traverse leg and discovered that the layers started to dip and spread as we neared the site. The implication of this is that a deeper core would be required to reach the snow deposited 200 years ago. Some discussion followed, with the result that we opted to drive back along our route to a point 12 km away, where the radar data suggest that 200 year old snow is much closer to the surface.
The drive only took about an hour. By the time we arrived it was quite late in the day, so we did little else but eat dinner and go to bed. Late this evening, the winds are howling and we expect a storm to hit us during the night.
Date:12/13/01
Latitude:77.25 degrees South
Longitude:90.3 degrees West
Temperature:–13°C( 9°F)
Wind speed:2 knots
Wind Chill:–13°C( 9°F)
Wind direction:Northeast
Meters of ice collected:614
Notes on daily life:
Today is a travel day. We spent the morning packing equipment and loading sleds, had a leisurely lunch and set off on a 100 km leg to Site 5 in the early afternoon. Currently we are midway between the two sites. We have stopped for a couple of hours to obtain a static GPS position and expect to arrive at our destination sometime early tomorrow morning. The views along the route have been fantastic – our perspective of the Ellsworth Mountains keeps changing as we move east. During this two hour stop, Susan, Mark and Markus have taken off on cross country skis for some exercise. Unburdened by heavy sleds, they are able to move twice as fast as our tractor trains.
Date:12/12/01
Latitude:77.8 degrees South
Longitude:93.5 degrees West
Temperature:–9°C( 16°F)
Wind speed:1 knot
Wind Chill:–9°C( 16°F)
Wind direction:Variable
Meters of ice collected:614
Notes on daily life:
We had a busy day ahead of us when we woke this morning, our goal was to be done with the work at this site so that we can move to Site 5 tomorrow. The remaining big tasks were to complete the 200 year core (drill about another 60 m) and recover two 20 m cores for beta analysis. Both drill teams were out working early. The 3" team of Mark, Paul, Dan and Susan made good progress, the drill had been left suspended in the hole overnight so it was cold enough that melting and refreezing of drill chips did not become a problem like yesterday. A few feet away, Lynn, Steve N., Blue and Gordon collected the first of the day's 20 m cores. They were finished by lunch and in the afternoon transported the drill 2 km out of camp to their coffee can site. Both drill teams were done by about 9:00 PM, having collected a record amount of core in a single day this season – 101 m.
Steve A. and Allan took off by snowmobile on a 30 km trip testing two different radar systems. They didn't quite make their objective because of repeated problems blowing a fuse. Markus has been very busy at his atmospheric sampling site. Since the storm at our last site, his formaldehyde sensor has been collecting an unusually noisy signal, so it took a lot of work to diagnose and fix that problem. By dinnertime, however, the sensor was back on line. He plans to work through the night collecting as much atmospheric chemistry data as possible before we have to leave in the morning.
This has been our warmest site so far. The weather today was spectacular and people working outside were able to wear a lot less clothing than usual. Sunscreen was in frequent demand. As pleasant as the warm weather is for working, it poses a problem for keeping the ice cores cold – there is little danger that they will melt, but to preserve many of chemical properties, the cores cannot be warmed above –16° C. Currently the ice core boxes are buried in a pit and covered by snow, and we frequently monitor the temperature inside the boxes. Conditions are likely to get warmer as move to our next sites which are lower in elevation and closer to the coast, so we will continue to be careful about core storage.
Date:12/11/01
Latitude:77.8 degrees South
Longitude:93.5 degrees West
Temperature:–11°C( 12°F)
Wind speed:1 knot
Wind Chill:–11°C( 12°F)
Wind direction:Variable
Meters of ice collected:513
Notes on daily life:
The early risers this morning heard the familiar sound of aircraft engines in the distance. Far away, we could make out a small object moving east above the ice sheet. Most likely it was a Twin Otter from Patriot Hills, the Adventure Network base for tourists, probably our closest neighbors. It was a strange feeling, to drive all this way into the remote heart of West Antarctica and have another group fly close by us. If the people in the plane saw us in the distance, they were probably thinking the same thing.
Besides distant aircraft, the mountains were still visible on the horizon. The weather was great today, for the drillers, maybe little too good. It was so warm (–10° C at midday) that the 3" drill system had problems with melting snow chips which then refroze and caused the drill barrels to stick together. By the end of the day, 7 m of core had been recovered, not a lot of core, but making the hole deep enough that the drill could be parked inside it overnight to get really cold. The 2" drill had a more successful day. Paul and Dave collected two short 3 m cores for Dave and Markus.
Blue spent the morning driving a grid pattern around the local region to gather data for a topographic map and in the afternoon worked with Gordon to install a mass balance ('coffee can') site. Markus set up his atmospheric sampling tent and began his measurements, once he was done logging his short core. Steve A., Allan and Brian worked on processing radar data collected during yesterday's traverse leg.
Lynn and Steve N. spent part of the day carrying out maintenance on the tractors and then in the early evening set off on skis towards the mountains. They returned an hour or so later, having seen the view from a small ridge on the horizon.
Ever the inventive chef, Cobi made pizzas and ice cream for dinner. We lack an oven so a certain amount of improvisation was required, but they sure tasted good to the hungry diners. Some members of the team made the most of the calm sunny conditions by rounding off the day with a game of frisbee.
Date:12/10/01
Latitude:77.8 degrees South
Longitude:93.5 degrees West
Temperature:–14°C( 7°F)
Wind speed:3 knots
Wind Chill:–18°C( 0°F)
Wind direction:Southeast
Meters of ice collected:497
Notes on daily life:
We are traveling again today, making the 100 km hop to Site 4 (not to be confused with Station 4, the fictional Antarctic location for "The Thing"). This is one of our shorter traverse legs, so we hope to be able to complete it in about 12 hours. Our estimated time of arrival is 02:00 am tomorrow morning (we got a late start...).
As usual, we have three radars running as we travel. Steve A. is profiling the upper layers of the ice sheet with a high–frequency radar. Allan is mapping layers at intermediate depth and Brian is looking at deep layers and the bed with a low–frequency system. Blue and Gordon are running continuous GPS surveys to study changes in surface topography and to provide geographic control for the radar studies.
Two exciting things have happened on this leg so far: (1) In a break from our road food tradition of cold bean burritos, we are now snacking on pita with black bean hummus; and (2) a short while ago we spotted mountains on our southeastern horizon. The mountains are a real surprise –– we didn't expect to be able to see them until later in the trip. Most likely we are seeing peaks in the Ellsworth Mountains, maybe even the Vinson Massif (Antarctica's highest peak). In any case, they are a long way off –– at least 120 km. We are looking forward to vistas of the distant mountains as we do our work at the next site.
Date:12/09/01
Latitude:78.1 degrees South
Longitude:95.6 degrees West
Temperature:–16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed:27 knots
Wind Chill:–34°C( –30°F)
Wind direction:Southeast
Meters of ice collected:497
Notes on daily life:
Every once in a while, we need to be reminded that this is Antarctica. Today, we had one of these reminders, a pretty strong storm was blowing by the time we woke for Sunday breakfast pancakes.
There were three outdoor science projects today. The 3" drill team of Mark, Susan, Gordon and Lynn continued with the second 70 m core. The strong winds, snow and blowing snow made for slow but steady progress. Drillers returning to camp at lunchtime looked almost completely white, so much snow had stuck to their hats and clothes. The core was completed in the early evening, just as the weather showed signs of improving.
The blowing snow caused problems for Markus and his atmospheric sampling program. His generator became packed with snow and stopped working meaning he could no longer pump air through his sampling instruments. After several attempts at clearing the snow, he switched to a second generator, but still had problems with his sensors equilibrating after being turned off for a few hours.
The project of the day surely belonged to Dan and Blue whose task it was to study the permeability of the snowpack for Mary Albert, an ITASE investigator from the Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. The first task was to dig a 2 m deep snowpit, then collect samples from the pit wall that were preserved for shipment back to her lab, and also for in situ measurement in the field. There was a tremendous amount of blowing snow in the pit and anyone looking in saw two snowmen desperately trying to make measurements at the bottom, Dan's eyelashes were frozen and Blue had a inch of snow on the top of his hat. Paul came to help Dan with the in situ measurements in the afternoon, but it didn't take long for them to decide that it was a near impossible task in these conditions. After calling Mary for advice, they decided to move the measuring instruments to the Blue Room where, as of this writing, they are bringing back samples from the pit for study. The work is slow but they should be finished in the early hours of the morning.
Cobi spent the day taking surface snow samples each hour that will be analyzed for chemical composition to provide information on the location of this storm's origin. Steve N. and Lynn spent part of the day getting the tractors ready for tomorrow's travel day and pulling down the tent that people had been using for showers. Steve A. and Brian both worked on processing their radar data and Allan made repairs to his radar in preparation for the next traverse leg.