Extension, Time in the Field, Thanksgiving

At the end of my last post, I mentioned that we had requested an extension to our field season. That extension was granted. The extension was not a given as there are numerous projects that are similarly, or in some cases even more, behind in getting work done for the season than we are. It helps that our project requires minimal resources. The big resources that we need (e.g. Twin Otter flight and helicopter flights) were supposed to have been used during the past two weeks. The extension is for four days. We were originally scheduled to leave tomorrow (Monday) and we are now scheduled to leave on Friday. If we get out on time, and that is obviously a big if, I will spend a full day in Christchurch to reset, and then leave New Zealand and arrive back into Colorado on Sunday, December 3.

The good news is that we have been making worthwhile progress in the field. Last Thursday was a big day as we installed the Double Fenced Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) shield. It is easiest to think of it as a snow fence with a 16 foot diameter surrounded by a snow fence with a 40 foot diameter, both of which encircle a precipitation gauge. Part of the wood materials were fabricated last spring in Boulder and some of them were fabricated in the "Carp Shop" (carpentry shop in McMurdo). We also had the assistance of two "Carps", Rachel and Liz, to help us assemble and install the DFIR at the Willie Field location. It was snowing most of the day, and the visibility was continually decreasing throughout the day, but the winds were light and there was minimal concern of the weather turning bad on us. Installing the DFIR is a key component to the field season as the DFIR shield is the accepted worldwide standard for measuring snowfall. 

Working on the second exterior ring of the double-fence after the completion of the interior ring. 

The Carps Liz and Rachel showing off the finished Double-Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) wind shield around the precipitation gauge at the Willie Field site.

The installation of the DFIR ended a stretch of four of five days working in the field with most of the work at the local sites and the one day trip by Twin Otter. We anticipated having a quiet day on Friday and it worked out well as the weather was also bad all day with Condition 2 weather on the ice shelf. Friday was also the last day before a rare two-day weekend, so most of McMurdo was ramping down for the weekend. We ended up only having a one-day weekend as we went out to the Phoenix site on today (Sunday afternoon). The good news is that we were able to finalize the installation at that site. We were late for dinner, which means pizza for dinner as they serve pizza in the galley 24-hours a day. We also ate our dinner watching this week's Sunday Science Lecture on a robotic vehicle to explore the ocean underneath the ice shelf. The technology and experience developed from this project will likely be used in a future mission to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.

Lastly, yesterday (Saturday), was our Thanksgiving at McMurdo Station. By celebrating Thanksgiving on a Saturday the station is able to provide a two-day weekend. My Thanksgiving started the same way as it does for many people in the United States. I ran in the McMurdo Turkey Trot, a 5K race. There were 126 people that ran/walked in the turkey trot and a had a great time. I was very reluctant to run in the race when I went to bed the night before. The weather was nasty, I knew the course would be moderately snow covered, and I have not been running on the treadmill as much as I had hoped. I ended up having a great time. The weather was perfect when I woke up to run the race. It was about 20F, not a cloud in the sky, and little to no wind. The course was a little slick but I managed to not let it slow me down too much and I avoided a nasty slip and fall. I grabbed a quick late breakfast after the race as the galley was closing for the Thanksgiving dinners. There were three sitting times (3:00, 5:00, and 7:00) for the Thanksgiving dinner. A group of us chose the 7:00 dinner. In between the race and dinner, I took a nap, wrote some postcards, worked on photos, and showered. It was a wonderful afternoon. The Thanksgiving dinner in the galley was very good and we had a great time together. The day ended with hanging out with some friends in the coffee house. Overall, it was a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving.

A little less than a mile into the McMurdo Turkey Trot 5K. I am in the black in the middle of the photo.

The serving line for the Thanksgiving Dinner in the galley. They have designated seating times for the dinner to encourage people to sit together with projects, work teams, and friends and enjoy the dinner.

We are scheduled to have four remaining days in McMurdo with our northbound flight on Friday. We have 2 1/2 days of field work that needs to be done including a Twin Otter flight and a helicopter flight. The remaining day will be spent packing cargo to be kept here over the winter and cargo to be returned to Colorado. I feel pretty good at the start of this week. We'll see how the week unfolds.

Time in the Field

The last several days have been one of those stretches of time in Antarctica where things are happening at a fairly fast pace and yet there are also quiet times interspersed throughout. This is a common place to be as the field season comes to a close. It is a confluence of events of pressure to get as much done as possible, the work you've done to prep equipment for the field has been completed, and with your field time coming to a close you are more likely to be a priority for resources. We have spent three of the last four days in the field with a day trip by Mattrack truck to the Willie Field site on Sunday, a day trip by truck to the Phoenix Airfield site on Tuesday, and a day trip by Twin Otter airplane on Wednesday to the Tall Tower site. Instruments are installed and recording data at the two local sites, Willie Field and Phoenix, although more work needs to be done with the wind shields and a final survey of the installation. Today, we installed the instrument towers and power system for the Tall Tower site. We will need one more flight to Tall Tower to complete that installation. In the middle of all of the above we were chased out of the field on Sunday when a ground blizzard hit us as we were working. We were seeing it coming in the distance for awhile and as it got closer we packed up as quickly as possible and got in the truck to get back to town. That evening we also gave the Sunday Science Lecture, which is a presentation in the galley with a cross section of people attendees representing most everybody in McMurdo Station. The poor weather, starting with the ground blizzard on Sunday on the ice shelf, continued through Tuesday morning with Condition 2 weather at the nearby locations on the ice shelf. We have two more days until our Thanksgiving "weekend", which is a rare two day weekend starting on Saturday. The weather is forecast to be questionable over these next two days but we'll see what we can get done. I have also requested that our project be able to extend the time in McMurdo in the range of an additional four days to a week. There has been an indication that the request is reasonable but I have not received verification that it has been granted. If not, we are supposed to be leaving on Monday. Hopefully, with things starting to wind down I'll have a little more time to provide some more updates in the coming days. I am also officially really far behind in my photos so I am going to pass on including any photos in this post. I hope that everybody is able to have a nice end to your short week and safe travels for your Thanksgiving festivities and weekend.                     

Memorable Storm

The storm panned out as it was forecast and it was definitely one of the more memorable weather events that I have had in Antarctica. It snowed for about 48 straight hours and it left behind a fair amount of snow. To put this storm in perspective, the all-time 24-hour record snowfall in McMurdo for the month of November is 8". I have not heard what the official measurements were for the storm but I think 8" would be reasonable but over longer than 24 hours. The one surprise is that it was not as windy as I expected so the snow was mostly falling lightly. We had Condition 2 weather from Wednesday evening and all day Thursday with Condition 1 on the ice shelf during that same time. Overnight on Thursday and into Friday it was changed to Condition 3 in McMurdo. We found that a little odd because much of the time that morning it should have been Condition 2. However, since it was listed as Condition 3, we were able to take a hike down to Hut Point during some of the most intense snowfall of the storm. It was so much fun.

Things have also gotten crazy busy in the last few days. A big reason for that is because we are scheduled to leave in 8 days. Making things more difficult, a week from now is a rare two-day weekend. That means we are supposed to have all of our field work done, and cargo stored or put into the system to be shipped back to Colorado, by Friday afternoon. I don't know how we are going to get everything done that we need to get done in that time. We are going into the field at local sites tomorrow (Sunday, McMurdo time) as the weather should be good and we need to get the work done. We also need to return to town in time to  get cleaned up and collect our thoughts as we are giving the weekly Sunday Science Lecture. It is going to be a very busy day. We are also primary for a twin otter flight on Monday to install the power system and put up the towers for the instruments. However, the weather does not look the best on Monday.

Sorry to keep this short but I wanted to give a quick update on the storm and our latest plans for field work. I'll try to get more out in the near future.

Going on a hike to Hut Point. Hiking is prohibited in Condition 2 weather, however this was classified as Condition 3. It wasn't Condition 3.

Myself, Scott, and George outside of Discovery Hut trying to pose similar to the early explorers.

Weather and Field Work

There has been a lot happening in the field and with weather so I will break this post into three chapters.

Chapter 1

We were able to have a little drama in the field a few days ago. On Saturday we went to the two local sites to install the power systems that will run the instruments and communications during the long polar night (4+ months of continual darkness). We installed 38 batteries at the two sites requiring two truckloads from McMurdo. While I was driving back and forth, Scott and a colleague from UNAVCO were working on installing the power system at the Willie Field location. Carol, from the AWS group, and George, a teacher visiting Antarctica, joined us during my second load in the truck. The five of us took a lunch break at the Willie Field Airfield where they have a galley with food. While at lunch, I was catching up with a friend from WAIS two years ago and he shared with me that the forecast was for the weather to deteriorate quickly and they were anticipating closing Willie Field Airfield in the next hour or so. We finished the Willie Field install and then went to Phoenix to install the second power system. We kept an eye on the conditions to the south because of the forecast for the weather to turn bad. There are certain landmarks to watch to see if a weather system is moving into the region. It was clear that something was moving in and we dramatically picked up our pace to finish the installation. Workers at Phoenix Airfield radioed us and suggested that we pack things up and leave the area. We continued working, mostly because we had just put up the solar panels and needed to anchor them before we left. The workers at Phoenix Airfield decided not to leave until we left and they were getting antsy to get out of there. At one point we looked to the south and it looked like the winds and blowing snow were moving in on us quickly. We finished anchoring the solar panels, decided to skip many of the finishing touches, and packed up everything in the truck to leave as quickly as possible. As we were about to leave, the Airfield Manager made the
decision to close Phoenix Airfield. In the end, by the time we left the conditions did not look as threatening. Our entire drive home was in sunshine and we never experienced the ugly weather conditions that we saw approaching us.
Scott and Nico installing the power system with solar panels at Willie Field site.

The view towards the south with White Island partially obstructed due to the strong winds and blowing snow to the south.

Chapter 2

The weather has been the story the past week as there has been a forecast of bad  weather, or actual bad weather, every day, which is the reason why we have not had a flight from Christchurch during the past week. On Tuesday, the forecast was for great weather in the morning and then worsening conditions in the afternoon. Because of that forecast the C-17 flight from Christchurch was cancelled, which also didn't make sense to me. Four of us (myself, Scott, Carol, and George) and two antenna riggers went to visit the two local sites with the hope that we'd install six towers ranging in height from 8 feet to 15 feet. I felt good about the weather for the morning and early afternoon. However, I was not sure if the conditions would turn ugly before we finished all six towers by late afternoon. In the end, it was a beautiful day on the ice shelf. The temperature was about 9F, at times there was no wind, and there was a bright and warm sun throughout the day. We nearly had a
perfect day with five of the six towers installed. The one that was not installed was because the tower sections could not fit together. Carol went out with the riggers this morning to finish that installation. We were out of town for about seven hours and had an amazing day in the field. We even took the time to enjoy lunch at one of the sites.

Installing the two towers for the precipitation project site at Phoenix Airfield.

Taking a break for lunch with the riggers at the Willie Field site.

Chapter 3

The weather forecast for today was similar to yesterday with okay conditions in the morning and getting worse by late morning. Many of the people in town have gotten skeptical of the weather forecasts because of recent hits and misses. I was pretty confident today would live up to the forecast and turn into a fairly significant storm. That is exactly what happened. By mid-morning, we could see the landmarks on the ice shelf to the south of McMurdo starting to disappear, a telltale sign that things are getting worse. By noon the winds had picked up and it had started snowing. Since then it has been a combination of winds, although not consistent, and snow.

The weather around the US Antarctic Program is rated by conditions with the following system:

Condition 3 - General Weather

Visibility greater than 1/4 mile, winds less than 48 knots, and wind chill warmer than -75F.

Condition 2 - Severe Weather

Visibility between a 1/4 mile and 100 feet, sustained winds between 48 knots and 55 knots, and wind chill between -75F and -100F.

Condition 1 - Extreme Weather

Visibility less than 100 feet, sustained winds greater than 55 knots, and wind chill colder than -100F

Only one of the three criteria have to be met and at this time of year that is going to be driven by the visibility. In Condition 2 weather there are restrictions on movement and working. In Condition 1 weather you are not allowed to leave your building. Condition 1 in McMurdo rarely happens in the winter months and is even more rare in the summer months. Earlier this evening we had Condition 2 in and around McMurdo and Condition 1 everywhere else. This storm will likely linger around the area for another 2-3 days. The worst was likely this evening and there will be breaks along the way. There will also likely be some cleanup after the storm that will cause some delays in logistics.

Delays, Delays, and Delays

Delays are a natural part of working and living in Antarctica. Generally, the question is not if you will experience delays but how much of a delay you will experience. For those that have been following my Antarctic posts for the last two years, you will recall the 5 days it took me to get to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) field camp, and then a week later it took a week to get a flight out of WAIS. The delay in getting out of WAIS extended past my scheduled flight back to Colorado and I got home two days later than anticipated. Thus far, we have only been minimally impacted by delays this season. A key reason for that is because much of the work is accessible by truck and we've also had a lot of work to do in the lab. There is a good chance that might change this week.
There are a few trucks in McMurdo that are equipped with mattracks instead of tires. The mattrack trucks are able to drive on snow surface that are not groomed. We have been using the mattrack truck a lot as it allows us to bring the equipment directly to the install location.

Overall, a common theme throughout McMurdo this field season has been the delays encountered throughout the program. The start of the summer season in early October was delayed by four days in getting the first flight of mainbody to McMurdo. On my flight, the airplane was filled with people going to South Pole. The first flight of the summer into South Pole was about 36 hours after we arrived. It over a week to get the second flight to Pole and there has only been one flight since. There is a big field camp being established at Shackleton Glacier this summer. There are a number of scientists whose funded projects are dependent on this field season at Shackleton. The initial camp put-in staff was supposed to go to Shackleton on October 26. I know a couple people on that flight an I am still seeing them every day, some 17 days since they were supposed to leave. The weather in McMurdo has been fairly nice during the past two weeks, although some of the flights have been
cancelled due to the forecasted or occasional times that we have had bad weather. Mostly, it has been bad weather everywhere where people have been trying to fly, or difficulties with the airplanes and scheduling.

We have been waiting for the past week to install the instrument towers with the assistance of the riggers. For the first time we were on the riggers schedule and we were going to go out this morning and install six 8' to 15' towers at the two nearby sites. However, we woke up to the temperature around 0F, 20-25 mph winds with gusts to 30 and low visibility due to blowing snow. We did not get out today. We were able to have some good news with a few unexpected tasks being completed as an alternative to the planned day in the field.

I provide all of this background to say that the computer model forecast is showing rough weather conditions for most of the Ross Ice Shelf for the middle to latter half of the week. We are hoping to get out in 12 hours (Tuesday - McMurdo time) before the conditions worsen. I will say that I have seen in past seasons where storms like this that look like they will dramatically impact operations in McMurdo and then they do not. The trends in the forecast model have had the main storm system more and more to the east of McMurdo. The next few days will be interesting as the delays will either be further compounded, and resulting in significant impacts to our field season, or we'll escape with better than expected conditions.

I have a fun story to share from our visit to the two nearby sites this past Saturday. I'll save that story for another post in the next day or two.
Fata morgana is an optical effect that is common in Antarctica during the spring and early summer months. It is similar to a mirage in a desert except it is superior image, extended upward from the surface, and is the result of relatively very cold air at the surface. 

Out in the Field

I have completed my first full week in Antarctica. As I've said several times before, time is a tricky thing here. It was probably a productive week with all that we had to do to be cleared to go out into the field, as well as the initial preparation of setting up the instruments. However, when I think that I am over one-fourth of the way through this year's field season it feels like more needed to be done.

One of the struggles during the first week was spent troubleshooting a communications (comms) problem. We will be able to maintain comms with the remote dataloggers and instruments throughout the year through satellite and radio methods. The two nearby sites will communicate using a UHF radio link that acts like a long (10+ miles) ethernet cable connecting into the McMurdo network. A colleague with UNAVCO has been guiding us through that process and it seems straightforward. The two distant sites will use a satellite phone (Iridium) setup with a modem at the site with the datalogger and a modem in Boulder, Colorado. Scott, my co-worker on this project, has spent numerous hours over the last week troubleshooting the failures in establishing a solid modem-to-modem connection. I've come up with some backup and alternative ideas on how we can modify the installation should we not be able to solve this problem by the end of this week. We decided that today was a day to take a break from the Iridium troubleshooting and we concentrated on unpacking and verifying the operation of the instruments.

Life operates on a six-day work week in McMurdo. That is the case for most of the town and the contractors. Scientists (grantees) set their own schedules depending on the work that needs to get done. We were able to end last week with a truck drive onto the Ross Ice Shelf on Saturday. Two of the sites to be instrumented are able to be driven to on the ice shelf by using the snow roads. The antenna riggers (trade contractors with expertise in setting up towers and communications) will be going with us later this week in our attempt to setup 10 towers between 3 feet and 11 feet above the snow surface. In preparation for working with the riggers, we went to the two sites to survey the area and decide where we want the towers to be installed. This is the key first step as we need the towers setup and anchored before we can start installing the instruments. The bottom line is that it felt great to get out of town for the afternoon and spend some time on the snow. I was a little surprised to find out that the temperatures were -9F that afternoon as it didn't feel that cold.

The green flags are indicating the location where the towers will be installed. Scott and Carol are measuring the distance between flags to verify the cords will connect.

Hero shot at Phoenix Airfield in front of Mount Erebus.

One of the fun parts of life in McMurdo is that you are intermingling with some amazing science projects ranging from seals to divers to glaciologists to meteorologists. In addition to the scientists, there are a select group of "Artists and Writers" that are selected to come to Antarctica and some media. Each Sunday evening there is a "Sunday Science Lecture" for the general community that is typically put on by one of the science groups. This past Sunday the presentation was give by a member of the team from the BBC that are in McMurdo filming footage for an upcoming BBC series titled "Seven Worlds". A team of 5(?) will be here for over six(?) weeks in an attempt to get 14 minutes of video for the "Seven Worlds" episode on Antarctica. They were able to show us some of the raw footage that has been recently filmed on the ice as well as some underwater filming. The galley (cafeteria), which is the largest meeting space on station, was packed for this Sunday Science Lecture by the BBC. We will be giving the Sunday Science Lecture in two Sundays and I'll be happy if one-fourth of the room is filled.

The filled galley for the BBC Sunday Science Lecture.

Earlier today, we were on the Twin Otter flight schedule to go to Elaine AWS to assist the University of Wisconsin automatic weather station (AWS) project with one of their AWS maintenance visits. Four of my previous trips to Antarctica were working on the AWS project so I felt it would be reasonable to assist their team for a day. We did not go this morning because of the weather and we are now on the flight schedule again for tomorrow. If we do go, it should be a great flight as the AWS is located near the Transantarctic Mountains and we'll be flying along the mountains for most of the entire flight. 

Looking over the ice shelf near Phoenix Airfield. The sun is still relatively low in the sky at this time of year.

Setting a Pace

I am now 3+ days into this year's Antarctic field season. Overall, I feel that things are going pretty good. It is hard to say for certain because we have only covered the unpacking and beginning phases of getting the instrumentation and hardware ready for installation. Generally, I feel my preferred approach has been to arrive in McMurdo, hit the ground running, and try to push the pace hard for the first few days. The motivation behind this is to get through the initial setup phase and to establish a routine and familiarity as quickly as possible. Another big reason is to finish the wave after wave of trainings, briefings, and meetings as quickly as possible. The following is the list of things orientation-type activities that we've had to do: arrival briefing, science in-briefing, lab safety training, pickup radios and satellite phone, meet with the riggers, briefing on using the radios for comms, light vehicle training, Mactrack truck training, meet with IT, pickup gear for working in the field, environmental training, field safety training w/helo training, and outdoor safety lecture. At some point we also need to meet with the supervisor for the fixed-wing airplane flights and the supervisor for the helo flights. The whiteboard in the lab has been very handy in keeping track of all of that. I now feel that after this initial surge of activity that the next phase is to transition more to a pace that can be maintained throughout the field season. The trick is to be able to push the pace when needed to get things done in the field and to not get lost in time. If you are not careful, several days can quickly go by without any feeling of what you have done.

I have switched dorm rooms since I first arrived in McMurdo. My dorm  room was adjacent to the stairwell. With the heavy boots that people wear, and the thin walls , the constant up and down traffic on the stairs, especially before breakfast and the start of the work day, made me concerned about being able to get some good sleep. I went brought this up with lodging and they were very accommodating in letting me switch rooms. I am in the same general dorm but now with more of an interior room. I currently do not have a roommate but that could change on any day with an inbound flight.

In my earlier post I commented that we had found much of the cargo and were waiting on two additional crates. I can happily report that all of our cargo had made it to McMurdo Station from Colorado. Thus far, everything case and crate that we've opened we have also discovered the equipment and hardware to be in good condition. In the past, there have been horror stories from other research groups about the condition of their cargo after traveling halfway-across the globe. We shipped over 7,000 pounds of instruments, tools, hardware, and equipment for the installation of the Antarctic Precipitation Sites. All of that cargo was spread across nine crates and four pallets. 10 military-grade plastic cases with foam lining were stacked on the four pallets and contained some of the most valuable instruments.

The cases used to transport most of the instruments from Colorado to Antarctica.

All of the crates and cases in the outdoor photo are for this project, except the crate in the distance with the edges painted black. There was approximately 7,000 pounds of cargo shipped for the project.