Flying to Antarctica is an adventure in itself. Here’s a brief collection of clips during my 2014-2015 flights from Christchurch, New Zealand, through McMurdo Station, and finally ending up at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Field Camp – WAIS Divide. Both airplanes are LC-130 Hercules, operated by the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing, Operation Deep Freeze.
The flight from McMurdo Station in to WAIS Divide, aboard a US Air Force LC-130 Hercules. As we flew from McMurdo and approached WAIS, the weather got worse and worse. We circled for a while, and then at the last minute swooped down and landed. The flight crew let me sit in the back of the cockpit and watch as suddenly black flags marking the skiway emerged from the solid white view in front of us.
(Cheers from WAIS Divide Field Camp, Antarctica! Posted using email via satellite – I’ll post larger/more photos as soon as I’m off the ice)
After a solid month of waiting at McMurdo Station, I’ve finally made it to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Field Camp – commonly knows at WAIS.
Last Saturday, after the holiday schedule shutdown had worn off, we received notice from the McMurdo Air Transport office that our flight to WAIS was first priority the next morning. Sunday morning we woke up, and miraculously, the weather was great, and we transported out to the Williams Field Airfield – built on the Ross Ice Shelf about 30 minutes drive across the ice from McMurdo. After a bit of a delay and a few cups of coffee at the field galley, we finally got on the LC-130 Hercules, and the Air Force crew got things started – for a minute. After two attempted starts of the engines, they realized a maintenance issue, and scrubbed the flight for the day. We almost made it, but had to wait until the next day. Monday morning came, and we once again had decent weather at McMurdo and borderline weather at WAIS. This time we actually took off, and after a month of waiting, were finally on our way to McMurdo.
The flight from McMurdo Station to WAIS Divide Field Camp takes about three hours, however at the three hour mark we were still in the air. The weather at WAIS while were in flight had gotten worse, and the flight was forced to circle looking for a break in the clouds until finally, at the last minute, we swooped down, landed, and ran off the plane – finally at camp!
The first day was spent prepping for work, and getting our field gear setup. Except for the pilots and doctor, everybody lives on the edge of camp in “tent city”, a grid of various tents. My team has fairly nice “Arctic Oven” tents, which are very roomy for one person, and do get a little warmer than the outside. The photo attached to this post is a pic of setting up one of the tents – pretty nice – and thanks to Enerplex for the solar panel I now have strapped to the top of my tent, which keeps all of my cameras and gadgets fully charged from the 24/7 sunlight here. We also got basic comms and organization gear setup in the science tent, and took an initial look at the Drill Arch, where we’ll be working for the next three weeks.
It’s the end of day three now, and work has been going great. Over the next three weeks we have a ton of work cutout for us, and we’re all slowly getting more used to working in the extreme cold all day.
Communications is extremely difficult from such a remote location. The camp has no internet access, except for one daily 10-minute satellite pass, which is restricted to only pre-queued emails under 50kb. Because of that, I’m experimenting posting to my WordPress blog via Email. If all works, you’ll also see a small picture attached to this post – it’s small to stay under 50kb, but I’ll try to send as many as possible.
During my time at field camp, I’ll be filming and photographing as many activities as possible, higher res photos and video posted as soon as I’m back.
Cheers from WAIS Divide Field Camp, Antarctica
One of the hidden gems at McMurdo, in terms of science experiments, is the COSRAY Neutron Detector. I had the opportunity to go inside the current COSRAY Building at McMurdo, led by technician James Roth.
More on COSRAY, from UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE BARTOL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEUTRON MONITOR PROGRAM :
A neutron monitor is an instrument that measures the number of high-energy particles impacting Earth from space. For historical reasons these particles, mostly protons and helium nuclei, are called “cosmic rays.” Because the intensity of cosmic rays hitting Earth is not uniform, it is important to place neutron monitors at multiple locations in order to form a complete picture of cosmic rays in space. Bartol Research Institute currently operates 8 neutron monitors.
Every year at McMurdo, to usher in the new year, there’s a giant concert celebration that takes place in the middle of town. Bands that have been formed in the beginning part of the season, as well as bands formed over the years, all get a chance go play for the town. It’s a huge party, with days of setup, and months of preparation going into it. This year, in addition to an amazing list of bands, there was also a Chili Cookoff.
Highlight for me include listening to “Shitty and Loud”, who really were shitty and loud, declaring Chief Andre’s firehouse chili my personal winner (definitely beating the Kiwi’s “chili”, and making the strange realization that all of my WAIS Divide field camp amigos had all brought our own costumes for field camp.
A few pics, and video clips from the celebration..
During my team’s time stuck at McMurdo waiting for transport to WAIS, we had a lot of free time to kill – and spent much of it taking long walks and hike around the surrounding area.
Ross Island, where McMurdo is located, has its own extensive trail system. One of the more popular and accessible trails is the relatively flat loop circling Observation Hill. On a sunny day, I hiked the loop with a few members of my team:
At McMurdo, helicopters play a vital role in local transportation and logistics. McMurdo has its own helicopter operations hanger and pad, operated by PHI Helicopter, featuring 6 pads, and an indoor enclosed hangar for maintenance.
During my month or so living at McMurdo while awaiting transport to field camp, I had the opportunity to watch countless helicopter flights, including flights of the PHI-Operated Bell 212 “Twin Huey”, NZ-Operated Eurocopter AS350 B2, and finally a Chinese-operated Kamov KA-32. A few photos and video clips:
See more of the Chinese Kamov KA-32
On December 30th, 2014, a Russian-made, Chinese-operated Kamov KA-27 Helicopter made a brief stop by New Zealand’s Scott Base, Antarctica. The helicopter is operated by the Polar Research Institute of China, and was flying from its supporting research vessel, the MV Xue Long, China’s only polar research vessel.
The helicopter was picking up a slingload of fuel, for deposit at a remote fuel depot at Cape Adare, Antarctica, in support of a Kiwi research project.
Video of the fuel pickup, and a photo of the chopper coming around to Scott Base.
One of the most interesting science facilities at McMurdo is the NASA Long Duration Balloon Facility. This site, on the ice shelf and well away from anything else is the assembly and launch area for extreme high altitude balloons, carrying a variety of science payloads. During my trip out there, I was fortunate enough to be allowed inside the hanger where the SPIDER Polarimeter was being assembled and tested. A few pics, as well as a video clip of the unit performing a scan test.
Here’s the launch:
https://youtu.be/yaYqKqeBuHo
Spider (polarimeter)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spider is a balloon-borne experiment designed to search for primordial gravity waves imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Measuring the strength of this signal puts limits on inflationary theory.The Spider instrument consists of six degree-resolution telescopes cooled to liquid Helium temperature (4 K) which observe at frequencies of 100 GHz, 150 GHz, and 220 GHz (corresponding to wavelengths of 3 mm, 2 mm, and 1.4 mm). Each telescope is coupled to a polarisation-sensitive transition-edge bolometer array cooled to 250 mK.
The first balloon flight of the experiment is planned for 2013 from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, with support from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility. This Long Duration Balloon flight allows several weeks of mapping over about 10% of the sky. Further flights planned for successive seasons enable upgrades and changes to the modular telescope, and ever-improving depth for stronger results.
The primary science goals include:
characterization of the curl-free component of the CMB polarization on the largest scales
searching for the signature of inflationary gravitational waves in the CMB polarization
characterization of the polarization properties of the emission from our own Milky Way Galaxy
McMurdo’s holiday party this year was fantastic! Including family photos slideshow, multiple bands, beer and wine bars, chillout room, and of course, a santa+elves photobooth.
Weather plays a very important part of our lives in Antarctica, and many operations live by the daily weather forecasts. Although there’s a distinct lack of the latest and greatest weather gear on the ice, met balloons are launched twice a day to help build up the daily weather forecasts. I had the opportunity to assist in inflating and launching one of the balloons.
In addition to my experience doing this at McMurdo, I also had a great time launching a balloon at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in 2013.
Here at McMurdo, we have a number of airfields used for different missions. Willy Field is located on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, and therefore can be used year-round, even when the floating sea ice has melted. Only ski-equipped aircraft land here, including LC-130H, and DHC Twin Otters. Earlier today I took a quick trip out to the airfield, and explored the small town next to the skiway, which provides all of the aircraft, passenger, and crew support facilities.
Antarctica is filled with interesting, fit, adventurous, competitive people – and as a result, there are a bunch of races every year. Last time I was at the South Pole, I ran one big race – the South Pole Marathon. This year, while I was at McMurdo Station waiting for my flight out to WAIS Divide Field Camp, I had the opportunity to run two smaller, but equally interesting races. The Scott Hut 10K, and the Ob Hill Uphill.
Both races were great – and the epic blizzard on the morning of the Ob Hill Uphill made everything a bit more intense.
Chanukah is a celebration, no matter where you are. This year at McMurdo, we used “Hut 10”, a special events building, to host a fun Chanukah party. A few pics..
Scott’s Discovery Hut is located on the outskirts of McMurdo Station, and is a short walk from the center of town. A bit of background, and some photos of my recent exploration of the area:
From Wikipedia: Discovery Hut was built by Robert Falcon Scott during the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 in 1902 and is located at Hut Point on Ross Island by McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Visitors to Antarctica, arriving at either the US Base at McMurdo or New Zealand’s Scott Base are likely to encounter Discovery Hut as all three are located on Hut Point. Discovery Hut is just 300m from McMurdo Base. The hut has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 18), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.[1]
https://youtu.be/Jn5FpYmz1Ck
One of the more interesting facilities at McMurdo station is NASA’s NEar Earth Network Ground Station. The facility is comprised of a server and management office in McMurdo proper, as well as a large satellite dish, covered with a radome, on the edge of Arrival Heights, just outside of town. From NASA:
October 3, 2014 – Formerly known as the Ground Network, the Near Earth Network (NEN) provides telemetry, commanding, ground-based tracking, data and communications services to a wide range of customers. The NEN provides these services to customers with satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous orbit (GEO) highly elliptical orbit, Lunar orbit and missions with multiple frequency bands.
Customers are both national and international, government and commercial entities, NASA (Earth Science, Space Science, and Human Explorations missions) and non-NASA.
The Near Earth Network utilizes both NASA-owned and commercial stations around the world to ensure proper service to customers.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD Maryland manages the operations of the Near Earth Network.
Currently, McMurdo Station is hosting a little over 800 people in an industral, dangerous, busy town about as far away from anywhere as you can get. Naturally, with so many people, there’s the occassional sickness and injury. To deal with that, there’s a complete hospital and medical staff waiting to take care of any medical need. Here are a few pics from my recent tour of the McMurdo Station General Hospital…
The hospital here has already been covered my multiple people – here are a few related writeups and tours of the place:
In McMurdo Sound, the McMurdo Ice Shelf cascades into the sea. pushing and squeezing the frozen sea ice against the hut point peninsula where McMurdo Station and Scott Base are located. This pushing and squeezing of the floating sea ice creates dramatic pressure ridges in the ice, which are beautiful and memorizing to explore. A few nights ago I had the opportunity to walk amongst the pressure ridges and take some pics…
Pressure Ridges – A pressure ridge develops in an ice cover as a result of a stress regime established within the plane of the ice. Within sea ice expanses, pressure ridges originate from the interaction between floes,[note 1] as they collide with each other.[3][4][5][6] Currents and winds are the main driving forces, but the latter are particularly effective when they have a predominant direction.[7] Pressure ridges are made up of angular ice blocks of various sizes that pile up on the floes. The part of the ridge that is above the water surface is known as the sail; that below it as the keel.[note 2] Pressure ridges are the thickest sea ice features and account for about one-half of the total sea ice volume.[2] Stamukhi are pressure ridges that are grounded and that result from the interaction between fast ice and the drifting pack ice.[8][9]
McMurdo Sound – McMurdo Sound and its ice-clogged waters extends about 55 kilometres (34 mi) long and wide. The sound connects the Ross Sea to the north with the Ross Ice Shelf cavity to the south via Haskell Strait. The strait is largely covered by the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 4,205 metres (13,796 ft) on the western shoreline. Ross Island, an historic jumping-off point for polar explorers, designates the eastern boundary. The active volcano Mt Erebus at 3,794 metres (12,448 ft) dominates Ross Island. Antarctica’s largest scientific base, the United States’ McMurdo Station, as well as the New Zealand Scott Base are located on the southern shore of the island. Less than 10 percent of McMurdo Sound’s shoreline is free of ice.[1] It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world.[2]
Since I’ve been stuck at McMurdo Station, Antarctica for the past week, I’ve had numerous opportunities to shop at the McMurdo General Store. This is the place on station to get gifts, souvineers, clothing, movies, liquor, and just about anything else you could need to feel comfortable. In addition to just providing general goods, interestingly, it seems that the general store and “shopping” experience is a comforting bit of “back in civilization” behavior. I’ve caught both myself and other friends numerous times shopping around in the store, not looking for anything in particular, but just looking around and feeling more at home.
Anyway, here are a few pics of what’s available:
For a bit more context and interest, here’s a few facts and background on McMurdo Station in general1
At McMurdo, lots of people transit though on a daily basis – and not everybody needs everything they brought with them. To effectively recycle unwanted clothing and gear, McMurdo has a bit of a free thrift shop, called Skua. The name comes from the Skua birds that inhabit Ross Island, and frequently scavenge dropped food!
Observation Hill is a small mountain that looms over McMurdo station to the east. It’s a fairly steep, but easy climb, and gives views of the entire surrounding area, including the Long Duration Balloon launch facility on the McMurdo Ice Sheet. During my stay in McMurdo, I hiked it a few times. A few pics from the top:
Despite the time I’ve spent here in Antarctica, up until last week I had never actually seen a penguin. That all changed when I was biking from McMurdo Station across the frozen sea ice out to Willy Field airfield. As I was riding along, I noticed a van of people stopped on the ice looking at something, and went over to check it out. It was a lone Emperor Penguin, straying away from the rest to molt. He was moving fairly quickly over the ice, both sliding on his stomach and walking along. Cute!
