Photos from the Field Season

My last post to close out my email/blog entries for the field season is to generally share links to the photo albums from the season. This season is no different.

An album with 60 of my favorite photos from the field season can be found at:
https://sundowner.colorado.edu/seefeldt/antarctica-2019/
(Note: These are the same 60 photos that I recently posted on Facebook, if you have seen that album.)

For those that are more ambitious and interested, a larger album with 187 of my favorite photos can be found at:
https://sundowner.colorado.edu/seefeldt/antarctica-2019-4_5/

I do not know when I will next be posting to this email list as I do not know if/when I will have another trip to Antarctica. I appreciate everybody who has been following along with my journeys, whether it has been just for this past field season, or for the last five years with this stretch of field work that I've had in my career. Thank you!

                       

AIMS

I have been back in Colorado for a little over a month. The combination of recovery, the holidays, and now a run of deadlines at work has made it an eventful last month. One of the items I alluded to a few times throughout the field season was the rebuild of McMurdo Station. Officially, it is referred to as AIMS, the Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization for Science project.

McMurdo Station was opened at the primary base in Antarctica for the United States in February 1956. McMurdo was built to be the center of US operations for the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), which is the start of the modern era of Antarctica scientific research. McMurdo Station was built by the US Navy and the Navy continued to provide the support and logistics for US science in Antarctica through the 1980s under the codename Operation Deep Freeze. Because of the long history with the Navy, McMurdo has a strong influence of the Navy throughout. For example, the cafeteria is referred to as The Galley, as it would be called on a ship. Some of the heavy equipment machinery is still stamped "Property of the US Navy". Starting in the 1980s, more and more Navy supported functions were progressively turned over to the civilian contractor. This continued through the late 1990s with one of the last major functions being the helicopter support being transferred to a civilian contractor.

Aerial shot of McMurdo Station from 2015. Most of the buildings that make up the infrastucture are on the left side of the photo. Facilities, such as the Carp Shop and Vehicle Maintenance Facility are on the right side of the photo.

McMurdo Station is composed of numerous individual buildings. Most of the buildings are assigned a number (e.g. Building 155), except the numbers make no sense and are useless in helping you locate a building. In the early to mid-1990s there was a new science facility constructed, as well as several new dorms for lodging. Other than that wave of construction, most all of the buildings are decades old and it should come as no surprise that they are extremely energy inefficient. That is sort of big deal when the average winter temperature is around -15F and can get as cold as -50F. (The temperatures in McMurdo Station are frequently quite a bit warmer than they are even 10+ miles out onto the Ross Ice Shelf.) Most all of the buildings are disconnected from each other, which creates problems during Condition 1 weather when all personnel are confined to their current building, wherever that may be.

The Science Cargo (left) and Berg Field Center (right) are classic examples of key buildings in current McMurdo that are decades old, isolated, and extremely energy inefficient.

Building 155 is the large blue building in this photo. Bldg. 155 is one of the primary buildings in current McMurdo. Some of the functions include the galley, the store, rec offices and equipment, and a number of dorm rooms.

The Crary Science and Engineering Center is the home of all of the science labs and offices. It was built in the early 1990s and will continue to be a key facility in the future McMurdo Station.

In the early 2010s a Blue Ribbon Panel concluded that keeping up with the old and inefficient infrastructure would be prohibitively costly and would not provide adequate support for science. A modernization of the infrastructure was proposed with an effort to make it operationally efficient, increase the energy efficiency, and to provide an infrastructure to last over 30-50 years. Over the following several years, architectural firms and review panels put together plans to rebuild McMurdo Station. A little under a year ago it was announced that the McMurdo Station rebuild, AIMS, would happen. Over the next approximately 10 years, McMurdo Station will be a continual construction zone as a large percentage of the current, inefficient buildings will be removed to make way for the more energy efficient structures with a consolidated footprint of the new McMurdo.

The ongoing construction of the IT&C building, which is next to the Science Support Center.

AIMS is a big part of the current field season and will continue to be going forward. The new Information Technology and Communications (IT&C) building has been under construction since the winter. I'm not sure if the IT&C building is officially a part of AIMS because it has been in the plans for about 15 years. However, it represents one of the critical first steps. Many of the operations and resources currently being handled in other buildings, will be moved to the IT&C building allowing those other buildings to be removed. Several of the C-17 cargo flights during the cargo delays in November were used to deliver equipment and supplies for the IT&C construction. There are also a number of activities going on around town that are being done in preparation for the much larger construction to begin over the winter and continue into next field season. For the last five years I have stayed in the 203 dorms. The 203 dorms, the coffee house, the "gerbil" (cardio) gym, one of the bars, and a current IT building are scheduled to be demolished and removed, staring a couple months, to make way for the main building that will be the hub of the new McMurdo Station.

The 203 dorms and the four other buildings that will be removed to make way for the beginning of the construction of the new main building for the future McMurdo Station.

If interested, you can watch a video of AIMS showing aerial footage of the current McMurdo Station and an animation of the proposed new McMurdo.
https://future.usap.gov/aims-video/
I have been telling friends and colleagues that I don't think I'll ever see the final McMurdo Station. The first and most obvious reason is because I currently do not have any plans or funded projects for another field season. That could change in a year or so if a new project gets funded. However, given the general slowness that it takes to get things done, the 10 year plans for completion seems optimistic. I have left Antarctic field work twice before for over 10 years so I guess it is conceivable, and some people would say likely, that I will get to experience the new McMurdo Station, someday. We'll see.                       
                       

In New Zealand

I am now in New Zealand. This post is a little delayed as I've been busy with enjoying New Zealand and getting some other work done. I got into Christchurch late Tuesday night (early Tuesday morning US time) after a relatively long last day of the field season.

I am sure that my last day of the field season on previous trips have also been a whirlwind of activity. In fact, given that on one trip we had a Twin Otter flight the day before, and on another I arrived into McMurdo, from a field camp, a day after my originally scheduled flight, this year was probably more quiet than most. However, it was still a busy day of running around town and taking care of last minute details and saying good bye to the colleagues and friends from the field season. In truth, some of the craziness of my last day was self inflicted by me not getting a few things done a week or two earlier.

I woke up in the morning to a notification that the southbound C-17 flight from Christchurch was on a two-hour delay. With all of the mechanical, runway, and other issues with the C-17 flights, this was last C-17 flight until late January, and it was over a week later than was anticipated. The runway at Phoenix Airfield is a compressed snow runway for wheeled aircraft. During December and most of January, the runway is considered unusable by the C-17 because the snow is too soft for the wheeled landings of the C-17 with the sun highest in the sky during the peak of the summer. The two-hour delay allowed me to get a little more sleep, and a little more time to get things done.

The C-17 flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Station is roughly 5 hours. With a two-hour delay on departure, to 11:00 AM, that meant an arrival at approximately 4:00 PM. The passengers for the flight are typically transported to Phoenix Airfield prior to the flight arriving. This means that we had a 2:30 PM transport time from McMurdo, on the large Kress people mover, and it was over an hour drive on the Kress to Phoenix.

Since this was the last of the C-17 flights, it was loaded with cargo. The turn around time on the C-17 flight can generally be between an hour and a half to two hours. On Tuesday it was over three hours. It didn't help that with the soft snow at Phoenix, several of the transport and cargo vehicles were having difficulties getting stuck. It was a beautiful sunny day at Phoenix Airfield so much of the time was spent watching the activities on the snow apron and I spent a little time in the passenger terminal at Phoenix.

The northbound C-17 flight finally departed from Phoenix Airfield at 7:00 PM. The cargo plane had a moderate number of passengers, but no need for the additional seats in the cargo area. Additionally, there was a small amount of cargo on the northbound flight. The result is that it was a very spread out and comfortable flight. This was a big improvement from my past northbound flights that were on cramped shoulder-to-shoulder and knee-to-knee C-130 flights. The flight took 5-1/2 hours as there were some headwinds and a little turbulence as we neared New Zealand. We landed at 12:30 AM and then we had to go through customs and immigration, similar to other international flights into New Zealand.

After leaving the airport, it is a short walk to the USAP Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) where we drop off the extreme cold weather gear that we were issued prior to the field season. The CDC is also where we get our hotel reservations and ticketed flights back to the US. Because delays are so common with the flights from Antarctica, the flights are typically not booked until the northbound flight is airborne. Next, it was waiting to get a shuttle to the hotel. Add all of this up and I didn't check into the hotel until 2:30AM. I was very hungry and I was able to fortunately find a Turkish restaurant open until 3AM for a late dinner. I didn't make it to bed until 3:30 AM. To no surprise, this is part of the reason for the delay this post being written.
I have chosen to spend four nights in New Zealand on my way back to Colorado. I have always felt that two nights were more or less mandatory to give yourself a chance to adapt back to the normal world. I have also added two days of vacation. My flight back to the US starts Saturday afternoon, and if all goes well, I will be arriving back in Colorado Saturday afternoon (gaining a day with the dateline).

I still plan to write about the rebuild of McMurdo Station that will be done over the next ~8-10 years. However, I might wait a few more days until I share the details of that large project. Lastly, in a few weeks, I will also be sending out a link to the photo album from this year's trip. Other than that, this year's journey to Antarctica is over. Thanks for following along!                         

Thanksgiving at McMurdo Station

Hello from McMurdo Station at the end of our Thanksgiving weekend. The US Antarctic Program generally has 6-day work weeks with a one day weekend. Holidays are combined with Sunday to make 2-day weekends. For Thanksgiving, that means celebrating Thanksgiving on a Saturday and then having the normal Sunday as an off day. Having a two-day weekend is a big deal here and typically these weekends stick out in what becomes a very methodical lifestyle with 24-hours of daylight.

The traditional Thanksgiving day in McMurdo starts the same way it does in towns and cities across the US, with a turkey trot road race. Unfortunately, I've been feeling less than 100% lately and decided against running in the turkey trot. I was debating my decision leading right up to the race. In the end, I slept right through the start time and that made the decision for me. The weather was mixed for this year's turkey trot. It was not the beautiful warm (~20sF) and sunny conditions we've had in past years but it was also not the stormy conditions that were in the forecast for awhile leading up to our Thanksgiving.

The Galley (cafeteria) spends days prepping for the Thanksgiving dinner. There are five different serving times for the Thanksgiving Dinner. The times are 1:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 5:00 PM, 7:00 PM, and midnight. The first seating is for the dining staff and the last if for those that work the night shift. That means most of the current 939 people on station are spread out over the 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00 seatings. Reservations are required to ensure that a given time is not overwhelmed with too many people. My dinner was at the 7:00 PM seating and I think that has been the same time for me during the four (out of the last five years) Thanksgiving Dinners in McMurdo.

The amount of food that is prepared for the station is approximately:

• 1008 lbs turkey
• 400 lbs turkey breasts
• 360 lbs ham
• 35 gallons gravy
• 500 lbs potatoes
• 195 pies

One tricky part of the days is that with the Galley busy serving all of the different seating times, there is no availability of other food. Breakfast finishes at 10:00 AM and that is it for hot food for the day, other than the Thanksgiving dinners. That means if you are somebody, like me, eating at 7:00 PM you might get hungry along the way. The Galley provides a Grab-n-Go cooler where they provide cold food items for people to eat when they get hungry during the day. It was reported that they also made 100 pizzas to be placed in the cooler for Grab-n-Go food. 

My Thanksgiving dinner was with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin automatic weather station (AWS) project and a science group out of University of Colorado that is here to collect payloads from balloons that were launched during the winter. The Thanksgiving meal is a collection of all of the great food that you would expect with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Included was carved turkey, stuffing, potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls, and three types of pies. I am also sure I have left out some of the other options, such as ham, that we were provided for the day. The Galley provides everybody one glass of wine and you are also able to bring in your own wine if interested in having more to drink. I was able to put together a plate of amazing Thanksgiving food and I was very happy with all that I was able to eat.

The Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is typically a quiet recovery day with station operations slowly spinning back up to normal. Thanksgiving is one of the few days where most everything shuts down in town. By the end of Sunday the nighttime operations have resumed and the two-day weekend has quickly disappeared.

We are in the final couple days, at least by schedule, for our 2019 field season in Antarctica. Our field work was finished last Thursday with the assistance of the Kiwi grad class. We spent part of Friday finalizing much our our cargo to be shipped north. That cargo will be submitted into the cargo system tomorrow, Monday, to begin its journey back to Colorado. We will be shipping seven crates and four pallets of instruments and equipment. USAP will ship everything to Port Hueneme, California, by a vessel ship, and then I will arrange for the freight to cover the last leg to Colorado with the cargo likely arriving in late April.

Given that there is a chance this could be my last trip to Antarctica, I am also trying to capture and experience things that I enjoy the most about life in Antarctica. However, these efforts are also in conflict with the work needed to finish up the season, as well as some work that needs to be done with some projects back in Colorado. I am hoping to walk around McMurdo and take photos of the station as it is currently constructed as it will be very different if/when I return next as McMurdo is going to be rebuilt in the coming years. I hope to cover more of the McMurdo rebuild in my next post.                                       

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.

Cape Hallett

Today was a busy day around town as we worked on disassembling the large wooden wind shield that was removed from the field last year. There was also work done to further tear down the hardware that has been removed this year and prepare if for the northbound vessel cargo departing in January. Today turned out to be a perfect day for all of this work around town as the temperature was in the low 30sF and light to no winds all day. I'll also include my frequent disclaimer. Yes, those temperatures are relatively warm but don't lose track that it is summer here and we are approaching the warmest time of the year in Antarctica.

I'm going to keep most of this post brief as I'll let the photos take up much of the space. This past Friday I went on a Twin Otter flight to the Cape Hallett automatic weather station (AWS) site. Four of my previous trips to Antarctica were with the AWS project and this flight was to assist with the AWS group. Cape Hallett is located on the edge of the Transantarctic Mountains and almost to the northern extent of the continent in that region. I've included the map below to put the location in context. As I described in my previous post, the best way to think of Cape Hallett is a penguin colony surrounded by majestic mountains.

We left Williams Field Ski-way on the Twin Otter around the normal launch time of 8:30 AM. A fuel stop was required with the Twin Otter since the flight to Cape Hallett is so long. The fuel stop was at a fuel cache at Cape Reynolds for both of my visits to Cape Hallett in 2015. Fuel caches are setup at different spots around the continent to give planes a chance to refuel where they otherwise may not have a chance. A fuel cache is often a collection of barrels of of fuel that are frequently buried, or partially buried, and have to be dug out. For Friday's trip, we stopped at Mario Zuchelli, which is the Italian station located at Terra Nova Bay, about an hour and 20 minutes from Willy Field. We landed at their airfield. An Italian fuel truck and a pump truck pulled up next to the plane and transferred the fuel. The pilot signed the receipt, we reloaded the plane and were back in the air for another hour and a half flight to Cape Hallett.

The Twin Otter flies along the Transantarctic Mountains for much of the flight. During the last half hour or so the plane flies over the mountains to arrive at Cape Hallett from the south. During this time there are amazing glaciers, old avalanches, and mountain peaks that we pass.

The Twin Otter circled overhead to decide on where to land on the sea ice. Because the Twin Otter is equipped with skis it can land nearly anywhere on snow or ice that is safe. For Cape Hallett, we landed on the sea ice with giant icebergs locked into the ice not far away.

We were a little surprised when we got to Cape Hallett to find a camp of scientists already at the location. There were seven tents setup and a more permanent building. The camp was a part of the South Korean Antarctic program and their main base is at Terra Nova Bay. This group of South Korean scientists are there studying the Adelie penguins, which make Cape Hallett their summer home and where their chicks are hatched. I talked to one of the South Korean scientists and he told me that they are studying the size of the population, the survival rate of the chicks, and whether the hatch rate is different if the nest is on land versus on snow. Cape Hallett is also an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (APSA), which means you are required to have an approved permit in order to visit. We had an ASPA permit in order to repair the AWS at this site. It turns out that it was a bonus for us to have the South Koreans at Cape Hallett. One person from their contingent was on a snow machine and he greeted us after we landed. He also volunteered to tow the sled with tools, batteries, and spare parts to the AWS site. It was about a one mile hike from the plane landing spot to the AWS. This hike also involved walking around the periphery of the penguin rookery. The hike went extra slow as I was also frequently stopping to take photos.

The AWS is located fairly close to the South Korean camp. The AWS that we were visiting had stopped transmitting over a year ago. In the end, I was not needed as the main AWS field engineer did most of the work and troubleshooting. Instead, I stood around and took photos and photos and photos.

The penguins seemed more curious this year in comparison to 2015 and we had many that would walk right up to us and check us out. Unfortunately, I was not able to get as close to the nests this time around, nor did I get to see two penguins fighting over a rock for their nest. The AWS repair took about an hour and a half and it was transmitting again by the time that we left. Then it was the hike back to the Twin Otter. Again with numerous photos along the way, as well as the South Korean scientist towing the sled with the tools and gear back to the Twin Otter.

The return trip was the reverse of the flight to Cape Hallett. We stopped again at Mario Zuchelli for fuel. We were a little disappointed that we were not invited up to their station for coffee or a bite to eat. Such a more extended visit has happened at times in the past with some of my colleagues. The flight from Mario Zuchelli back to Willy Field was brutal. We were flying into 85 knot head winds and the plane was moving all of the place. The flight that took us an hour and 17 minutes earlier in the day was instead an hour and 49 minutes. I highly doubt that I've been on a plane the moved around that much for such an extended period of time. Up, down, side-to-side, continually being pushed around by the winds. Oh well, we still made it back to Willy safely.

The Week Around Town

We are continuing to make progress with the project and removing all of the instruments and equipment from the field sites. We took a truck to the two local sites yesterday to remove the remaining instruments at Phoenix and to remove all of the instruments and wind shields at the Willie Field site. The only items that remain in the field are the towers and the power systems. It will take a large amount of digging to remove these items. I have estimated that it will take a 6 to 7 foot hole in the snow to remove three of the four instrument towers at the Willie Field site. I am putting out feelers to see if we can find people interested in helping with the digging.

The Willie Field APS site with the instruments and wind shields removed. The only remaining items are the instrument towers and power systems.

We are starting to work on packing the instruments and equipment into crates and shipping cases for the cargo to be transported back to Colorado. The retro cargo will be placed on the vessel in late January. From there it will be transported to California by the ship. It will get to California in mid to late April and then I will arrange for the cargo to be shipped to Boulder. 

There continue to be a collection of news and updates from around town that I'll share. Some of these items were previewed in my last post.

A lenticular cloud at the summit of Mount Erebus on Ross Island.

Power Outages:
While we were out on the Twin Otter flight to remove the Lorne site last Friday, the town was suffering through numerous power outages. I am not entirely sure what happened but it was clear that there was substantial issues with the power generating capacity. Even after we got back into town, about 8:30 PM, we were around to experience some power outages lasting a few minutes. The electrical power is provided to McMurdo Station through a power generator plant using diesel generators. Late Friday night some efforts were done that shutdown the power to McMurdo Station for about an hour. Along the way, some facilities and critical functions were placed on backup generators. Requests were made to everybody to remove non-essential electrical devices. This impacted our dinner that night. We got back from Lorne after dinner. That is typically not a big problem because they serve pizza 24-hours a day so we were expecting a pizza dinner. Except with the power problems the pizza oven was shutdown, leaving us with making cold sandwiches.

Water Restrictions:
One of the fallouts of the power outages was that they shutdown the water production system that creates the potable water from the sea water in the bay. The result of this is that the water storage reached a level where water restrictions were put into effect. These restrictions included: no laundry, one 2-minute shower per week, using paper plates and cups for meals, and no unnecessary mopping of floors. The water restrictions lasted for less than 48 hours, during which the stores of water returned to normal levels.

Removing the Willie Field APS equipment and loading the truck on the Phoenix Road.

Mass Casualty Incident Training:
If last week wasn't busy enough with the power outages and water restrictions, it was also the week of the mass casualty incident (MCI) training. The medical facilities in McMurdo are limited with a few doctors, PAs, and nurses. This means that if there would be an event that would require a mass response, the community has to contribute to the response effort. Each year there are people who volunteer to be on the MCI team and with that comes a training incident to take everybody through their roles. Last week's incident was a mock helicopter crash. In addition to the MCI team, there are volunteers who play roles, such as those injured, in the training exercise. The exercise typically lasts a couple hours and not much is noticeable except fewer people in their normal jobs and the radio traffic is set aside for the MCI training.

Sunday Science Lecture:
Much of the McMurdo Station community are not scientists but personnel that are here in support of the science through a collection of responsibilities and jobs across the station. There are two public lectures, Wednesday and Sunday evenings, that are provided to connect the support contract workers with the science that is being done. The Sunday Science Lecture is held in the galley, which is really the largest space for gathering people in McMurdo. This past Sunday, Scott, my colleague on the project, and I gave the Sunday Science Lecture on the Antarctic Precipitation System project. The goal of this lecture is to keep it very informative and also on a basic level for the non-scientists in the community. We had given a Sunday Science Lecture two years ago, at the onset of the project, and this year's lecture was for the close of the project. We were fortunate to have a full audience and I was happy with how the presentation went.

Scott Base:
McMurdo Station is the largest US station in Antarctica. About two miles away is Scott Base, the largest station for Antarctica New Zealand. However, the two facilities are much different in size. The current station population in McMurdo is 975 while it is 86 at Scott Base. Other than the Scott Base store, and American night at the bar, Scott Base is off limits to the USAP participants for no other reason than it could be quickly overwhelmed. The exception to this is if you have an invite. Earlier this evening I was able to have dinner at Scott Base while visiting at colleague from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. I brought two colleagues working with me at McMurdo, and he had two of his colleagues as well. To no surprise, the dining experience at Scott Base is much more family-style and similar to what is experienced at deep field camps. It was a good dinner and a fun visit. There is also a chance that we were able to line up about 10 graduate students to help us with digging out the towers at the Willie Field site early next week.

The dining hall at Scott Base for dinner.

Cape Hallett:
We are done flying for the precipitation project but there is a chance I might get in another flight with the University of Wisconsin automatic weather station (AWS) project. Four of my eight trips to Antarctica have been with the AWS project. This morning we were on the flight schedule for a trip to Cape Hallett. I visited Cape Hallett twice in 2015 and it is possibly my favorite place that I've been to in Antarctica. Most all of my best photos from Antarctica are from Cape Hallett. The quick description is that it is a penguin colony surrounded by amazing mountains. This morning's flight was cancelled due to bad weather at the destination. We are on the flight schedule again for the morning.