Crazy structures for the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup, including all sorts of overhanging, free floating barrels, and convoluted shapes. We got to see a few of these recently in Ouray, Colorado.
Via Gizmodo: Ice-Climbing Structures Are Mind-Blowing Experimental Architecture
Great infographic today thanks to the US Coast Guard – a comprehensive review of the world’s major icebreakers. My next task, sail on all of them!
From the United States Naval Institute:
“The Coast Guard Office of Waterways and Ocean Policy (CG-WWM) began producing the chart of major icebreakers of the world in July 2010. Since then, we have gathered icebreaker information and recommendations from a variety of sources and experts, including icebreaker subject-matter experts, internet posts, news updates, Arctic experts and Coast Guard offices with icebreaker equities. We validate our information within the public forum and update the chart at least semi-annually based on new information and feedback. This chart represents the Coast Guard’s current factual understanding of the major icebreaker fleet. This chart is not intended for icebreaker fleet comparisons and no inference should be drawn regarding a country’s icebreaker “ranking” against another.”
U.S. Coast Guard's 2013 Review of Major Icebreakers of the World | USNI News.
Not like I wasn’t expecting it – popular social hookup app Tinder seems to be running full steam at both the Sochi Winter Olympics as well as McMurdo Station, Antarctica. From The Cut:
On a lonely December night at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, an American scientist conducting research there decided to log on to Tinder — “just for fun.” He’d been using the mobile dating app in the States for a few months, and wanted to see if there were any available women out on the loveless tundra. At first, no profiles showed up. But when he expanded the app’s location radius, he found someone: another researcher, working at a deep field camp a 45-minute helicopter ride away from the base station. He swiped right, indicating his interest, and a few minutes later, they matched.
If they were using Tinder at the South Pole station, where I worked during the Summer 2012-13 season, this is the dish those swipes would have probably pinged across.
My new website obsession is InMyBag.net, where photographers show off what’s in their photo kit bags. Endless entertainment. I especially love seeing Aaron Bates’ Adventure Travel Photography Bag.
Last night I took a class through Denver’s new learning startup Dabble on MIG Welding. The class was taught by structural engineer Nick Geurts of Martino & Luth, Inc.. During the class, hosted in Nick’s backyard garage and workshop, we covered the very basics of welding techniques, and then some of the specifics of entry level MIG Welding on mild steel. After welding a few pieces of steel together, I felt pretty confident in making a basically usable weld – although certainly not perfect or professional.
Mig Welding, from Wikipedia:
Gas metal arc welding (GMAW), sometimes referred to by its subtypes metal inert gas (MIG) welding or metal active gas (MAG) welding, is a welding process in which an electric arc forms between a consumable wire electrode and the workpiece metal(s), which heats the workpiece metal(s), causing them to melt, and join. Along with the wire electrode, a shielding gas feeds through the welding gun, which shields the process from contaminants in the air. The process can be semi-automatic or automatic. A constant voltage, direct current power source is most commonly used with GMAW, but constant current systems, as well as alternating current, can be used. There are four primary methods of metal transfer in GMAW, called globular, short-circuiting, spray, and pulsed-spray, each of which has distinct properties and corresponding advantages and limitations.
Love this video.. such dedication, so wow.
NASA recently revealed that a spot in Antarctica just hit a record -135.3 degrees F below zero – that’s cold! In my time at the south pole, the coldest I experienced was -60F – not even close to the record.
Ice scientist Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center said the new record is “50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska or Siberia or certainly North Dakota.”
“It’s more like you’d see on Mars on a nice summer day in the poles,” Scambos said, from the American Geophysical Union scientific meeting in San Francisco Monday, where he announced the data. “I’m confident that these pockets are the coldest places on Earth.”
Here’s a quick explainer video.
Me in the South Pole Ice Tunnels
In an awesome move, National Geographic and Google Maps have teamed up to bring Nat Geo’s awesomely detailed, historical maps to the masses through Google’s tried-and-true maps engine. I already do a bunch of my travel planning with Google Maps, and being able to overlay Nat Geo maps on my trips seems like a great new feature. Maybe I’m trekking over land that has been resurveyed over the years? Coastlines moved? Ruins discovered?
From Frank Biasi, Director of Digital Development at National Geographic Maps:
What’s the most exciting thing about participating in the Google Maps Engine public data program?
Google Maps Engine lets us turn our maps into interactive full-screen images that can be panned and zoomed and overlaid with tons of great data. We are proud of our century-long cartographic tradition. The Maps Engine public data program will help get our maps out into the world where more people can enjoy and learn from them.
Here’s the widely available view of Dominican Republic – I’ll update to my own custom NatGeo map when they get back to me on the index of all National Geographic Maps available on Google Maps Engine.
Google is quickly developing products for presence in the Travel space, and with their existing scope and technology resources, I can see them making a significant impact if they want, giving emerging startups like BonVoyaging stiff competition. Here’s my rundown of some recent Google Travel projects…
Top five travel items that make me think Google may be trying to take over the travel industry:
Are you an expert on all the best places to eat, shop and play in your city? If so, then we want you to join the Google City Expert program and start receiving exclusive perks!
The Google City Expert program brings together the most active users on Google Maps who write reviews and upload photos of local places. As a City Expert you will receive: Access to fun, exclusive events in your local area, Free custom swag, Special online recognition
Google tightens grip on future of the travel industry – also puts startups in a tough spot – Tnooz.
Last Austral Summer, I spent 3.5 months living at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica. Among my many jobs on station, one of the most rewarding was the work I did with the Askaryan Radio Array drill and deployment teams. During my time working with the ARA, I got to spend some good time with Scientist Terry Benson. Here’s his excellent slide deck going over the science he’s working on at the South Pole, including details of the ARA Drill Rig I helped construct and test. Specifically, I helped construct the water tank overflow gutter, wired up the emergency stop switches, troubleshoot the main pump system, maintained the hose bindings, and tended to the drill as it operated.
Gravity is definitely one of my favorite movies of the year, and I’ve seen it three times, in three different formats:
The best presentation of the film was certainly the third time I saw it, and the standout of the screening was the Dolby Atmos sound mix. The sound design of the movie was created especially with Atmos in mind, and it really was an incredible experience. This was my 2nd Atmos screening, my first one was at Bangkok’s Siam Center Theater where I saw Ironman 3.
A bit more on Gravity, and the Dolby Atmos Soudn Mix from The Verge:
3D and IMAX may receive top billing, but the secret weapon of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity is something the audience will never even see. From the sound design to the score, Gravity features one of the most innovative and inventive sound mixes to make its way to theaters — one that breaks with modern movie convention in significant ways. It’s a film where space is actually silent, touch is the best way to hear, and dialogue whirls around the audience in an immersive 360-degree cyclone.
Two of the artists who helped bring it to life are sound designer and supervising sound editor Glenn Freemantle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), and sound re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay, a frequent Coen brothers collaborator. We spoke with them both to learn about the techniques and tricks used to bring Gravity’s aural panoramas to life — and the technology that made it possible.
How the sound masters of ‘Gravity’ broke the rules to make noise in a vacuum | The Verge.
When Bitcoin starts being accepted at major real world brick and mortar stores, how are you going to ensure that your Bitcoins stay safe? Bitcoin is not like a physical currency – it exists only in the digital world, and your ownership of your digital store of Bitcoins is dependent on you keeping, and keeping secure your private keys to your walled. As Bitcoins become more mainstream, security will become more and more critical for this digital currency. To help lock it all down, new startup Trezor is making a physical Bitcoin security computer, shaped like a key fob. Here’s the details:
https://vimeo.com/68092369
My Bitcoin BTC Address: 1Li4nEywPj42YeW5oGLg96vvPqTW5uvtcW
Coin is going to be incredibly cool when it launches. An electronic credit card that stores all of your credit cards, and let’s you swipe any card just like normal. It’s not pushing the actual physics of credit transactions in a new direction, but rather giving consumers a tool to keep using existing card-swiping transaction behavior with a new piece of gear that stores all of their cards. Now, if only V2 of coin could include a mag swiper, NFC chip, chip&pin chip, and e-ink QR code/barcode display, it could be used as the end all, be all card in your wallet.
Coin, The Electronic Credit Card, Reaches Its Pre-Order Goal In 40 Minutes | TechCrunch.
It’s truly a sad day for Antarctica. Because of the government furlough, science operations in Antarctica is being shut down as funds dry up, as a “result of the absence of appropriation and the Antideficiency Act.”, according to the official USAP.gov website.
Amidst all of the other shakeup and struggle operations in Antarctica have gone through in recent years, I’m sad to hear that another setback has fallen on operations on the ice. So much good science and engineering research is being done there, it’s a shame that the small fraction of the budget that is needed to support the USAP has been suspended. A breakdown of the actual cost of the program, from Change.org:
The total cost of the USAP program is approximately $350 million dollars. A value added amount of money which is small in terms of the $3.8 trillion dollar total budget that would be trivial not to have congress authorize a portion of it to allow international science to continue.
With any luck, the furlough will end soon, and funds will be made available again before too much of the continent has been emptied out. Effects of the shutdown, from Change.org:
The effects this shutdown will be the loss of continuity in projects that have been ongoing since the International Geophysical Year (IGY) some 50 years ago. Scientific data such as the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) which has been ongoing for 30 years will have a large data gap in at a crucial time in our understanding of climate change. A similar problem would be the abrupt end to 11 years of continuous data on the solar cycle that is used, for example, by the UC Boulder Lidar project. Since solar cycles are 11 years long, missing this last critical bit of data could jeopardize the multi-year investment. Also threatened is our understanding of rapidly changing ecosystems that is being generated by the study of Penguins in the Palmer Peninsula.
The full explanation on USAP.gov reads:
Planning and Implementation of Caretaker Status for U.S. Antarctic Program
October 8, 2013The National Science Foundation (NSF) is responsible for managing and coordinating the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) on behalf of the nation. This includes providing support personnel and facilities and coordinating transportation and other logistics for scientific research. Due to the lapse in appropriation, funds for this support will be depleted on or about October 14, 2013.
Without additional funding, NSF has directed its Antarctic support contractor to begin planning and implementing caretaker status for research stations, ships and other assets. The agency is required to take this step as a result of the absence of appropriation and the Antideficiency Act.
Under caretaker status, the USAP will be staffed at a minimal level to ensure human safety and preserve government property, including the three primary research stations, ships and associated research facilities. All field and research activities not essential to human safety and preservation of property will be suspended.
As NSF moves to caretaker status, it will also develop the information needed to restore the 2013-14 austral summer research program to the maximum extent possible, once an appropriation materializes. It is important to note, however, that some activities cannot be restarted once seasonally dependent windows for research and operations have passed, the seasonal workforce is released, science activities are curtailed and operations are reduced.
NSF remains committed to protecting the safety and health of its deployed personnel and to its stewardship of the USAP under these challenging circumstances.
Help support continued operations in Antarctica by signing Change.org’s petition.
More coverage of this story:
https://www.vimeo.com/57126054
From Vimeo:
La surconsommation désigne un niveau de consommation situé au-dessus de celui des besoins normaux ou d’une consommation moyenne.
Image provenant du film Samsara : Samsara est un mot tibétain qui signifie la roue de la vie, un concept à la fois intime et vaste, qui définit l’âme de chacun.
La surconsommation from Lasurconsommation on Vimeo.
La surconsommation désigne un niveau de consommation situé au-dessus de celui des besoins normaux ou d'une consommation moyenne.
Image provenant du film Samsara : Samsara est un mot tibétain qui signifie la roue de la vie, un concept à la fois intime et vaste, qui définit l'âme de chacun.
After living and working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during the summer 2012-2013 season, I’ve had the chance to see most parts of the station. Additionally, I also worked as a tour guide for the various tourist groups who visited the station. Here’s a brief narrated video tour of both the elevated station as well as the buried service structures. Shot on the Sony RX100.
For more on my time in Antarctica, be sure to see my Antartica Blog.
Be sure to check out my tour of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Field Camp.
According to an NSF press release, early in the morning on January 21st, 2012 EST, contact was lost with a plane bound for the south pole, and the plane is believed to have crashed in the Transantarctic Mountains. Full press release from the NSF below.
NSF press release: https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126676
January 23, 2013
Officials with the U.S. Antarctic Program are cooperating with their Italian and New Zealand counterparts, as well as the Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington, NZ, in a search-and-rescue effort to locate a propeller-driven aircraft that is believed to have crashed in a remote and mountainous part of Antarctica.
A three-person crew is believed to have been aboard the de Havilland Twin Otter when contact was lost with the plane in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, Eastern Standard Time (U.S. stations in Antarctica keep New Zealand time). The nationalities of the crew are unconfirmed at this point.
The missing plane was flying in support of the Italian Antarctic Program under the logistical responsibility of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), and was en route from NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to the Italian research station at Terra Nova Bay when contact was lost with the aircraft in a remote region of the Transantarctic Mountains.
The aircraft is owned and operated by Kenn Borek Air Ltd., a Canadian firm headquartered in Calgary that charters aircraft to the U.S. program.
Communications between U.S. officials at McMurdo Station in Antarctica and the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre confirmed that an emergency locator beacon had been activated.
Officials are monitoring conditions at the site, where the weather is currently very poor, to decide when to launch a search of the area and what kind of aircraft to use.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) manages the U.S. Antarctic Program through which it coordinates all U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent and in the surrounding Southern Ocean as well as providing the necessary logistical support for the science.
Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF (703) 292-7530 pwest@nsf.gov
More coverage:
Early on Tuesday morning, January 22nd 2013 NZDT, Expeditioner Aaron Linsdau successfully made it to the South Pole. Congratulations Aaron! Upon arrival, Aaron seemed to be in great spirits, and although a bit achy, had plenty of energy and good cheer after his long journey.
Wednesday morning, January 23rd 2013 NZDT while he was awaiting his flight back to Union Glacier, I had the opportunity to have a breakfast chat with Aaron about his expedition. We met up early in the morning outside the south pole station, and took a quick stroll around both the geographic and ceremonial poles.
As we began out walk and chat, the first thing Aaron remarked about was how good it felt to be walking. After months and months on skis, he seemed relieved to be waking around on hard packed snow (packed down around the pole by foot and machine traffic).
Speaking about the journey one of Aaron’s more harrowing tales was of 10 meter high ridges of Sastrugi – ridges of snow frozen solid by the unrelenting Antarctic wind. He recounted to me his days of traveling around and over the frozen walls of snow, noting specifically that the going was extremely slow and arduous at times, but he was able to power through it. According to Aaron, there were parts of the journey where the Sastrugi fields were so extreme, he was convinced that if he needed rescue, landing a plane there would be impossible.
Navigation at certain points in the trek was difficult too. Although his two GPS units apparently worked just fine, skiing in a straight line during whiteout storms was challenging. Aaron recounted skiing for about a minute, and then taking a pause to reference his GPS and Compass, making any necessary course correction, and then continuing on for another minute or two. Progress during storms was slow, but he managed to power through, and keep on course.
Throughout the trip, Aaron kept in touch both with his United States-based media support team, as well as with camp managers with ALE/ANI at Union Glacier, Antarctica. He carried two Iridium Extreme satellite phones, as well as an emergency locator beacon. Aaron reported that the Iridium Extreme phones worked very well, although there were intermittent periods of flakiness. When I met up with Aaron outside the station earlier this morning, he was on the phone reporting his position, status, and weather condition back to the support team at Union Glacier. Aaron kept his phones and other electronics charged using an array of solar panels, which are efficient enough to even work from inside his tent, on days with strong sunlight.
Although Aaron’s expedition was done solo, he did indeed have a little company out on the ice. He reports that at one point in the trek, while camped out for the evening, Icelandic skier Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir caught up with him and stopped by his tent to say hi. Although the expanse of ice is vast, on good days visibility is almost to the horizon, and Vilborg was able to spot Aaron’s tent and ski over for a chat. Vilborg ended up arriving at the south pole just 2 days before Aaron, making her the first Icelandic woman to ski solo from the coast to the south pole.
Finally, Aaron seemed to be healthy and fit when he arrived. He mentioned that his rations had worked well, and that he had made it to pole with about 4 days of food remaining.
Wednesday afternoon, Aaron was successfully picked up from the South Pole by a DHC-Twin Otter operated by Kenn Borek Air, and he’s now en route back to Union Glacier.
Congratulations Aaron on your incredible journey!
Read more about Aaron’s journey, including his daily expedition log on his website. https://www.aaronlinsdau.com/antarctica.html
Among the many science experiments taking place at South Pole one of the more interesting field experiments is AGO – the Automatic Geophysical Observatories Network. While Research Scientist Dr. Bob Melville and his team were stationed here at the South Pole Station, I had the opportunuty to help build various electronics, which were subsequently installed at the AGO remote field sensor sites. It was a great experience working with them this year, and I’m certainly hoping to continue my involvement during future seasons on the ice.
A bit about AGO, from the University of Maryland:
Continued progress in understanding the Sun’s influence on the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s upper atmosphere depends upon increasing knowledge of the electrodynamics of the polar cap region and the key role that this region plays in coupling the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere. Measurements that are central to understanding include the electric field convection pattern across the polar cap and knowledge of the response of the atmosphere to the many forms of high-latitude wave and particle energy inputs during both geomagnetically quiet and disturbed situations.
The U.S. AGO network, which consists of a suite of nearly identical instruments (optical and radio wave auroral imagers, magnetometers, and narrow and wide band radio receivers) at six locations on the polar plateau, actively studies the coupling of the solar wind to ionospheric and magnetospheric processes, emphasizing polar cap dynamics, substorm phenomena, and space weather.
Here at the south pole, we get lots of visitors – and many of them are extremely interesting. This past week I had the honor of meeting NASA Astronaut Scott E. Parazynski, MD. Dr. Parazynzki is now working as the Medical Director of the United States Antarctic Program. Having dinner with both Dr. Parazynzki as well as Dr. Sean Roden, former International Space Station Lead Flight Surgeon and now South Pole Chief MD was extremely interesting. Among other things, we discussed the various missions that Dr. Parazynzki and Dr. Roden had worked together on, as well as a few of the more interesting logistics for Antarctic medicine.
Although this happened at McMurdo and I didn’t get to see it personally, it’s still cool – a high altitude weather balloon launch in Antarctica.
BLAST-Pol is a balloon-borne submillimeter-wave telescope designed to study star formation in our galaxy. It was launched on its 2012 long-duration stratospheric balloon flight by the crew of NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility on December 26, 2012 from Willy Field near McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Last week, amidst some interesting weather, blowing snow, and what looked like (to the untrained observer) real snow falling, I reported that we were actually getting snow at the South Pole. As it turns out, the precipitation we received here was actually “snow grains”, not real snow. To clear up a bit of the confusion, and fill my in on general weather phenomenon here, I asked our Meteorologist Phillip Marzette a few questions.
Over the last few days here at the south pole, I’ve noticed some snow-like precipitation. I hear it’s exceedingly rare to get actual snow here. Was that snow we got, or something else? How often does it actually snow here? What’s the main form of precipitation?
As far as precipitation at South Pole, they come in three forms; ice crystals, snow grains and snow. Ice crystals appear about 90% of the time and are the product of water vapor after it encounters very cold and dry air poleward. Snow is made up of six-sided dendrite branch crystals. These are rare at South Pole and occur with warmer temperatures. Snow grains (8-9% occurrence), like snow, occur in warmer temperatures but they are more opaque, graupel-like in structure. Snow grains are what you saw out there, Jeffrey and there hasn’t been any “snow” recorded so far this season.
So, if we’re in a desert here and there’s such low amounts of precipitation, why is the ground covered with snow? Why isn’t it just slick ice on the surface?
The snow on the ground has mainly to do with the continent drifting towards the polar regions over millions of years. During that time, accumulations here have topped out at 2 miles while places further into the continent are at 3 miles. The ANDRILL project here on the continent can tell you more about that than I can. Over time, the snow hasn’t had a chance to melt and refreeze into ice that we are accustomed to, so the ground is still soft to walk on at South Pole.
In addition to the light precipitation we’ve had lately, there’s also been a thick cloud cover, and it’s also been very warm – maybe around -10F. Do these have anything to do with each other?
As far as clouds bringing us warmer weather, that’s a two part answer. The first part being that clouds in general do a good job in trapping in longwave radiation, thereby keeping our temperatures up. The second part is a tad more complicated, but I’ll try to explain. At South Pole, the coldest air settles at the surface and the air is warmer above us. This condition is called an inversion. When cold air meets warmer air, conditions become calmer, while when warm air meets cold air, that’s when we get clouds. When we have low pressure air moves upward from the surface, while when we have high pressure air moves downward to the surface. During low pressure at Pole, the colder air at the surface meets the “warmer” air aloft and conditions are pretty good. During high pressure events, the warmer air goes down to the cold air and we get our clouds, precipitation and otherwise bad weather.
So far during my time here on the ice (Since November 13th), I’ve seen ice crystals drifting in the air, sundogs, thick haze, weird wave-like clouds, and driving winds. What other special weather phenomenon are you looking forward to seeing during the summer season? Anything really special we haven’t seen yet?
As far as anything else that pops up, we do have some Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds (the clouds that look like ocean waves, due to different layers of stability in the atmosphere) that show up from time to time. Other than that, it just learning more and more about what weather events occur normally at South Pole that I would not see anywhere else around the world.
Thanks Phil!
The South Pole Cryogenics Laboratory, usually known as Cryo Barn, was originally established to service various telescopes and science experiments with cryogenic cooling liquids such as Liquid Helium and Liquid Nitrogen. However, in recent years, most new experiments which operate at cold temperatures have been of the “closed loop” variety – that is, they don’t vent or leak any of their coolant. Therefore, most of the new experiments don’t need the regular coolant refils that Cryo Barn was built to provide. Last week, I got to watch as the last Liquid Helium dewar was filled from the main tank, and then shipped off to the Bicep2 CMB Telescope.
Liquid helium plays a crucial role in the operation and effectiveness of microwave telescopes. Here are five key points about its use:1
In summary, liquid helium is indispensable for the operation of microwave telescopes, enhancing their performance by cooling sensitive components, reducing noise, maintaining superconductivity, allowing for prolonged observations, and enabling both ground-based and space-based astronomy.
Since moving to the south pole, I’ve learned an incredible amount of new terms to describe the area around where I’m living. One such term is “Pole of Inaccessibility”.
The southern pole of inaccessibility is the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from the Southern Ocean. A variety of coordinate locations have been given for this pole. The discrepancies are due to the question of whether the “coast” is measured to the grounding line or to the edges of ice shelves, the difficulty of determining the location of the “solid” coastline, the movement of ice sheets and improvements in the accuracy of survey data over the years, as well as possible typographical errors. The pole of inaccessibility commonly refers to the site of the Soviet Union research station mentioned below, which lies at 82°06?S 54°58?E[4] (though some sources give 83°06?S 54°58?E[5]). This lies 878 km (545 statute miles) from the South Pole, at an elevation of 3,718 m (12,198 ft). Using different criteria, the Scott Polar Research Institute locates the pole at 85°50?S 65°47?E.[6]
So, it seems like I’m not living at THE most inaccessibly place in Antarctica, but it’s darn close.
