Arrived

I have made it successfully to McMurdo Station. The entire trip today, from the shuttle pickup at 5:45 AM, to landing at Phoenix Airfield at 2:00 PM, to arriving into McMurdo at 3:00 PM went as scheduled and without any drama. There were 47 passengers on the C-17 military cargo plane for the flight south. The middle of the plane was filled with cargo and shipping containers. At this time of year, any and all goods and materials have to be flown to McMurdo. We left Christurch in about 60F temperatures and we arrived at Phoenix Airfield, outside of McMurdo, with a temperature of approximately 7F.

Dressed in extreme cold weather (ECW) gear and ready to go through the check-in process for the C-17 flight to Antarctica from the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

On board the C-17 during the 5-hour flight (there was a nice tailwind) from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station. Any and everything is done to fill the time. The containers on the right side of the photo are filled with cargo.

Walking off of the plane onto the Ross Ice Shelf is always one of the highlights for me of any trip. The Antarctic environment is so extreme and unique that it can always be a stunner. We were allowed about 5 minutes to take in the sights and then everybody loaded a large people mover vehicle. You can think of it as a trailer behind a large big-wheeled semi-truck. After getting into McMurdo we went to the arrival briefing. Much of this information is great for first timers, although they are likely overwhelmed with everything that is told to them. For others, it is mostly repetition from previous years. The significant information will start tomorrow morning with our science in-briefing where we meet with many of the supervisors of the personnel who will be supporting the project. Once we were done with the arrival briefing, we went over to the Crary Lab where most all of the project's activities in McMurdo will occur during the next four weeks. We found our office and lab space as well as got onto the internet, always a key initial step. Lastly, we made a quick visit to Science Cargo to learn the status of our cargo. We were able to find most all of the cargo. There are two crates still in Christchurch and we pleaded that at least one, if not both, are a priority to get into town as soon as possible.

Hero shot at the Phoenix Airfield immediately after getting off of the C-17. The first sites of Antarctica are always special. The mountains in the background are the Royal Society Range of the Transantarctic Mountains.

It has felt good to be back in McMurdo. Ever since my first trip to Antartica, McMurdo in some ways has felt like home to me. Yet each year is also different and there is turnover in the people that you work with every year. On top of that, you are taking your world, lifestyle, and daily patterns and acclimating them to a tremendously different environment and setting. I have moved into my room and I've been told that my roommate will be arriving tomorrow. I have decided to wait until then before getting fully settled into the dorm room. The reality is that I have only been here for six hours and if I am settled into my room, the lab, and life in town in five days, I am doing really, really well to start the field season. It is a slow process and the start of any field season is filled with briefings, training, meetings, and unpacking cargo. Sometimes, I have to remind myself to give it a little time.

Cargo being removed from the back of the C-17 aircraft at Phoenix Airfield. In the distance is Mount Erebus on Ross Island.

Southbound Flight

Hello, again! I have spent the last two days in Christchurch, New Zealand. As many of you know, that means I am on my way back to Antarctica. This will be my sixth trip overall and third trip in three years. I flew commercial from Denver to Christchurch with stops in Los Angeles and Auckland, New Zealand. That trip took approximately 25 hours from gate to gate, including a 13 hour flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. I left Colorado Thursday mid-afternoon and arrived into Christchurch around noon on Saturday. The lost day is due to crossing the International Dateline and I will regain that day when I return to Colorado. On Sunday morning I went to the Clothing Distribution Center to go through some initial training and to pickup, and verify fit, of the issued extreme cold weather gear. Our flight south to Antarctica was scheduled for today. However, early in this summer main body season there have been numerous delays. Included in those delays was the flight that was supposed to go on Friday. That flight did not go so that it went today (Monday), pushing our flight to tomorrow. I spent the extra day with a day trip to Akaroa, which is about two hours away from Christchurch. I have found that one extra day in Christchurch is often nice as it gives me a chance to reset and further prepare for the Antarctic field season.

Visiting Akaroa during my bonus day in New Zealand while waiting for the southbound flight to Antarctica.

Not only is it my third trip in three years but it is also the third project that I will be working on in Antarctica. Two years ago I did repairs, maintenance, and installation of automatic weather stations. That trip was done at about the same time as this trip, which is early to mid summer for the Southern Hemisphere. The project a year ago was flying a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, aka: drone) to take measurements of the lowest 1500 feet of the atmosphere over successive flights in a 12 hour period. That trip was at the end of the winter through early spring (late August to early October). This year is a new project funded by the National Science Foundation with a goal of being able to measure precipitation using a collection of low-power instruments at remote locations in Antarctica. Precipitation has been an elusive measurement for the meteorology and climatology of the Antarctic. There are two primary reasons as to why this task has been so challenging. The first is that there is not a lot of snow that falls in the Antarctic. Antarctica is the driest continent. The second reason is that it is difficult to distinguish between blowing snow and falling (precipitating) snow in Antarctica. We can measure accumulation at a given location by putting a stake in the snow or by bouncing sound waves off of the surface to measure the changing snow height. The tricky part is determining what of that accumulation is due to precipitating snow. In a future post(s) I will explain why these measurements are significant and how we are planning to make these measurements of precipitation.

This year's project is also unique because it is the first National Science Foundation project where I am the lead. I have lead, or co-lead, previous field seasons but this time I am responsible for the overall project as well. One of the tasks I had to do is to design a sticker for the project. Stickers are a  really big deal in Antarctica as they both share a little something of what the project is doing, as well as provide something to give to the support personnel who play a big part in the success of the project. With the help of a friend, I was able to put together the design of the project sticker. The "O-456" is the project number and for many of the support workers that is how they identify the project.

The sticker for project O-456, the Antarctic Precipitation Project for 2017.

My southbound flight is scheduled for 10 hours from now. I have a 5:45 AM shuttle but pickup to take us to the Antarctic Passenger Terminal. That is where we will start the process of changing into cold weather gear and checking our baggage for the southbound flight. If all goes well, in 16 hours I will be walking on the snow of the Ross Ice Shelf at Phoenix Airfield.

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