I am at the end of another journey to Antarctica, completing my fifth trip to the coldest, windiest, and driest continent. It is still hard to believe such trips have become sort of a regular occurrence as that is not what I set out to do, and I really don't ever want such experiences to be "regular". The travel off of Antarctica went exceptionally smooth, especially for Antarctic standards. We met at 1:00PM on Monday for transport to Pegasus Airfield on "Ivan the Terra Bus". You can think of Ivan as a monster-truck version of a school bus. It took about an hour to get to Pegasus as Ivan is much slower than a van. The C-17 arrived right on time at 2:20 PM. With 115+ people on the southbound flight, it took little effort to offload southbound and load northbound cargo. In fact, much of the C-17 was outfitted with seats that were now being filled with only 21 people. 30 minutes after the C-17 landed we walked to, and boarded, the plane. Another half hour later we were in the air going to Christchurch. It was a little over five hours to get to Christchurch and we were on the ground by 8:30 PM. Less than 8 hours from transport to Christchurch is really unheard of when it comes to northbound travel.
I spent about 36 hours in Christchurch before continuing my journey back to Colorado on commercial airlines. I requested a full day in Christchurch to provide an opportunity to rest, slow down, and acclimate back to non-Antarctic life. One of the post-ice trip highlights is a walk in the Christchurch Botanical Garden. It is always special to sense colors, sounds, and scents of nature that I've not experienced in over 5 weeks. I can't even imagine what that must be like for those who are in Antarctica for 8+ months. The time in Christchurch is also nice for getting some good food. After nearly seven weeks together, John and I finished off our journey with a great dinner. The travel back to Colorado was relatively smooth without any delays or drama and a total door to door travel time of about 24 hours.
It is still far too early for me to process and really put much of this past trip into perspective. That will happen in the coming weeks once I get a chance to slow down, as well as have conversations with family and friends. I have come up with a summary of some of the main storylines from the journey. These are not exhaustive, nor in any order, and I am probably missing some, but at this stage they present a good wrap-up to the season.
We were able to complete 33 flights over 10 days of flying the UAVs. This is a fraction of the number of flights that we had hoped to complete. However, the observations that we were able to capture represent a good range of atmospheric conditions and will provide a number of interesting cases to better understand the lowest part of the Antarctic atmosphere. The typical Antarctic field season is that you are fumbling around and facing setbacks and delays to start the season. Things come together for the last week or two and you come away feeling good about how the season ended. Our season was the reverse of that experience with the most productive and best field work at the onset. Yet in our case, this reverse operation was by far preferable because it was in those early weeks, when the transition from winter was the most pronounced, that provided the most interesting meteorological cases.
The entire trip turned on the night of the accident where the UAV hit John's hand and resulted in two deep cuts requiring stitches. In the days leading up to the accident, we were remarkably successful and completed nearly two-third of our flights in the initial week and a half. We had two days of five flights each. Things were never the same after the accident. We never flew more than three flights in a single day and we had some days where we sat at the passenger terminal for hours without getting in a single flight. The first UAV was totaled in two successive crashes on our first day out at Pegasus after the accident. In hindsight the UAV was likely damaged in the accident. After losing that plane, and the accident, we were more cautious and seemed to be continually fighting a lack of wind.
One of the events that sticks out to me is what I am calling "the 10 lost days" in the middle of the trip. These 10 days occurred between the accident and our presentation for the Sunday science lecture. (I talked about these days in more detail in a previous email/blog post.) Time seemed to stand still during those 10 days and yet after the 10 days were over it was a challenge to identify where all of that time went. It was also in those 10 days that I feel we transitioned from the "polar night" to the "polar day" as the sun was much higher in the sky, McMurdo was no longer in the shadow, and the temperatures were warmer. At the end of these 10 days I felt I got a better grasp of keeping track of the day to day activities. We still faced some setbacks after these 10 days but they did not feel like they were lost days.
Similar to previous trips, I had a fun time meeting many of the different friends and personalities in McMurdo. This was a different trip from the past in that we were two of only 10 scientists at the station during WinFly. That means nearly all of the 326 residents were contract workers with varying jobs from administrative to outdoor specialist to specific trades. There were some first years in the mix but most of the contract workers were people who have been doing it from two to 20 years. The last Saturday of my trip was highlightfed with the party held at the Carp (carpentry) Shop work center. The party is a tradition for the close of WinFly and it was a very fun night and a chance to spend time with new and old friends.
Those are some of the early storylines from this years trip. I will be sending out one more quick message in a week or two when I have posted all of the photos from the trip. Thanks again for following along on my journey to Antarctica. The next trip is scheduled for November 2017, although the details of that trip won't be determined until around March.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Q&A - Answers
The southbound flight from Christchurch is in the air and I will soon be leaving for transport to Pegasus. I am never certain but it is looking likely that I will be leaving on my scheduled northbound day. I'll have more confidence once we leave the ground.
About two weeks ago I sent out an email asking for questions about Antarctica. I received a number of questions and I am finally getting around to answering them. Many of the questions came from the kindergarten / 1st grade students that I Skyped with last week.
Q: How often does McMurdo experience Condition 1 weather?
A: I asked one of the long-term contractors this question and he told me very rarely does it go to Condition 1 in McMurdo. It certainly varies from year to year but it seems that generally it is no more than a few times a year and sometimes never in a year. He said one of the key reasons for going Condition 1 in town is because people are essentially placed in lock down and it keeps everybody indoors and away from the dangerous flying debris due to the high winds. This friend has been in McMurdo for just over a year and he recently agreed to stay around for another month.
Q: Any fun friends?
A: The McMurdo community is an interesting bunch. There is a tremendous community and bond amongst the people here, especially those that come down year after year. This tight community will be especially evident in the coming week with people from all over the world converging back in a place that many of them now call home. Yet within that tight community, there are also some that never seem to come out from hiding. I was told that this year at the mid-winter dinner, with a static population of about 135 for most of the winter, there were people that arrived that looked like strangers. Getting to know the people of McMurdo and making new friends is always a highlight for me with my trips to Antarctica.
Q: What types of animals do you see during WinFly?
A: WinFly is not the time of the year to see animals. The sea ice edge and open water are a long distance away from McMurdo with it being at the end of winter. That means that most wildlife, especially the penguins, are far away from McMurdo. On top of that, there are no helicopter or twin otter flights at this time of the year so there are no flights to where the penguins live, like I had a year ago. The only wildlife that is seen are Weddell seals. The Weddell seals are also not the most exciting animals to see as about all that you see is them lying around on the sea ice. There are scientists who have been down at WinFly, and more coming soon, who are here to study the Weddell seals.
Q: Are there blizzards there? If so, how do you know?
A: Yes, there are blizzards here and it is mostly driven by the strong winds that can be experienced in Antarctica. The strong winds in combination with the infinite supply of snow results in tremendous amount of blowing snow. Such conditions are especially true out on the sea ice, the ice shelf, and the ice sheets. The blizzards can be the result of a storm that is also precipitating (falling) snow or it can be a ground blizzard with blue skies above and only the result of the strong winds.
Q: Do animals get confused with no sun and then lots of sun?
A: Yeah, I have no idea on this question. You have to love kinder questions. I stumbled through this answer during the Skype session. Hopefully, they don't remember what it was that I said but you know that will not be the case.
Q: Do you drink a lot of hot chocolate?
A: Well, I am no fun with this answer because I have never been a hot drink person, of any type. I will say that drinking hot drinks in Antarctica is very common and often very wise as it is one of the few ways to warm your body from the inside. I have decided that I should find a hot drink that makes me happy for that very reason.
Thanks for all of the questions.
About two weeks ago I sent out an email asking for questions about Antarctica. I received a number of questions and I am finally getting around to answering them. Many of the questions came from the kindergarten / 1st grade students that I Skyped with last week.
Q: How often does McMurdo experience Condition 1 weather?
A: I asked one of the long-term contractors this question and he told me very rarely does it go to Condition 1 in McMurdo. It certainly varies from year to year but it seems that generally it is no more than a few times a year and sometimes never in a year. He said one of the key reasons for going Condition 1 in town is because people are essentially placed in lock down and it keeps everybody indoors and away from the dangerous flying debris due to the high winds. This friend has been in McMurdo for just over a year and he recently agreed to stay around for another month.
Q: Any fun friends?
A: The McMurdo community is an interesting bunch. There is a tremendous community and bond amongst the people here, especially those that come down year after year. This tight community will be especially evident in the coming week with people from all over the world converging back in a place that many of them now call home. Yet within that tight community, there are also some that never seem to come out from hiding. I was told that this year at the mid-winter dinner, with a static population of about 135 for most of the winter, there were people that arrived that looked like strangers. Getting to know the people of McMurdo and making new friends is always a highlight for me with my trips to Antarctica.
Q: What types of animals do you see during WinFly?
A: WinFly is not the time of the year to see animals. The sea ice edge and open water are a long distance away from McMurdo with it being at the end of winter. That means that most wildlife, especially the penguins, are far away from McMurdo. On top of that, there are no helicopter or twin otter flights at this time of the year so there are no flights to where the penguins live, like I had a year ago. The only wildlife that is seen are Weddell seals. The Weddell seals are also not the most exciting animals to see as about all that you see is them lying around on the sea ice. There are scientists who have been down at WinFly, and more coming soon, who are here to study the Weddell seals.
Q: Are there blizzards there? If so, how do you know?
A: Yes, there are blizzards here and it is mostly driven by the strong winds that can be experienced in Antarctica. The strong winds in combination with the infinite supply of snow results in tremendous amount of blowing snow. Such conditions are especially true out on the sea ice, the ice shelf, and the ice sheets. The blizzards can be the result of a storm that is also precipitating (falling) snow or it can be a ground blizzard with blue skies above and only the result of the strong winds.
Q: Do animals get confused with no sun and then lots of sun?
A: Yeah, I have no idea on this question. You have to love kinder questions. I stumbled through this answer during the Skype session. Hopefully, they don't remember what it was that I said but you know that will not be the case.
Q: Do you drink a lot of hot chocolate?
A: Well, I am no fun with this answer because I have never been a hot drink person, of any type. I will say that drinking hot drinks in Antarctica is very common and often very wise as it is one of the few ways to warm your body from the inside. I have decided that I should find a hot drink that makes me happy for that very reason.
Thanks for all of the questions.
Coming to a Close
I am in what should be my final 18 hours in Antarctica. I say should because there is always an unknown when it comes to weather and Antarctic flights. I checked in my bags for transport this afternoon in a process referred to as "bag drag" and I am down to my carry-on bag. I have cleaned my dorm room and passed the housing inspection. The only remaining thing to do is to wait for the transport time when we are taken to Pegasus Airfield for our C-17 flight to Christchurch. I am estimating the transport time will be shortly after lunch.
In my last post, I shared about our long night of fighting the lack of winds and completing three flights in 15 hours. Those three flights ended up being our last flights of the field season. The following night we were both exhausted and the winds were once again light. On Friday, we went out to Pegasus for one last try. We arrived and the winds were marginal and the atmospheric conditions were less than ideal. After some thought, we agreed to not fight the light winds and end the flights for the season. We packed all of our gear and equipment from the passenger terminal and went back to McMurdo.
The remainder of Friday and Saturday were spent returning gear, packing cargo, and completing checkout procedures to finalize the field season. All of that didn't take too long and much of the time was spent either doing research for work back in Colorado, getting my things ready to go home, and spending time with friends in McMurdo. Saturday night was spent at a party held by one of the work centers. The party was a great sendoff for me, and more significantly many of the people who have been in McMurdo all winter and heading north for the first time in 6+ months.
McMurdo Station and the surrounding facilities are now looking more like main body season than the more dormant state that we saw a few weeks ago. It is clear the station is getting ready for the influx of people and science activities. The current population of 326 will double in the next week and it will reach a population of around 1000 for much of the season between mid-November to late January. Tomorrow's southbound C-17 flight is scheduled to have 114 people on the flight and there is another flight the following day with 99 more.
I am still working on, and struggling with, putting this field season into context. I am trying to sort through all of the experiences that I have been able to see and do. The early conversations that I have with friends and family, after returning to Colorado, will likely be a struggle in trying to explain the field season in a succinct and nicely organized story. I feel like I have not been able to capture so many of the dramatic changes and events that are associated with WinFly. Yet I also think we did a very good job in stopping and enjoying the moment whenever we saw something that interested us. My early conclusion is that you just can't see and capture it all. I'll be working on a better description.
In my last post, I shared about our long night of fighting the lack of winds and completing three flights in 15 hours. Those three flights ended up being our last flights of the field season. The following night we were both exhausted and the winds were once again light. On Friday, we went out to Pegasus for one last try. We arrived and the winds were marginal and the atmospheric conditions were less than ideal. After some thought, we agreed to not fight the light winds and end the flights for the season. We packed all of our gear and equipment from the passenger terminal and went back to McMurdo.
The remainder of Friday and Saturday were spent returning gear, packing cargo, and completing checkout procedures to finalize the field season. All of that didn't take too long and much of the time was spent either doing research for work back in Colorado, getting my things ready to go home, and spending time with friends in McMurdo. Saturday night was spent at a party held by one of the work centers. The party was a great sendoff for me, and more significantly many of the people who have been in McMurdo all winter and heading north for the first time in 6+ months.
McMurdo Station and the surrounding facilities are now looking more like main body season than the more dormant state that we saw a few weeks ago. It is clear the station is getting ready for the influx of people and science activities. The current population of 326 will double in the next week and it will reach a population of around 1000 for much of the season between mid-November to late January. Tomorrow's southbound C-17 flight is scheduled to have 114 people on the flight and there is another flight the following day with 99 more.
I am still working on, and struggling with, putting this field season into context. I am trying to sort through all of the experiences that I have been able to see and do. The early conversations that I have with friends and family, after returning to Colorado, will likely be a struggle in trying to explain the field season in a succinct and nicely organized story. I feel like I have not been able to capture so many of the dramatic changes and events that are associated with WinFly. Yet I also think we did a very good job in stopping and enjoying the moment whenever we saw something that interested us. My early conclusion is that you just can't see and capture it all. I'll be working on a better description.
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