Trainings and Briefings

Much of the first few week, and especially the first few days after arriving at McMurdo Station, is filled with a series of trainings and briefings. One example is the "Arrival In-brief", which occurs immediately after we are dropped off following the transport from the airfield. There are also individual briefings with groups supporting us during the field season, such as with MacOps - the communications control center. The trainings include: fire, medical, waste, light vehicle (these four are referred to as "core training"), outdoor safety for hiking, and mattrack training to drive the tracked trucks. A new training this year was "Harassment Awareness Training" in response to much of what has occurred during the past year. Afterwards, I had a discussion with one of the senior officials and he said that he'd like to see the harassment training to be more specific to what might happen in the field and among research teams. Overall, I counted 18 different trainings and briefings. We did all but one of them during our first four full days in McMurdo. Our last briefing is with helicopter ops tomorrow to discuss our helicopter support needs. The longest of all of these trainings was the Field Support and Training (FS&T) Antarctic Field Safety course. This course is required for anybody that is leaving McMurdo Station for any length of time and the course is encouraged for everybody. This course is entirely indoors and lasts about four hours.

The current form of the Antarctic Field Safety course is similar to what used to be a refresher course for people working in the field after they had taken "Survival School", also referred to as "Happy Camper School". For years (~15-20 years) the survival school was required for any first year person in the US Antarctic Program who was going into the field. On my first trip, it was required only if you were staying overnight in the field. I did not have to take the course that year as we only did day trips into the field. I was required to take the course when I returned to Antarctica in January 2005. The happy camper school would take about 8-12 people into a nearby location on the ice shelf. The class would consist of building emergency shelters, such as a snow mound or an ice cave, setting up tents, creating a cooking area that is protected from the wind, making dinner, radio comms, and spending the night in a tent, snow mound, or ice cave. I've included some photos from my 2005 training below. It was so much fun! We also had great weather for our happy camper school, which always helps.

The complete project, a snow mound. Looks like a great option for a night of sleep in 2005.

Having dinner in our cutout "kitchen" during the happy camper school in 2005.

Ready for a night of sleep in the snow mound. Keep in mind that there are 24 hour days in Antarctica during the summer field season. This photo was taken at about midnight and bright enough to need sunglasses.

The old rules were that after you completed going through happy camper school, each subsequent year in Antarctica, you had to take a refresher course. About four years ago, the requirement for the happy camper school was eliminated and the refresher course was turned into roughly the field safety course's current form. The training is completed in approximately 3-1/2 hours. It is a mixture of classroom discussion and activities. The classroom lecture and discussion include topics such as risk and safety, cold weather health and injuries - including photos of frostbite, and a video covering helicopter safety. The practical activities are more focused on getting you through a situation where you would be fine if you have to use a "survival bag". The survival bag is gear and food for two people to exist for three days. Survival bags are put on all forms of transportation whenever you leave the maintained snow roads. For example, on today's Twin Otter flight there were two flight crew members and five passengers. Therefore, there had to be four survival bags on the plane. One part of the practical exercises is to go through all of the gear and food that are included in a survival bag. Next we go through how to light the gas stove that is included in the survival bag. Having a stove is one of the keys to survival because melting snow for water to drink is critical. We also learn how to setup the tent provided in the survival bag, and then take a few minutes in groups of 4-5 to set up one of the tents. We even cover some basic knots that would be useful in setting up the emergency shelters. Learning all of this in a nice warm building and out of the wind is far from reality, especially for the situations where you might have to open up a survival bag. However, it is still useful to review mentally and physically some of the tricks to make a difficult situation safe.

The Antarctic safety instructor laying out all of the gear and food in a survival bag.

Groups practicing lighting the Whisperlite stoves that are included in the survival bag.

Practicing setting up tents as a part of the Antarctic safety training. These tents were chosen specifically because of their design with having interior poles. This makes the tents easier to set up from the inside in high winds.

I have never had to use a survival bag. There was one helicopter flight, in strong winds and blowing snow, where before the helicopter left us, we were reminded to not hesitate to use the survival bag. There was another helicopter flight on a beautiful day in the field. However, after a few hours, snowed moved into the region obscuring the visibility. After we were picked up, the helicopter pilot commented that the conditions had nearly deteoriated to the point where he couldn't make out the horizon, necessary for him to land. Overall, it is very rare for a survival bag to be used but the training is done each year so that anybody in the position to do so, will be fine.

Initial Visit to Two APS Sites

When this project was initially proposed, a focus was placed on having two of the Antarctic Precipitation Sites (APSs) within range of being able to drive to the sites. One of the main reasons for this is that it is considerably easier to visit a site by truck or mattrack (a truck with tracked wheels) than by helicopter or Twin Otter airplane. We benefitted from that close proximity last year as we did many visits to the Phoenix and Willie Field sites as we constructed the precipitation systems and made the final engineering decisions and tests. Similarly, the nearby locations benefitted us today as we were able to take the mattrack to visit the same two sites and do an initial evaluation of how the sites survived the Antarctic winter. Two colleagues visited the sites a week ago and had sent us pictures so what we saw was not a complete surprise but it was still different to actually see the sites.

Willie Field APS - Drifting and Accumulation

The obvious feature that is immediately apparent from the Willie Field site is the significant accumulation of snow at the site. In this region of Antarctica, past experience with automatic weather stations is that the area gets about one to two feet of snow accumulation each year. The ice sheets in Antarctica accumulate snow each year and the ice sheets are slowly pushed out towards the ocean. Eventually, the ice sheet calves off into icebergs and drifts away in the ocean. I was expecting this same 1-2 feet of accumulation at Willie Field. Instead, we found about 25-38 inches of accumulation. The range is because the Double Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) shield resulted in significant drifting and accumulation and that accumulation varied throughout the installation. You can roughly think of the DFIR as two rings of wooden snowfences surrounding the precipitation gauge. At installation, not quite a year ago, the top of the DFIR was 78" above the snow surface. There is now only 3" of the DFIR above the snow surface (over six feet of accumulation at the DFIR). In looking at the past observations, it appears that already in mid-March the snow had accumulated to the point where the drifting snow filled the bucket of the precipitation gauge. I've include some photos from a year ago and now to show the changes due to accumulation. The initial task will be to dig out the DFIR and then we'll decide what we should do for this upcoming year.

Phoenix APS - A Wind Shield In Trouble

The good news from the Willie Field APS location is that the wind shields surrounding the precipitation gauges were in very good condition. The double-ring wind shield is designed to slow the winds and increase the ability of the gauge to catch the snow. However, that also means that the wind shields are encountering the significant winds of Antarctica and can take a beating. The wind shields at Willie Field APS survived and looked good. In mid-August, I viewed a video clip of the Phoenix APS site and saw that one of the corners had become disassembled and it was flapping in the wind. I contacted a colleague who was in McMurdo at the time and they visited the site to do a repair hoping to keep the shield intact. Sometime in the last couple weeks, the wind shield at Phoenix had significantly come apart at multiple points and was barely staying together. That is the condition that we found the wind shield today. We lowered the shield and spent about an hour putting it back together and the shield was able to return to much closer to the original condition than I ever imagined with such minimal effort. We'll be going back to this site to do some reinforcing of the joints, and other final details, before raising the wind shield back into place.

Conclusions

Some of the unknowns of this field season were what condition would we find the APS sites and what work will need to be done to repair the sites for a second year of observations. Today, we were able to take an initial visit to two of the sites and I'd classify the results as mixed. There are big questions as to how we'll dig out the DFIR and what we'll do with it for next year. Yet the overall repairs that need to be done seem reasonable. We will now make some decisions on how to go forward with these two sites and then start planning for what we can expect for the two sites accessible by helicopter and Twin Otter airplane.

Never Gets Old

The southbound trip from Christchurch is one that is both a combination of excitement and "been there, done that". I have tried always maintain the same sense of wonder and a feeling of being fortunate on every trip. There is no doubt that those feelings and emotions are not as strong as they were on the early trips, or my WinFly trip from two years ago. However, I still hope that I don't lose sight of the reality that I am traveling to Antarctica and when I get off the plane this place is unlike most everywhere else on Earth. I noticed on this southbound trip that not a lot of people were taking photos. Meanwhile, I was still trying to take photos as I've always done. Unfortunately,  many of the photos look almost the exact same as last year and I'm confident they are not that different from previous years as well.

Waiting in line to check-in at the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

The day starts with a 4:30 AM wake-up in order to pack and be ready for a 5:15 AM shuttle to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) and Antarctic Passenger Terminal (APT), which are located next to the Christchurch International Airport. Once arriving at the CDC, you switch into the required cold weather gear for the flight to Antarctica, as well as do the final packing and preparations to check-in for the flight. All non carry-on luggage is checked-in starting at 6:00 AM. The baggage goes through a security screening process similar to that of a commercial flight and then we have about an hour before we need to return to the APT. That gives us a chance to walk to a local coffee shop or store for breakfast. We return to the APT by 7:30 for another video introducing us to Antarctica and another briefing. From there it is through one last security screening, including removing laptops from the carry on, and then loading a bus to take us onto the tarmac and to the military cargo plane. For this flight we had a C-17, which is about as nice as it gets for a military cargo flight. There are a few flights each year for the US Antarctic Program that use an Airbus or a Boeing 757 but I have yet to have one of those flights. We get off the bus, grabbed a bag lunch, and then boarded the plane for our southbound flight. The flight on Monday had 71 passengers and about 2/3 of the middle of the plane was filled with cargo.

One of the benefits of the C-17 is that it is much faster than the C-130 cargo plane. The flight from Christchurch to Phoenix Airfield took us 5 hours and 10 minutes on Monday. There is not too much to be done during the flight as it is fairly loud. Everybody has either ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones throughout the flight. There is room to stretch out and walk around and that is done frequently. The flight on Monday took off a few minutes early and landed at a little after 2:00 PM, McMurdo time. Because of the close proximity and dependence of the US Antarctic Program on Christchurch, New Zealand, the USAP operates on New Zealand time. With daylight savings this past weekend that means it is plus one day and minus 4 hours, or plus 20 hours, from Colorado time.

Getting off of the airplane is always one of the highlights in going to Antarctica. For this flight we landed with somewhat low cloud ceilings and we could not see as far as is normal when landing. The flight landed at Phoenix Airfield, which is about 15 miles from McMurdo Station. Everybody loaded into a passenger vehicle called the Cress. The Cress is not made for speed and it took an hour to travel from Phoenix Airfield into McMurdo Station where we were greeted by friends when we got off of the Cress and then the arrival briefing, which is yet one of many in the series of trainings and briefings.

Routine and Not Routine

This is my fourth year in a row in taking a trip to Antarctica and it is my seventh trip overall. The result of this experience is that some things become routine and consistent, even with the unpredictability and uncertainty of traveling to and working in Antarctica. The most routine part of the trip is in the preparations, the travel to/from Christchurch, New Zealand, and the initial day and a half in Christchurch. After that, the biggest thing that is routine is the uncertainty with how most everything is done.

I have kept pack lists of what I have brought with me for each of my trips to Antarctica. The two key reasons for this are to make packing easier the next time around, even if it is unknown if there will be another trip. The second reason is that having the pack list helps me to minimize what I pack. I was noticing during my packing a few days ago that not only is what I bring consistent but I have also gotten into a pattern in how it is packed. I use two duffel bags and a daypack backpack. The two duffel bags gives me the flexibility to comply with the two checked bags less than 50 pounds for commercial air travel and the Antarctic limitation of 85 pounds in any number of bags. I also pack only gear and clothing to be used in Antarctica in one duffel bag so that I never have to open that bag while in New Zealand.

Duffel bags and daypack with my clothing, gear, and electronics for this year's trip to Antarctica.

The first full day in Christchurch is spent doing a series of introduction and orientation videos at the International Antarctic Center in Christchurch. These videos are the same year after year and they are very routine. From there, we get our flu vaccination, instruction on the clothing issue, followed by receiving the extreme cold weather gear that is issued to us for our time in Antarctica. Over the years, I have progressively brought more and more of my own cold weather clothing. It has gotten to the point that the only items that I take with me are the major items: the "big red" parka, insulated bibs, bunny boots, and a collection of hats, mittens, gloves, facemask, and goggles. The "big red" parka has sort of a serial number to track since they are worth so much. That number also indicates the year it was initially issued and I think my "big red" parka for this season is from 1989.

Receiving the instruction on the process of getting the issued cold weather gear and packing the baggage for the southbound flight. The instruction is given in the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

Trying on my "big red" parka, bibs, and bunny boots issued to be at the CDC. The poster on the wall indicates what is required to be worn, or on you, when you board the plane for the trip to Antarctica.

The remainder of the full day in Christchurch is spent as you wish. I ended up taking a nap and working on my laptop in catching up with a collection of projects and tasks from work and home. It is always a flurry of activity when leaving Colorado. This year things were even a little more crazy as I moved a month ago and I still getting settled into my new home. I also had dinner with a group of friends, new and old, that are also on the same southbound flight.

For the most part, this is where the routine comes to an end. We were told during the instruction on the clothing issue that it was expected that we would not be flying today because of the weather. The confidence that it was told to me caught me a little off guard as I didn't think the weather forecast was that certain. The plan was that we would be notified by 4:30 AM if the flight was cancelled. I went to bed unsure if we'd be going and I was leaning towards we would not be flying. I woke up at 4:30 AM without having received a phone call. I checked the flight hotline and it said that we were confirmed for today's flight. From there it was shower, pack, and transport to the CDC. At the CDC we changed into our extreme cold weather gear and checked in the baggage to be placed on a pallet to be included in the military cargo flight. A break for breakfast and then the process of going through security, riding a bus to the C-17 cargo plane, and eventually taking off. In the end, we arrived into McMurdo this afternoon at a little after 2:00 PM. This is my sixth southbound flight (one trip was on a ship) and it is only the second time that I have arrived on my scheduled flight and time. Like I said, from here forward the only thing that is routine is that things aren't routine.

I'll update you more on arriving into Antarctica and getting settled in my next post.

Maintenance and Repairs of APS Sites

Welcome to reading about my upcoming trip to Antarctica. I am heading south for the second of three years for the Antarctic Precipitation System (APS) project. The goals for the APS project are centered around the installation of a suite of instruments designed to measure precipitation in Antarctica. A year ago we installed the instruments at four sites on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. This year's plan is to do maintenance and repairs on the APS sites and instruments. For the past 9 months we have been monitoring the operation and performance of the instruments through remote data collection in Boulder, Colorado. Overall, the instruments appear to be doing well with a few exceptions. I've done enough field work in Antarctica to know that the truth will be told when we are able visit the sites and see the condition of the instruments. Because this year is a maintenance and repair year, in theory we will be doing a fraction of the work that we had to do a year ago with the installation of the four sites. However, reality is that theory frequently does not play out in Antarctica and I am equally preparing myself for finding the sites in rough condition and having to do some significant re-engineering to have a successful second year of observations for the APS project. In fact, I just received photos from a colleague who visited two the sites. As I said, sometimes you can't predict what you are going to see. I will be posting some fun photos this year. We are scheduled to fly northbound, off of the continent, on December 7.

The plan for the next several days is similar to that of past trips. I leave Colorado Thursday afternoon for a commercial flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. I will have stops in Los Angelas (LAX) and Auckland, New Zealand. The total transit time will be about 24 hours with the LAX to Auckland flight lasting a little under 13 hours. I arrive into Christchurch around noon on Saturday (I'll be crossing the international dateline and losing a day). We travel through Christchurch, New Zealand because the main station for the USAP, McMurdo Station, is roughly directly south of Christchurch. The rest of Saturday is spent recovering from the travel and enjoying Christchurch. On Sunday, we go to the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) for training and to receive our issued cold weather gear. That will take a few hours and then I get to relax in Christchurch for the remainder of the day. The schedule has us on a flight southbound to Antarctica leaving early Monday morning. The details of that flight will be shared when we go to the CDC. Naturally, that is a lot happening and a lot of moving parts. This is my seventh trip to Antarctica, and fourth year in a row, so I feel reasonably prepared for all of the unknowns and surprises that frequently happen.

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Antarctic Sun and Photos

I have been back from Antarctica for six weeks. This has been the easiest acclimation of all of my trips. I am not sure as to why that has been the case. It might be because it was the shortest trip I've done in awhile or maybe this is the result of experience and repetition. For me, one of the amazing post-trip realities is how quickly you forget about all of the great parts, nuances, and annoyances, of day to day life in Antarctica. I have no idea how the last month has gone for people working in McMurdo. I don't know if they have recovered from all of the delays early in the main body season or if there have been a continuing series of storms and weather delays. The good news is that the data continues to be retrieved from the Antarctic Precipitation Systems. We have yet to really dig into any analyses of the data. We will likely need to retrieve several months of data and look for specific cases in order to determine how the the instruments are doing. I don't have much more to say, mostly because this year's Antarctic experience feels like a distant memory, so I am not going to bore you with any more words.

I can share with you a recent Article that was posted in the Antarctic Sun on our field season. You can read the article at:
https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=4339

I am done going through the photos and I have 365 pictures from this years trip.  That compares to 569 in 2015 and 292 in 2016. I am really surprised and not sure how I took that many in comparison to past years. I have created two albums from the field season. The first album is of all of the 5-star photos (89):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u9dsrx7txxoyzn4/AAAGNHFsEoNWpXJndbyrev6Ga
If you are really brave, bored, or my Mom, you can view all of the 4-star and 5-star photos (239):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gasi3mrcr2p80r8/AACX-4xNQcQsHwMPo4-IEggwa

As a reminder, all of the emailed posts are archived and can be viewed from the blog at: https://megaontheice.blogspot.com/
Feel free to share this blog address if you know of anybody interested in Antarctica.

That is all I have for this year's trip. As always, feel free to email, or ask, me questions at any time throughout the year. I am scheduled to return to Antarctica again in November for a field season to do maintenance on the Antarctic Precipitation Systems that we installed this year.

Tail of the C-17 with the Antarctic sun and Mount Discovery in the background.

Mount Erebus, the Antarctic sun, and low clouds near the summit.

Stopping at the outside of the Discovery Hut during our hike to Hut Point Peninsula.

The Antarctic Precipitation System installed at Phoenix Airfield.

End of Field Work

One of the things that I've learned with the United States Antarctic Program is that you always have be cautious when assessing if a field season is successful. It is best to wait until after the field season is over to make that judgment. The two primary reasons for this are because it is hard to predict if or when you will have a run of good weather and amazing productivity, and oftentimes the resources that you receive really come through in the finals days of a field season. In my last post, I shared that we were granted a four day extension and even with that extension we'd need a run of productivity and weather to get everything done.

Monday:

We finished the installation at the Phoenix site on Sunday and we were the primary mission on one of the Twin Otter planes to visit Tall Tower on Monday. We were at Tall Tower a week earlier to install the towers and the power system. Getting back to Tall Tower would be a big positive as the weather at Tall Tower for Twin Otter flights has been difficult in the past and there are no guarantees on any given day. The flight to Tall Tower did not happen on Monday as there was a forecast for 30 knot winds, which makes working on the sites very difficult, and the flight was cancelled. We salvaged the day by driving a truck to the Willie Field site and finished the installation of the Antarctic Precipitation system at the Willie Field site. That meant that two of the four installations were completed but they were also the two easiest to complete in regards to logistics.

The completed installation of the Antarctic Precipitation System at the Willie Field site. This site has three precipitation gauges and two different heights and two different wind shields for a comparison of ability to measure the precipitation.

Tuesday:

With a scheduled northbound trip for Friday, we basically needed to do a Twin Otter flight for the Tall Tower installation on Tuesday or Wednesday and a helicopter flight to Lorne site for the fourth installation on the other day. We also needed one day, preferably Thursday, in order to pack the lab and prepare the equipment for cargo storage and northbound shipment. Fortunately, we were scheduled as the primary Twin Otter flight on Tuesday, and we were also able to be on the helicopter schedule to do the Lorne site installation. The weather forecast was good and the flight to Tall Tower was activated. During the flight, I became convinced that we were not going to be able to land as there were low clouds and flat light conditions. At one point, the pilot turned to us from the cockpit and said it doesn't look good but they were going to try anyway. The good news is that there were sufficient breaks in the clouds that landing was easy and safe. The bad news is that the winds were blowing at 20+ knots. We agreed to do the work that we could get done. We finished the installation of the power system, datalogger, and the lower instruments. After an hour and a half the winds had not let up but we agreed to install some of the upper instruments. After three hours we decided we had gotten as much one as was reasonable and we went back to McMurdo Station. By not completing the installation at Tall Tower, it was realized that it was unlikely that we'd be able to do both the Lorne installation and finish Tall Tower. 

Cat, our helper for the day in the field, holding a snow/ice drill that we used to install the flags at the Tall Tower site. The horizon is obscured due to the blow snowing in 20+ mph winds.

Wednesday:

For Wednesday, we made the decision to go "all or nothing" for the installation at Lorne site. We were not on the Twin Otter schedule and we wanted to only be on the helicopter schedule. If we were able to install the Lorne site then great, if not, we'd be installing it next year. The weather was good and it was clear for us to do the installation. Due to the large amount of cargo needed for  the installations, there were two helicopter flights required with sling loads to fly the cargo to site. Not long after those two helicopters left, a group of four of us flew in a third helicopter to do the installation. We had a fabulous day in the field. All of the work that we had been doing to learn and shorten the installation time came together with only very minor problems. We conservatively estimated 11 hours to complete the installation with a helicopter pickup at 8:30 PM. Instead, we were done by 4:00 PM and we were able to communicate with helo ops for an earlier pickup and we were picked up by 4:45. Unfortunately, the empty containers for our cargo were so bulky that they had to send another helicopter to pickup the empties later that night. It took five helicopter flights but we were able to complete the Lorne installation in one productive and efficient day. 

One of the helicopters leaving McMurdo Station with a sling load of cargo to be flown to the Lorne site for the installation of the Antarctic Precipitation System. This was one of the sling loads flown to the site with cargo.

Thursday:

When we decided to go "all or nothing" for Lorne site on Wednesday, we realized that meant Tall Tower might not get done. One of our partner colleagues, who was a huge help throughout the field season, agreed that he'd be able to complete the installation as he will be here until the end of the season in February. We still asked to be put on the Twin Otter schedule for Thursday. However, we also realized it was unlikely. The one remaining Twin Otter in McMurdo, for the US Antarctic Program, was scheduled to mobilize for work at South Pole on Thursday. I woke up on Thursday with the Twin Otter on a three hour weather delay waiting to see if the weather would clear at South Pole. A little after 10:00 AM it was determined the weather was good and we were officially cancelled. At that point, we shifted into the mode of packing the cargo. At 10:30 I received an email asking about being put on the schedule for the next day. I called back and said that we were flying northbound to Christchurch the next day. I called to ask about getting our cargo back from the airfield and the flight coordinate came up with a different idea. The Twin Otter for the Antarctic New Zealand Program was coming back after finishing its work for the day. At 10:45, I received a call asking if we'd be ready to leave at 11:30 to go to Tall Tower. I said "yes". We shifted from packing cargo to getting ready to complete the Tall Tower installation. By 12:35 PM we were in the air and 2 1/2 hours later we were done with Tall Tower. All four sites were now fully installed and transmitting the observations to Boulder. That meant that We were able to finish all that we set out to complete during the field season. We got back into McMurdo by about 6:00 PM which was followed with a quick dinner and getting packed for "bag drag" and checking in our bags for the northbound flight. The rest of the night was filled with packing the cargo and spending time with friends. It was a very late night for me.

Carol, myself, and Scott at the completion of the installation of the wind shield at the Tall Tower site. This marked the completion of the installation of all four sites. Everything that we had hoped to do during the season was completed.

Friday:

Today ended up being a simple day. Our northbound flight was on a C-130 cargo plane by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The plane had flown south on Thursday, which meant it was ready to fly north in the morning. Our transport out of McMurdo was at 7:15 AM and the northbound flight was airborne by 9:15 AM. We arrived in Christchurch 7-1/2 hours later and with that flight my 2017 Antarctic field season was complete. I made it to the hotel by 6:30 for a long and hot shower followed by a great dinner. I will spend all of Saturday in Christchurch to give myself a chance to reset before taking the trans-Pacific flight on Sunday with my arrival back into Colorado Sunday afternoon.

Boarding the C-130 airplane of the Royal New Zealand Air Force for the flight from McMurdo Station to Christchurch, New Zealand.

I am anticipating two more posts. I still need to cover exactly what it was that we installed and how it is going to be used to measure precipitation in Antarctica. It helps that I know have numerous photos of the instruments installed in the field to help explain the operation of the system. I will then post one more message with some summary thoughts on the field season and hopefully I'll have a link to an online photo album of this year's Antarctic field season.

Taking a walk through the Christchurch Botanical Garden during my full day in Christchurch. The time in Christchurch is always a well needed opportunity to reset and acclimate back to life away from Antarctica.