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Week 8 - December 16, to December 22, 2002
Date: 12/22/02
Latitude: 85°, 21', 24.89" South
Longitude: 106°, 05', 59.70" West
Temperature: −20°C( −4°F)
Wind speed: 10 knots
Wind Chill: −30°C( −22°F)
Wind direction: Westerly
Meters of ice collected: 383
Notes on daily life:
By Daniel Dixon
Today we finished up our work at Site 3, most of us had finished up our science yesterday, so we just packed up our gear and loaded the sleds ready
for travel. Markus and Betsy were the last ones to pack, they remained busy until well after lunch with chemistry experiments and more balloon launches.
By approximately 6:00 PM we were on our way towards Site 4.
This particular leg of the journey is probably the most hazardous that we will experience on this traverse. We will be traveling up into East Antarctica through the Bottleneck (a ~100 km wide Transantarctic Mountain pass) and traveling over areas where the ice changes its speed of flow. The ice is flowing slowly in East Antarctica, but as it flows through the Bottleneck it speeds up, then it slows down again as it spreads out into West Antarctica. Areas where ice changes its flow speed are hazardous because it is in these areas that crevasses are most likely to open up.
For our own safety we have been driving slower than usual and keeping an extremely close eye on the crevasse detecting radar. For the last 30 km a thick fog/diamond dust cloud has enveloped us, this reduces our range of visibility to less than 300 m. This range of visibility is fine when traveling over flat ground because we navigate by GPS (Global Positioning System). The GPS is an amazing tool, even if we completely blacked out all the windows in the tractor cab we could still arrive within ~25 m of our planned destination by following the GPS directions. Unfortunately, this leg of the journey is through the Transantarctic Mountains and the terrain is anything but flat. It is important to have good visibility in order to navigate around the bigger hills and avoid getting stuck. So, at the moment we are staying put until we have better visibility. I hope we do not have to wait long, Site 4 awaits us!
Date: 12/21/02
Latitude: 85°, 00', 01.57" South
Longitude: 104°, 59', 42.57" West
Temperature: −25°C( −13°F)
Wind speed: 5 knots
Wind Chill: −33°C( −27°F)
Wind direction: Northerly
Meters of ice collected: 383
Notes on daily life:
By Paul Andrew Mayewski
Today is our second full day of work at Site 3. As with all of our sites there is a great flurry of scientific activity. Brian and Carl went out on
a 50 km traverse around our site to map ice depths. We are camped at the lower reaches of what is called the “Bottleneck”. It is the
transition between West and East Antarctica and is of great importance to our understanding of the ice dynamics and the mass balance of the total
Antarctic Ice Sheet. One of our colleagues back at the University of Maine, Terry Hughes, named the Bottleneck. He suggested that if we can understand
ice flow through this region we will be able to better understand the past history and perhaps better predict the future of volume change over the
ice sheet. Volume change of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is closely linked to global sea level change as described in a log yesterday by Blue Spikes.
Upon return Brian and Carl told us that we are camped on the side of a large subglacial valley this valley is no doubt the or one of the major channels
for ice flow between West and East Antarctica.
Many other experiments were also in progress today. Markus and Betsy launched a tethered balloon to study temperature and ozone concentrations up to 1 km above the camp. They also did on site measurements of selected chemistry in the near surface snow and air. Gordon and Blue, later assisted by Jim went 1.5 km off from camp to emplace GPS markers to monitor ice surface displacement. Dan, Susan, Mark and Paul worked with the 3” drill to collect a 45 m deep ice core. Based on chemical measurements at the site by Markus and physical observations by Paul the 45 m core is expected to provide a 300 year record. The 3” drill crew worked pretty late into the evening because of a generator malfunction that prevented drilling for several hours. Lynn identified the problem as a fault in the oil level sensor.
During all of the scientific experiments Lynn and Carl prepared the camp for our next leg of travel to Site 4. They modified generators to tolerate the higher altitudes and lower oxygen content we will soon encounter. They also modified the solar power system in the kitchen. The original 3000 watt system failed a few days ago so they borrowed the 1800 watt system from the Polar Haven, where Lynn, Carl, Mark, and Paul sleep, to power the kitchen. This is largely a back up in case the Blue Room power should encounter difficulties. The Blue Room power source is needed for our shallow radar experiments en route. All the while Andrea is preparing meals that we look forward to, and keeping the food stores in shape.
Tomorrow we will complete our work at Site 3 and then off to Site 4 (Hercules Dome). Once at Hercules Dome we will have truly entered East Antarctica. I will certainly be happy, because in many ways stepping foot onto East Antarctica will have taken us almost four field seasons and close to 4500 km of travel. Once the ice core climate records are developed we hope to be able to understand differences in climate between West and East Antarctica and change in climate over time. West Antarctic climate is closely related to the climate of the Pacific Ocean. East Antarctic climate is dominated by the intensely cold, dry air masses that descend over the center of East Antarctica from aloft. The climate transition between Pacific climate influences (including El Niño) and interior East Antarctic climate may well be captured in the region of the Bottleneck. Imagine standing at a place where you might be able to monitor the interaction of such immense climate systems.
The Bottleneck is a real crossroad for us. It is the transition between East and West Antarctic climate and ice flow. It is also poses the steepest gradients we will encounter during our traverse to the Pole. We pushed up over about half of the Bottleneck gradient jump in our travel from Site 2 to Site 3. Soon we will experience the next jump from Site 3 to Site 4. Once at Site 4 (Hercules Dome) we will be close to the elevation of South Pole. As we leave Site 3 tomorrow we will be more than half way through our scientific goals and our traverse.
Date: 12/20/02
Latitude: 85°, 00', 01.57" South
Longitude: 104°, 59', 42.57" West
Temperature: −25°C( −13°F)
Wind speed: 5 knots
Wind Chill: −33°C( −27°F)
Wind direction: Northerly
Meters of ice collected: 318
Notes on daily life:
By Vandy Blue Spikes
Greeting from Antarctica. I am excited to finally be typing up my first daily log. I’ll start by saying that is was a glorious day on the ice
sheet. It was quite cold (−13°F), but that’s to be expected. The best thing about today was the lack of wind and the abundance of sunshine.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day to work in this usually hostile environment. The worst thing about today was the fact that we still can’t
see many mountains. The Ohio Range is barely peaking over the western horizon, but despite the fact that the rest of the Transantarctic Mountains are
only about 40 miles away, they still cannot be seen. This minor let down will surely be overcome on the next leg of the traverse.
Throughout this season many of the participating ITASE scientists have had the opportunity to explain their individual projects to those of you who follow this daily log. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about one of the projects that Gordon Hamilton, Steven Arcone, and I are working on. The project involves ground calibration and validation of the Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) on board NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which was supposed to be launched today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California. We have yet to receive confirmation of a successful launch, but hopefully we will get the good news tomorrow.
As with most scientific satellites, the details of how the laser altimetry system works could make your head spin, but the important thing to understand is that the satellite will measure elevations all over Earth’s surface. However, the orbit of the satellite makes it ideal for studying Earth’s Polar Regions. Scientists plan to use the system to track elevation changes over ice sheets in order to determine whether they are getting larger or smaller with time.
As many of you know, the Antarctic Ice Sheet plays an important role in Earth’s climate system and water budget. The ice sheet influences and responds to changes in climate, and sea level is modulated in part by the storage and release of water from the ice sheet. The Antarctic contribution to global sea level rise is determined by calculating the mass balance of the ice sheet. The term ‘mass balance’ refers to the difference between the amount of new snow accumulation versus the amount of ice that is lost to melting, sublimation, calving of icebergs, etc. An important goal of both US ITASE and the ICESat mission is to understand the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and thus determine its contribution to rising sea level.
To help NASA determine whether or not their new system is producing reliable results; we used snowmobile-mounted GPS units to map two regions along this year’s traverse. The first site was established during our lengthy delay at Byrd Surface Camp. The second was just completed today at Site 3. The ground–based mapping technique is highly accurate, so if NASA’s elevation measurements agree with ours, the satellite mission can be considered a success. If the satellite measurements do not agree, NASA will make the necessary adjustments to correct their instrument.
It should be noted that after six hours of surveying I was pretty cold and had taken all the abuse I could from our rough–riding snowmobile. Lucky for me, Jim Laatsch was kind enough to finish the last two hours of the survey for me. I believe this was Jim’s first experience navigating a snowmobile across the Antarctic plateau with nothing more than a hand–held GPS unit. He didn’t get lost, so I’d say he did a great job.
Well, that about does it for this daily log. I hope you all got something out of it. Please stay tuned for more daily updates from US ITASE.
Best regards,
Vandy Blue Spikes
p.s. To all my friends and family who have just tuned in to this broadcast, I’m thinking of you all. I hope you all have a great holiday season!
Date: 12/19/02
Latitude: 85°, 00', 01.57" South
Longitude: 104°, 59', 42.57" West
Temperature: −24°C( −11°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: −33°C( −28°F)
Wind direction: Northeasterly
Meters of ice collected: 308
Notes on daily life:
By Dan Dixon
After a well–earned, stationary night’s rest, we set off again for Site 3 at 6:00 am this morning. The updated route worked like a charm and
we didn’t get stuck once (although there were a few sticky moments!). Susan and Dan collected surface snow samples every ~50 km to add to the
Byrd to Pole surface snow chemistry profile and Gordon collected continuous shallow radar profiles for the entire trip. The weather has been playing
some odd games; there are thick diamond dust clouds surrounding us, the wind has dropped to almost nothing, and the temperature is dropping fast. Thanks
to the diamond dust we have only been able to catch fleeting glimpses of the massive Transantarctic Mountain range that surrounds us. Hopefully, the
clouds will clear at site three and we will be able to view the scenery in all its splendor. The diamond dust also causes some problems with the Challengers;
the dust is so fine that it sticks to the air intake grilles at the front of the tractors. After ten or fifteen minutes the dust builds up an impermeable
barrier and the engines start to overheat. To overcome this problem we must stop regularly (before the dust has a chance to build up) and brush off
the grilles; this slows us down considerably.
We had a worrying moment during the trip early this morning; some large, linear features were spotted crossing our path ~500 m ahead. At first we thought the features were crevasses, but as we inched closer we discovered that the features were in fact large sastrugi aligned at an opportune angle so that the sun highlighted them perfectly. We were all very relieved.
Date: 12/18/02
Latitude: 84°, 22', 02.02" South
Longitude: 105°, 03', 05.65" West
Temperature: −23°C( −9°F)
Wind speed: 10 knots
Wind Chill: −34°C( −29°F)
Wind direction: Northeasterly
Meters of ice collected: 383
Notes on daily life:
We have been traveling for 27 hours straight and the going has been very tough. The surface conditions have been similar to those we experienced near Byrd. The snow has been very deep and very soft with large, hard sastrugi from the previous storm. These alternating hard and soft surfaces are very hard on the sleds and tractors; they make the ride very bumpy and often cause breakage. As a result, we have not gone as far as we had originally hoped. We have stopped for the night and are working on some improvements that should make the journey easier tomorrow. One of the main obstacles we have come up against is very large, steep hills (hard to believe in a normally flat place like this). The hills look spectacular, like massive white ocean waves frozen mid–break. The Challenger tractors are having a hard time pulling their heavy loads up such steep inclines so Blue and Gordon are devising a new route, using satellite and topography data, which should take us along the least–steep and safest path.
We have already had short glimpses of mountains on the horizon and by the time we are at Site 3 we should have a magnificent view all around us, as the Transantarctic Mountains will surround us. The area where Site 3 is located is a ~100 km wide mountain pass between East and West Antarctica. Because the East Antarctic ice plateau is so much higher than West Antarctica, a considerable amount of ice flows through the pass from east to west. The small width and shallow depth of the pass make it into a bottleneck for the ice; this will make it an extremely interesting area to study.
With luck, we should be at Site 3 by tomorrow afternoon.
Date: 12/17/02
Latitude: 83°, 30', 02.81" South
Longitude: 104°, 59', 12.73" West
Temperature: −19°C( −2°F)
Wind speed: 20 knots
Wind Chill: −32°C( −26°F)
Wind direction: Northeasterly
Meters of ice collected: 308
Notes on daily life:
Special edition by Markus Frey (English translation follows)
17 Dezember, 2002 Die Internationale Transantarktische Forschungsexpedition bei Site 2
Atmosphaerenchemisches Tagebuch ... Experiment im Sturm.
Markus Frey (Tucson AZ/ Freiburg, Deutschland)
8 Uhr morgens, draussen ist die Hoelle los, 35 Knoten Wind bei 30 Grad Celsius. Der Windgenerator auf dem Dach des Blue Rooms heult wie ein Pack hungriger Schlittenhunde. Mit Muehe kaempfe ich mich gegen den eiskalten Sturm die 300 Meter zum Atmospheric Shelter, dem verloren scheinenden Aussenposten im Land des ewigen Eises. Windboen zerren gleich rasenden Woelfen an meinem Daunenanorak und Schneehosen. Der Treibschnee und meine staendig beschlagene Skibrille lassen mich die Umrisse des blauen Zeltes nur erahnen. Glueck gehabt, der 3.5 KW Generator laeuft noch. Die Tankprozedur gestaltet sich ueberaus muehselig, bloss keinen Schnee in den Tank bringen, ein Versagen des Generators und Stromverlust waere das Ende des Atmosphaeren Chemie Experiments. Schneewehen blockieren den Zelteingang, es braucht eine Weile, bis ich den Reissverschluss ausgegraben habe und endlich in das kleine, blaue Chemie Labor auf Kufen einsteigen kann. Ueber das Kurzwellen Radio melde ich mich im Camp zurueck: ”... Blue Room, Blue Room, this is the Atmospheric Shelter, I made it to my tent. Over.” Grundregel waehrend eines Sturms ist es, immer ein Funkgeraet bei sich zu tragen. Ein Verfehlen des Camps unter White Out Bedingungen waere das sichere Ende.
Drinnen im Zelt hat es 20 Grad, Schnee auf den elektrischen Kabeln, vom Wind durch Spalte ins Zeltinnere gedrueckt. Der elektrische Heizluefter erscheint mir wie ein schlechter Witz bei dem eisigen Durchzug. Das brutale Knattern der Zeltplane ist alles andere als beruhigend, wird das Aluminium Geruest den Natur Gewalten standhalten? Ich oeffne den Deckel des Wasserstoffperoxid Detektors: das Summen der vier Pumpen, die rund um die Uhr Luft von draussen ansaugen, wirkt dagegen irgendwie beruhigend, das rhythmische Auf und ab des elektrischen Signals der Detektoren auf dem Computer Bildschirm zeigt ein einwandfreies Funktionieren der Instrumente an. Kaum zu glauben, bei den Bedingungen. Der haerteste Teil steht noch bevor: das Auswechseln der Luftfilter 10 m in den Wind vor dem Zelt. Die kleinen Plastik Schlaeuche lassen sich nur mit blossen Fingern handhaben, eine kleine Ewigkeit dauert es, bis die 24 Stunden lang beprobten Filter ausgewechselt sind. Meine Finger sind auf einmal ganz taub von der Kaelte ... schnell ins Zelt zurueck, um eine Erfrierung zu vermeiden. Ein Problem geloest, und schon 3 neue da: das Zelt muss besser gegen den Wind abgedichtet, die Reagenzien fuer die Analyse der atmosphaerischen Spurengase aufgetaut und die elektrischen Kabel fuer die meteorologischen Sensoren repariert werden.
Hier draussen horchen wir am Puls der Natur. Waehrend eines antarktischen Sturms jedoch verwandelt sich jedes wissenschaftliche Experiment in eine permanente Schlacht gegen die Elemente ....
Etliche Stunden spaeter zeichnet sich ein Erfolg ab: saemtliche Instrumente laufen nun. Geduld und Ausdauer haben scih gelohnt. Ueber das Radio meldet sich Andrea aus der Kueche: Lunch is ready! Zeit fuer den Rueckweg zum Hauptcamp.
12/17/2002
The International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition at Site 2
Atmospheric Chemistry Diary ... Experiment during a storm
Markus Frey (Tucson AZ/ Freiburg, Deutschland)
8:00 in the morning, outside all hell is breaking loose: 35 knot winds at −30 C. The wind generator on top of the roof of the Blue Room is howling like a pack of hungry sled dogs. With great effort I fight my way against the ice–cold wind the 300 m to the atmospheric shelter, the forlorn outpost in the land of eternally frozen ice. Wind gusts tear like raging dogs on my down jacket and snow pants. The blowing snow and my fogged up ski goggles allow me only to imagine the silhouette of the blue tent out there. Luckily, the 3.5 kw generator is still running. The fueling procedure turns out to be extraordinarily cumbersome; I must try not to get any snow into the fuel tank. A breakdown of the generator and loss of power would be the end of the atmospheric chemistry experiment. Snowdrifts block the entrance of the shelter. It takes me a while to dig out the zipper and get into the small blue chemistry lab on runners. Via radio I report back to camp: ”... Blue Room, Blue Room, this is the Atmospheric Shelter, I made it to my tent. Over.” The fundamental rule during a storm is always to carry a VHF radio with you. Missing the camp under white out conditions would certainly mean the end.
Inside the tent it's about −20 C, snow pushed through gaps by the wind covers electrical cables. The space heater I turn on appears to me as a bad joke facing an ice–cold draft through the tent. The brutal rattling of the tarp is anything but soothing, will the aluminum frame withhold against the forces of nature? I open the lid of the hydrogen peroxide detector where the humming of the four little air pumps, which suck ambient air into the instrument around the clock, is rather tranquilizing. The rhythmic pulse of the electric signal on the computer screen indicates a flawless functioning of the instruments, hard to believe under these conditions.
The most tedious part is still ahead: the exchanging of air filters at a box drifted into the snow about 10 m upwind of the tent. The small diameter plastic tubing can only be handled with bare fingers. It takes a near eternity until the sampled filters are replaced with new ones. All of a sudden my fingers become numb ... quickly back to the shelter to avoid frostbite. One problem solved, then the appearance of 3 more problems: the tent has to be sealed better against the wind to make work possible, the reagents for the chemical analysis of atmospheric trace gases need to be thawed and the electrical cables for the meteorological sensors require repair.
Out here we listen closely to the pulse of nature. During an Antarctic storm however, any scientific experiment turns into a permanent battle against the elements. Several hours later, success: all instruments are running now. Patience and endurance have paid off. Over the radio Andrea lets me know that lunch is ready. Time to walk back to camp...
Date: 12/16/02
Latitude: 83°, 30' 02.81" South
Longitude: 104° 59' 12.73"West
Temperature: −22°C( −8°F)
Wind speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: −34°C( −29°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 273
Notes on daily life:
By Gordon Hamilton
The inhabitants of the Blue Room woke this morning to a slightly less annoying noise from the wind generator during strong winds the blades scream
like a banshee and reverberate the noise through the Blue Room as if it were a loud speaker. Today, the quieter sound meant that the wind had slowed.
Not that it had stopped altogether. Still, there was no blowing snow, there was blue sky above and the sun was shining again. Another great day in
West Antarctica…
The first task of the day was to dig out from yesterday’s storm. The amount of snow that can accumulate around obstacles never ceases to amaze. There were drifts over a meter high along the sides of the traverse vehicles. Lynn, Carl, Brian and Jim spent the early part of the morning moving snow with shovels. Mark, Susan, Paul and Dan had some shoveling of their own to do out at the drill site. Once the drill site was open for business, Markus collected several shallow cores that he and Betsy processed later in the day at their atmospheric sampling tent. The main drilling group made good progress and finished the day at a depth of 51 meters.
Blue and Gordon made the 2 km trek out to their mass balance marker site that they started installing on Saturday. Not surprisingly nearly everything was buried in a snow drift. After a few hours work, the site was complete. The purpose of the markers is to measure the rate of ice sheet thickness change (or its mass balance). One of the most important problems in modern glaciology is understanding whether the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are getting bigger or smaller with time. If they get smaller, sea level will rise. As you might imagine, the vast size and remote location of the polar ice sheets poses special problems when trying to measure their behavior. Blue and Gordon use very precise GPS (Global Positioning System) surveys to measure the vertical velocity at different sites along the ITASE traverse. They compare the vertical velocity (the speed that a hypothetical snowflake flows downwards and outwards on its way to the ocean) with the snow accumulation rate. For an ice sheet to stay the same thickness with time, the downward vertical velocity needs to be balanced by the speed that new snow is added. Snowfall exceeds vertical velocity if the ice sheet is thickening. The snow accumulation rate is obtained from studying ice cores. There are lots of different techniques for dating an ice core Gordon and Blue use layers of radioactive snow from nuclear bomb tests carried out in 1955 and 1965 to tell how much snow has fallen since then (the long–term average accumulation rate). At each site they drill two cores. Today, the first 20 meter core was drilled. Blue and Gordon drilled the first 12 meters before dinner. After a warming Mexican meal, Andrea and Lynn drilled the remaining 8 meters while Gordon processed the samples. They got finished a few minutes after 10:00 PM, just as Lynn thought he was going to start earning overtime pay!
It is fine evening at Site 2. Tomorrow we will finish the remaining science projects, pack the sleds and hit the road for Site 3. With all the new sastrugi that formed during the storm it might be a bumpy ride…
Date: 12/15/02
Latitude: 77°, 51' South
Longitude: 166° 40' East
Temperature: −4°C( 25°F)
Wind speed: 20 knots
Wind Chill: −12°C( 10°F)
Wind direction: South southeast
Meters of ice collected: 383
Notes on daily life:
Expedition Logbook Extra by Leigh Stearns (McMurdo Station)
We were scheduled to leave today for our Twin Otter trip around West Antarctica. We were all set to go, but the weather was bad at Onset D (where we're supposed to land)...hopefully we'll be leaving tomorrow. Whenever you fly in Antarctica, the weather has to be clear where you are going before you take off for safety's sake. There are no close by airports, and no instruments to help you land in bad weather; the pilot has to be able to see the ski way in order to land. The ski way is just a line of flag poles that mark a safe spot. Safe here means a relatively smooth surface and no crevasses.
