Kiwi Grad Class

A common theme in several of my previous posts, including the preview to the season, was all of the digging that we would be doing during this field season. All along, the location that concerned me the most was the Willie Field Antarctic Precipitation System (APS) site. One of the big reasons for this concern was because we had twice as many instrument towers and power systems to be removed from this site. That means twice as much digging. Just as critical is that the Willie Field site had nearly twice as much accumulation of snow. The anticipation is that we'd have to spread the digging out over two to three days, or to get some assistance with the digging.

Scott Base, the main base for the Antarctica New Zealand program, is about three miles from McMurdo Station. In a previous entry, I shared how I had dinner at Scott Base with a colleague, Adrian, from the University of Canterbury. Adrian is also one of the instructors for a graduate class at the University of Canterbury to experience Antarctic field research. Going back a couple months ago, Adrian was talking to me about having the students visit the APS so they could see a working science instrumentation deployment in the field. I commented to Adrian that by the time the students would arrive, our plan was to have all of the equipment removed. Adrian then suggested that he might be able to work it for the students to help us with the digging and removal of the instruments. Naturally, I liked that idea. He felt it would be a good "real" Antarctic field experience for them to gain.

Adrian, the two other instructors, and the students were at the Sunday Lecture at McMurdo this past Sunday. We were able to review their schedule as they had arrived into the area later than anticipated due to the C-17 delays. We had originally talked to them about helping with the digging on Tuesday and we agreed to shift it to Wednesday. It may or may not have helped that one of the other instructors is another person that I know as she was at McMurdo a year ago and she had an office near our lab. I emphasized being accommodating to their schedule while also stressing the need for their assistance. If indeed they were going to be able to help, then it was no problem to delay the digging until Wednesday. However, if they were not able to help in the end, then we'd be in a very tough spot with our field season ending next week.

One of the instrument towers at the Willie Field APS site. It is a 13 foot tower and only about 6 feet are above the surface.

The Kiwi (nickname for people from New Zealand) grad class was in the field as they were doing an Antarctic survival training (also referred to as "Happy Camper School") at the start of the week. Because of that, communicating with them was difficult but doable. They would call by satellite phone to the McMurdo communications center (Mac Ops), and then Mac Ops would patch the call through to our office. We were able to finalize the plan for digging on Wednesday through this multi-step communication method. However, the weather on Wednesday was snowing and the winds picked up in the afternoon, making the digging difficult to complete. We agreed to push the digging off to Thursday.

Scott, Thomas, and Josh working on the removal of the power systems. You can see some of the batteries in back of the truck. The tracked wheels of the truck are also seen in this photo.

The good news is that everything came together for Thursday afternoon. I took a shuttle van ride to the site because we were not able to get a truck at that time to get to the site. I arrived at 1:30. An hour later, Thomas, Scott, and Josh were able to arrive in a Mattracks (tracked wheels) truck. About 15 minutes later, the Kiwi grad class arrived in their Haagland, which is a common tracked vehicle for Antarctica New Zealand to move people around the region. Out of the Haagland emerged the three instructors, the eight students, and their field trainer. We had a team of 12 to help with all of the digging at the Willie Field APS site. 

Six of the members for the Kiwi grad class working on digging out an instrument tower and the snow anchors for the tower.

Two of the students celebrating the success in digging out the snow anchor for this instrument tower. The hole was deeper than the height of both of these students.

Group shot of the Kiwi grad class just before they loaded into the Haaglands to go back to their field camp.

It was a great afternoon at the Willie Field APS site. The temperature was in the upper 20sF and there was little to no wind. With all of the digging that was involved, much of the time was spent wearing only long sleeved base layer. The students were able to be at the site for over four hours. They were a HUGE help in removing three of the four towers and all of the snow anchors. All of the efforts by the Kiwi grad class allowed Scott, Thomas, and Josh to concentrate on the removal of the buried powered systems, which are mostly batteries (38 - 70 pound batteries) and solar panels. The fourth tower had only been installed one year ago so that removal was not nearly as much work as the other three. About halfway through their efforts, Adrian had the class take a break so that I could give the class a lecture on the APS project with a description of the instruments that used to be on the towers and the significance of the project toward bigger picture climate questions. The Kiwi class left around 6:30 PM and I was thrilled to have all of their help.

The Kiwi grad class leaving the Willie Field APS site in their Haagland.

Me in one of the holes that had to be dug to remove an instrument tower for the precipitation gauge. Most of the work in digging this hole was done by one student.

Unfortunately, our work was not complete. The weather was forecast to be bad  the next day (Friday), we have a two-day Thanksgiving weekend, and our flight north is scheduled to leave on Tuesday. Add all of that up and it was critical that we finish our work at Willie Field APS site on Thursday. We were able to complete our efforts around 9:30 PM and head back to town with all of the field work completed for the season and the current APS project.

Leaving the Willie Field APS site at the completion of removing the power systems and instrument tower. This photo shows the sun lower in the horizon with it being 9:30 PM but the sun will still not set for another three months.