Test flight and Science Flight 04

Yesterday, David returned from the Pole with the new nitric oxide instrument and installed it in the Twin Otter. And today was a busy day with a 2 hour Test Flight in the morning followed by a 5 hour Science Flight in the afternoon. Here are some photos that Chuck (our pilot/co-pilot) took from the Twin Otter during the Test Flight. When the plane returned at 8:30 PM, I stayed around to download my data and then calibrated the zenith and nadir spectroradiometers. Normally, I can wait to do this tomorrow, but tomorrow morning (Thursday December 1st) the Twin Otter is heading for the South Pole. The trip to the South Pole will take about 10 hours of flying and the Twin Otter will have to refuel two times. As the crow flies, the distance between McMurdo and the South Pole is about 900 miles. Since the Twin Otter only flies at about 125 miles per hour. And has a range of about 500 miles, they will be stopping for fuel a couple of times on the way. One good reason to be at the Pole this weekend is that the Ice Runway is closing down. And the McMurdo airport is moving to Williams Field on the permanent ice shelf over by the New Zealand station (Scott Base). It is amazing that they can tow the Tower, the generator, the galley, the bathrooms, and all the other buildings to Willy Field in only 2 days. While at the South Pole the crew will fly two local flights to survey the atmospheric chemistry on top of the plateau. And then on Monday they will fly back to McMurdo on the way they will stop a few times and also sample the nitric oxide in the snow and collect some shallow snow cores and surface snow samples that can be analyzed back at the labs at UNH (Jack Dibb) and UMaine (Karl Kruetz). While Fred, Dave, and Ed at the South Pole the rest of us will pack up all the equipment from our Jamesway at the Ice Runway and transport it back to the Crary Lab. Then on Friday a few of us (Jim, Will, and I) will take the Happy Camper School and learn how to survive by building a snow cave to sleep if we were to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Andreas' Trip to Scott Hut

Andreas (the Graduate Student from University of California) went on a tour of Scott's hut and was lucky enough to get a peek inside. Hi, Scott's hut was built by Robert Falcon Scott during an expedition to try to reach the South Pole in 1901. He sailed into McMurdo Sound and set up camp. The hut (called Scott's Discovery Hut) was built in 1902 and still stands. Unfortunately, it was too drafty to keep them warm so they slept on the ship most of the time. The team did not make it to the South Pole, but the hut was used three more times during expeditions to the South Pole. It was used twice by Ernest Shackleton's crew and once more by Scott during his succesful voyage to the pole. Unfortunately, he died during the return from the pole. The hut is a 15 minute hike from McMurdo. Occasionally they allow people to tour the inside. These tours are restricted to 8 people in order to prevent damage. Once inside you notice the smell of seal. During Shackleton's voyage, the crew burnt seals inside in order to try to keep warm. In addition a large number of supplies were also left. Outside, there remains a dead seal that was killed during the last voyage there. It has not decayed much because of the cold. For more information you can go to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Questions from Laura and Mario

Laura Jackman wrote: This is Laura Jackman from Cy-Fair College in Houston, Texas. I hope yÂ’all had a pleasant Thanksgiving. While it is difficult to be without your family on a special holiday, what you are doing is an important and unique experience. Is this your first trip to Antarctica, if not when was your last visit there? You have taken many pictures of the area and I want to thank you for addressing some of the everyday issues you are involved in such as how you eat, where you sleep, and even how you handle your trash. I was wondering if you could share your most surprising experience (or discovery) there? It can be related to your data collection, the weather, or anything else from your day-to-day experiences. Also, I was reading that a good portion of your entries includes repairs and setting up equipment. Could you give a percentage of the time that you have spent on fixes, setting up, flight time, and data collection? Sounds like the daylight is playing with your sleep time; hope you are getting enough. YaÂ’ll stay safe and good luck with your research. Answers: Laura, Thanks fothe encouragementnt. It is hard being away from my family. I am hoping to catch up with my parents soon after I get back to Houston. This is my second trip to Antarctica. My first trip was in early November 2000, and I was at the South Pole for less than 2 weeks. I was down at the Pole to set up some instruments and teach someone else how to operate them. That project was related to the work we are doing now. Since then we have learned a lot more about the Antarctic atmosphere. But seems like we still have a lot of questions. In a sense, 2 to 3 weeks is the perfect amount of time. Long enough to get a feel for the place, but not so long to be away from home. My most surprising experience is how quiet it is here and how "big" Antarctica is. While their are a lot of airplanes, helicopters, and big trucks around here. It is easy to go for a short walk from the small town of McMurdo and feel completely by yourself. The landscape here is incredibly large. Right now I am looking out the window at some Mountains. It that are 4 or 5 miles away, like you could walk to them in a couple of hours, but they are really over 80 miles away. They are just really big and you have nothing else to compare them to. The other thing that is really neat is how nice everyone is to each other here. You don't have to worry about someone stealing your laptop and everyone is here because the want to be here. Everyone I have talked to seems to be excited or curious about the various science projects going on here. Unfortunately, too much of our time is spent setting up and doing repairs. But things are getting better. We have only flown 3 of our 18 scheduled science flights. So lots more data collection to follow. We will not get all 15 of our remaining science flights in, but we still have about 17 days to in our experiment. So looks like we will be flying every day (weather permitting) from now on. Since flights are typically less than 5 hours, every now and then we might be able to fly two flights in one day. With most fieldwork, I would say about 40% of the time is just getting everything set up and planned and the other 60% is collecting and analyzing the data. Mario Vigorena wrote: I'm Mario Vigorena, a student from Cy-Fair. I was the kid that did the research othe Antarcticic Treaty and when our professor told us about your experience, I was like THATS COOL. I mean the pictures are just fascinating and knowing that Antarctica has such a large scientific significance ... I was intrigued to know that such treaty was passed. Well back to questions concerning you guys, I would like to know in more detail what you guys are really looking for. Does it have something to do with the interaction of the stratospheric ozone hole and the Sun and how that changes the chemical structure of the snow? Are the pollutants from fossil fuels involved? What about our increased demand for such energy resources? Like, what's in for the world? Answers: Mario, Good questions. We have about four primary questions (actually hypotheses) that we are looking at. They are all related to air chemistry and how this impacts snow chemistry. One has to do with how Sunlight causes chemical reactions to occur in the snow. One reason we are interested in this is because when glaciologists drill through the ice here in Antarctica and analyze frozen water that fell here as snow 100,000 years old, they want to know how reliable this record is. We are starting to learn that chemicals arpreserveded very well (relatively unreactive) and others can change over time. In this regard, the ozone hole does play a role, since it lets in much more sunlight to do the chemistry, but the ozone hole has only been around for less than 30 years. So it is not important over geologic time. Pollutants from fossil fuel combustion are quite important in atmospheric chemistry, especially near (and downwind) from large cities like Houston. In addition to atmospheric chemistry, the CO2 from coal and oil also is a greenhouse gas. The good news about Antarctica is that it has very clean air, because it is so far from any big cities. The bad news is that we still can measure long lived pollutants (like DDT and PCB's) in the snow. The interesting difference between the ice core record in Antarctica and Greenland, is that in Greenland (downwind from the US and Russia) scientists have measured the increase in pollution over the last 200 years since the start of the industrial revolution. The value of the ice core record is if can give us some information about how the atmosphere was in the past, before humans started burning coal and oil. If we can understand how things worked in the past, we should have a better idea of how things might change in the future.

Measurements over the Antarctic Plateau

Sorry for the late reply. The network has been down on station for the past two nights. It was out for almost 30 hours, just came back on line this afternoon. A few of you have sent in some questions, so I will do my best to answer them later tonight. On Friday morning the Twin Otter flew up to the Antarctic Plateau. I gave my camera to our pilots (Chuck and Rob) and they snapped a bunch of photos along the way. When we stopped to refuel and Doug took the opportunity to make some measurements of the production of nitric oxide (NO) in the snowpack. Things went well on this flight, but it was below - 30 C on the plateau, too cold for the fuel pump to start. So Rob had to used some compressed air to push the fuel out of the drums and into the aircraft fuel tank. This took a long time (over an hour) and everyone (and all the instruments) got very cold. Based on these measurements we are starting to think that we might have a leak in the NO instrument. So we are going to delay the 4th science flight until we can be sure that the NO instrument is working. Today (Monday), Dave Tanner flew to the South Pole to retrieve the NO instrument that we left there a couple of weeks ago. Since we know this instrument works, we are thinking that we will fly with this instrument on the Twin Otter for the next few weeks, and then return it to the Pole where it can make measurements for the rest of the year. Dave left on the 7:15 AM flight to the pole and is scheduled to return at 1:00 AM tomorrow morning. While my spectroradiometer has been working very well so far this trip, it did not like the -30 C temperatures when the Twin Otter was stranded on the plateau for an hour on Friday. It was "frozen up" (i.e., too cold for brass and steel metal gears to move) for about 20 minutes after fueling. After it finally warmed up enough to start, it was not really working so well. So I spent some time this morning checking it out and I am pleased to report it working well right now. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that we do not have any permanent damage to the gears. Above is a photo of the Antarctic Plateau from the air. This is what it looks like as far as the eye can see. When I went to the South Pole (5 years ago) it looked just like this. This is very similar to what it looks like on the top of the Greenland Icesheet as well. To the right is a photo of some ripples in the ice. I don't know much about this, but I thought it was interesting how regularly spaced these are. I do not know if these are crevasses, or the "mega-dunes" that I have heard about. I'll ask around and see if I can find out.

The trip to nowhere

While we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, I was surprised how big a holiday it is down here. The airfield is closed for the entire weekend. I still went down to the aircraft to grab my data and Will, Dave, and Fred spent a lot of time working on the NO instrument. But for most of us, it was our first real time off. Saturday I slept in late (and missed the 5 km Turkey Trot). It snowed the night before, so the race was "officially" called off, but more than 40 people went and ran it in the cold and slippery conditions anyway. It is always cold and slippery here, so most runners know what they are getting into. Instead of the race, I went to the gym to shoot some hoops and managed to play in a few Dodgeball games. It was a lot of fun, and the first real exercise (besides walking out to the ice runway a couple of times) I have had in 2 weeks. The Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday was an amazing, I ended up eating dinner with Kathy Welch. She and I were both Graduate Students together at the University of New Hampshire many years ago. Kathy has worked down here every summer for the past 7 years (or longer). She works in the laboratory in McMurdo doing the chemical analysis on the snow, soil, water, ice, etc. samples collected in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. I had a nice dinner, and met a bunch of Kathy's McMurdo friends. They have a great Recreation Department here in McMurdo. Every day there are a couple of outings scheduled, but this is the first time we have had a chance to take advantage of them. Andreas signed for the exclusive tour of Scott's Hut (I am hoping he will write a blog about that for us). And a bunch of use managed to get on the "Trip to Nowhere". While we didn't know where we were going, the idea was to get a ride in the back of a big red truck, a "delta", and go 20-30 miles out of town. We ended up stopping at one of the ice leads where some seals were hanging out. It is hard to see them in the photos, they are mostly black blobs. We were not allowed to get closer than 75 yards, since you are not allowed to disturb the wildlife here. Mike Pastirik got this much better photo here. It was a lot of fun. But the best part of the weekend was when I heard about the pick up soccer on Sundays in the Gym. I really enjoyed getting a chance to run around and play soccer until I could barely walk.

Glenn's trip to Scott Base (American Night)

Glenn Diskin is a scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. He is flying a Laser Hygrometer instrument on the ANCTI Twin Otter. On Thursday Evening, he took a short trip over to Scott Base (the nearby New Zealand Station). Thursday is American Night at Scott Base. On any other day of the week, the folks from McMurdo Station are allow to visit by invitation only. Here is a message from Glenn with more information about his trip. I was eagerly awaiting the chance to visit Scott Base Thursday evening. Since arriving at McMurdo Station on November 14, I hadn't had a chance to do much of anything but work on my instrument. The combination of a really quick build and the great difficulty in working down here left me troubleshooting nearly full time. All I had seen were the Twin Otter, our Jamesway and the buildings on the Ice Runway airfield (McMurdo International Airport!), my dorm room in building 155 (which I shared with up to 5 roommates, depending on the night), and the galley, plus the "road" connecting the airfield to the "town." With time nearly running out to catch a shuttle over to Scott Base, I headed over to Derelict Junction, to wait with about 20 other people for the next ride. It sounded like such a journey, going all the way to Scott Base, but after about 1.5 miles, we were there. Up the hill and across the pass in the little ridge separating the U.S from the New Zealand side of the peninsula on Ross Island, and back down the hill to the Kiwi base. Not very far, but what a different feel. McMurdo feels like I imaging a mining town to be like (sort of like the town in October Sky, but smaller). It's not white and snowy. It's brown. Volcanic rock and soil are everywhere, and when the snow melts, the brown is all that's left. That plus the very functional looking buildings. But Scott Base is much smaller, all the buildings are painted the same cute green color, and it doesn't look as industrial as McMurdo does. It's more like a campground. After a quick visit to the Scott Base gift shop, for some shopping and a look at the photos and mementos on the walls, I decided to walk back to McMurdo and enjoy the view. My photographic skills aren't the best, but I tried to take some shots to capture the feel of the Kiwi side. The shot to the left is Mt. Erebus, the active volcano on the island, seen from a different view than we usually get to see it from. It's a really great walk, and I heartily recommend it to anyone!

Thanksgiving Day

At 2:00 AM on Thanksgiving day it really started to snow. This was when we were supposed to take off, so I am impressed that the weather guys are doing so well. It was enough snow for me to be able to collect some snow samples for Jim Lawrence back at UH. Jim measures the oxygen isotope ratios of water vapor, rain, and snow. So far I have been here two weeks and we have only had two significant snowfalls. Hopefully we will get a few more. Because of the late take off, and the fact that my instrument is working well, I took the chance to do some laundry. It was pretty easy to do and didn't take that long, so I probably will not wait so long next time. The washing machines are free and you don't even need to buy any detergent. I was the only person doing laundry at 0900 AM, so no waiting for the washers or dryers. It sure doesn't feel like Thanksgiving, but we are all really missing are families right now. When I was walking to the lab this afternoon (a little after 2:00 PM) I remembered to take a photo of the sundial. This is one of the few places were the sundial is useful 24 hours a day. It is good enough to set your watch by. For me it still takes a bit of getting used to the fact that at solar noon, the Sun is due North. After the cloudy at cold afternoon, the wind died down and it was warm, clear, and beautiful out this evening. The Twin Otter took off successfully at 2:20 AM. We are always a little late for take off because we want to turn on all the instruments after engine start and make sure everything is working before take off. This usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for and I am looking forward to spending next Thanksgiving with my family.

Mike's random walk

Michael Pastirik, the High School teacher that is working with the ANTCI project, made some observations and took some photos today. Here is what he had to say:

McMurdo was gray and overcast last night. This morning the station was covered in a dusting of about three-quarters of an inch of powdery snow. It was beautiful.

There is a scheduled flight tonight at 2AM. Sounds late, but remember the sun doesn’t set. All trips in the plane require that one takes their ECW and complete snow or happy camper school. Even though you didn’t ask, there is no bathroom on the plane. The polite word for the device used is chamber pot, but everyone here says pee bottle. It is plastic and has a screw on top, so it will not get spilled during a bumpy flight. Enough said.

I strolled about town after working on the nitric oxide snow-sniffer (works fine!). The first stop was the firehouse. Firemen and Firewomen are responsible for a great number of things. At first, it might strike you as odd that there is a firehouse. However, remember that Antarctica is a desert, windy, and the station has all kinds of things to burn. If there is a fire, water has to be drawn from the total supply purified for the town, and if the power station burns, then the station or water plant needs to be evacuated in one or two days. There is little margin for error in Antarctica. In addition, to their fire fighting responsibilities, firemen let people into their rooms when they lose keys, clean oil and other spills, attend aircraft arrivals and departures in case of a disaster, and the list goes on.

I continued my set of errands and went to the post office. It was there I met LaVonne H. Weber. I asked her about mail service in Antarctica. The shipping point in the States to and from Antarctica is San Francisco. Mail takes about three weeks to travel in either direction.. It costs the same to mail things here as it does back home. Mail arrives irregularly, with emergency transport and National Science Foundation (NSF) receiving priority. Four hundred pounds of mail arrived from the States last week.

Injuries happen, and people do get sick in Antarctica. If one needs medical care, there is the McMurdo Community Hospital. It is a small facility, but for more intense care, one is flown to New Zealand. Sometimes, it is not physical tending that people need, but spiritual time. The McMurdo Chapel is open to one and all. It overlooks McMurdo Sound. From it, over the transition (ice/ground area), one can see over the airport to the Transantarctic Mountains. The highest one tops 13,000 feet. It does make one contemplate the bigger picture.

Off to get a 12 foot bamboo pole with a red flag on it. Everything is flagged for safety. If there isn’t a marked trail, or a flag trail (red or green), one should not go there. Casual walks in unmarked areas can be catastrophic. Search teams will look for you, but a foolish decision about not following rules and doing your own thing, can result in injury or death to you or rescuers. To say the least, this is frowned upon. By the way, two other flag colors are important to know. Black flags indicate danger, do not go there. An example of proper black flag use is to warn of crevasses. They are a constant source of danger. The other color flag is yellow. It is typically used as the indication for an outdoor field station pee site. There was someone on my happy camper school who seemed to be working on losing a popularity contest. He dug a trench for a shelter, and did a nice job at it. It took everything I knew to prevent myself (I wasn’t alone in this.) from moving the pee flag to the edge of his trench once he fell asleep. For the record, I didn’t do it…

A minor thing struck me as I came back into the building today. All exterior building doors are very sturdy here. About half resemble industrial-size freezer door handles. In tropical and temperate climates, refrigerators are used to cool things, thick doors and sturdy handles prevent the inflow of heat. Here, in Antarctica, the cold surrounds us everywhere and the door keeps the heat in and the cold out!

I talked with my wife (Barbara) and daughter (Carsen Lee) on the phone today. It is great to talk with them. It is hard to hang up. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the States. We will celebrate on Saturday night. Saturday morning I am going to participate in the Turkey Trot run/walk, eat, and I signed up to scrub pots and pans in the evening. I would like to think that a cafeteria worker could get the time off. Staff works hard here. Tonight, I plan to go over to the Kiwi Station (New Zealand) station named after Scott. I plan doing a bit of shopping, and having a bit of adult time.

Take care of one another! mp

Today's science flight canceled

For the third ANTCI science flight, the plan is to take off after midnight and fly onto the Antarctic plateau and then go as far north as possible (i.e., until we have a little more than 1/2 a tank of gas, so you have enough to get back home). Reason we are doing this in the middle of the "night" is that the UV rays from the Sun play a key role in the chemistry we are looking at. So we wanted to do a comparison between low and high Sun conditions. This planned flight is the low Sun flight. We should be able to get to a latitude of about 75 degrees and at that time of the "night", the Sun is about 6 degrees above the horizon. Then a day or so later we will go to the same location in the middle of the day, and the Sun will be about 30 degrees higher.

While the Twin Otter is at this northerly location, the plane will land and we will collect some snow samples and also measure the gases coming out of the snow. About 20 minutes later the Otter will take off and head back to McMurdo. The photo on the right show some important notices on the door of our aircraft: "Do not open door with flaps extended", because the with the flaps down the door could damage the flaps. And "This aircraft is operating without a certificate of airworthiness". This just means that all the stuff we are hanging from the windows and top and bottom of the plane mean it is no longer FAA certified. The plane is still quite safe and will be regain it's certification as soon as we take all of our stuff off the plane. This normal for research aircraft. Once we found out the flight was canceled. We took the opportunity to take a closer look at some of the instruments that have been causing us some problems. Fred and Lee worked on the OH instrument, and think they have it working much better now. Doug and Will double checked that they did not have any leaks in their tubing and practiced snow NO sampling. Glenn replaced a hard disk that had crashed on the last flight. This is a bit of a concern for all of us as the plane is unpressurized and we got up to 14,000 ft last flight. Hoping that this is a one time only failure. Fred has planes to take the Otter up to 18,000 ft (with oxygen for everyone), so that will be an interesting test. Jim Crawford (shown on the phone, left) and I took the Laser Altimeter out of the plane and figured out how to change some of the settings to slow down the data rate and convert output from meters to feet (since aircraft convention for altitude is feet). After a bit of trying, we finally figured out how to "talk" to the instrument and change the settings. So we should get better data on next flight. Photo of the guy with the funny T-Shirt is Andreas. He is a graduate student of Don Blake's at the University of California - Irvine. Andreas and I have been on a bunch of field missions to Greenland in the past few years so, and I can tell you that even if he is annoying, he works pretty hard. He recently started a blog: http://annoyinganteater.blogspot.com, check it out if you have the time. Otherwise, tomorrow is November 24th (Thanksgiving back in the States), but here at McMurdo Station, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday, so it does not interfere with the work week. Not so nice, but it really doesn't matter that much since the important thing is that we are not going to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families (a big deal for me). So we will all be thinking of what we are missing, and also what we have to be thankful for.

Sandra Southerland - Air Traffic Controller

Below is another guest post from Mike Pastirik; Science Teacher; Cedar Grove High School; pastirik1@hotmail.com

Today I introduced myself to Sandra Southerland an air traffic controller at McMurdo. Sandra is African-American. We shared breakfast time together. Quiet, and reserved, but as the conversation proceeded she proved to have a quick wit and a wry sense of humor.

Sandra is a former Navy air traffic controller whose first assignment was in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia helping to land military jets and transports. She hails from West Palm Beach, Florida. She has a husband and an eighteen month old daughter. She views this experience (which she has tried for three years to get) as a great opportunity, and a stepping stone to bigger things. She misses her family dearly, and emails or calls daily. Concerns she didn’t have in Diego, but has in McMurdo include the periodic penguin walking across the runway, or the leopard sea sticking its nose through its entry hole.

I asked her straight-up about opportunities for minorities and women. She said there are great openings for both, but education and hard work are the keys. To be an air traffic controller, one must complete a five to six year program in college, or gain entry to the profession through the armed services. It was breakfast, and she didn’t want her picture taken, but she invited me down to the tower today for a tour and said she would then. I’ll be there! I got to the air traffic control tower about 3:00 pm just in time to see a C-130 landing on its trip from the pole. Sandra directed the plane in. It was quite a sight to see this big plane land. Next up was our Twin Otter for take-off. I got lucky, and it was Sandra’s turn again. The plane looked so little compared to the C-130. People’s lives depend on the quality of work done by the controllers. After a brief tour of the inside of the facility, we said goodbye and parted. The pilots, crews, and planes seemed to be in good hands. Mike Pastirik; Science Teacher; Cedar Grove High School; pastirik1@hotmail.com

Outflow from David and Reeves Glaciers

Monday and Tuesday we flew to the mouth of the David and Reeves glaciers ( "south" of McMurdo in the map on the right). The long river of ice extending from the David glacier is the Drygalski Ice Tongue. Both flights were a success because most of the instruments worked and we measured increased levels of NO (nitric oxide) in the outflow of the glaciers. Interestingly, the winds from the Reeves glacier were much stronger than over the Drygalski ice tongue, and the levels of NO were higher in the flow from the Reeves. On the way back from the glaciers we flew downwind from Mt. Erebus and also noted some higher levels of SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Lee Mauldin (an NCAR scientist on our team) took this picture on the right of the Drygalski ice tongue flying at 100 ft above the surface. After the flight, here is Marty Buhr downloading the NO data. Calibrations are a very important part of making measurements. Most of the instruments are calibrated in flight. Marty has a bottle of NO (with a known amount of NO in it) on the plane and every 10 minutes he samples from the NO cylinder to check that he is getting good measurements (at this time he also does a zero check as well, to look at the background counts). For my sunlight measurements (ultraviolet and visible), I do calibrations after each flight with a series of light bulbs. I have compared these light bulbs to calibrated lamps in the lab at NCAR. In Antarctica, I measure the light from these bulbs for 5 minutes each to make sure the instrument is performing correctly. I also can check the alignment of the optics, but looking at some specific Hg (mercury) emission lines. Sometimes after a hard landing, I need to adjust the instrument alignment. Thus far the pilots have done a great job and I have had only minor changes in my calibrations. Here is photo of the calibration stand and the quartz light collection optic (the white hemispheric dome at the top). The calibration bulbs shine light through the hole in the center of the photo.

More Questions

Comments from David Silva (Cy-Fair): Definitely, this must be an amazing experience and the pictures already say enough! Beautiful view! I wonder how you ended up there, and what exactly your goal is during this time. Did you apply for it? Somebody requested you? It seems to me that pretty much scientific experiments are all that goes on over there. How is the social life? One of my friends did a presentation about the Antarctica Treaty and I was wondering how they make sure to enforce it. Do you see patrolling or any sort of supervision concerning the treaty requirements? Thanks, David Silva Cy-Fair Answers: David, Thanks for the good questions! The view is amazing, and it is a great experience, I am quite lucky to get a chance to come down here. To answer some of your questions: 1) I did apply to come down here. A group of us got together and proposed to NSF (the National Science Foundation) to conduct a study of the atmospheric chemistry of Antarctica. This project is a continuation of a project to look at what was happening at the South Pole. We are trying to better understand the chemical reactions happening above the snow and how this impacts the chemical record in the ice cores collected here. You are correct, the only approved reason to come to Antarctica is to do scientific research. This idea was summarized by Admiral Byrd, in the plaque shown on the left. No one owns Antarctica and it is governed by a the Antarctic Treat. Antarctica is one of the few places on Earth where there has been never been war, where the environment is fully protected, and where scientific research has priority. A land which the Antarctic Treaty parties call a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science. The social life is pretty good. McMurdo is a small town (about 1000 people), and in addition to hanging out in the dining hall (galley) to talk to people, there are a bunch of other recreational and social activites. McMurdo has a small 2-lane bowling alley, a sports gym with a weight room and a larger area for either volleyball, basketball, aerobics, indoor hockey, and my favorite - indoor soccer. Another building has a ceramics room, a sweing room, ajnd a bouldering cave. Their is also a library and three social clubs: Gallagher's (a non-smoking club with a "burger bar"), The Coffee House (also non-smoking is an internet cafe that also shows movies), and The Southern Exposure for the smoking crowd. The station also has a store to purchase souvenirs, toiletries, snacks, film, batteries, phone cards, etc. Near the store is a Wells Fargo ATM so you can get more money to by those Antarctica souvinirs. Below is more about the Antarctic Treaty: Signed in 1959, the Antarctic Treaty came into force on 23 June 1961 after ratification by the twelve countries then active in Antarctic science. Today the treaty has more than 43 parties, representing more than 2/3 of the world's human population. The Treaty covers the area south of 60°S latitude. Its objectives are simple yet unique in international relations. They are: to demilitarize Antarctica, to establish it as a zone free of nuclear tests and the disposal of radioactive waste, and to ensure that it is used for peaceful purposes only; to promote international scientific cooperation in Antarctica; to set aside disputes over territorial sovereignty. The treaty remains in force indefinitely. The Treaty parties meet each year. They have adopted over 200 recommendations and negotiated five separate international agreements. These, together with the original Treaty provide the rules which govern activities in Antarctica. Collectively they are known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). At McMurdo Station, the Senior NSF is in charge of enforcing the Treaty on station. Several members of NSF are on the Treaty Board of Govenors. Any member of the Treaty Board has the right to perform on-site no-warning inspections as provided by the Treaty. Originally, these inspections were a means of enforcing the demilitarization measures of the Treaty, now they have become important means of encouraging adherence to the strict environmental measures. Here at McMurdo Station, every person is informed about the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty as soon as they arrive. This is something that they take very seriously here.

Mike's trip to the Greenhouse

Up the hill and to the right, hidden behind construction lumber on a non-descript path is a bit of paradise at McMurdo Station. Paradise is warm lights, warm air, green plants and a hammock. All can be found in the McMurdo greenhouse. Building 147 is a great treat for the eye starving for more than the stark beauty of black rock and white ice at the base.

As one enters the building, one is reminded to quickly close and slam the doors to prevent heat loss. A brief list of rules for the visitor, a sign-in sheet and the sweet smell of growing herbs, and vegetables greets one just inside the foyer. Not a soul was present while I was there, but a quick look around clearly signals that the place is tended to regularly and loved by the caretaker. The greenhouse is actually two trailer sized buildings connected (not actually a double-wide), and contrary to temperate climate greenhouses, not glass enclosed, but the ceilings and walls are lined with reflective Mylar. Light from overhead sources reflect off the Mylar and bathe the plants in life-giving light from all directions. The peppers, cucumbers, parsley, lettuce, basil and other plants are grown hydroponically (without soil, but anchored in a mineral rich water pot). The plants were at all stages of development from seed to readily harvested fruit.

As I strolled the aisles between the growing plants, I savored the rich smells of the herbs and spices, and fought off the temptation to pick a pepper from the vine. I sat a few minutes in a chair provided by the caretaker, and drifted off imagining a spring season to come. On the way out, I promised myself a return visit and left my email address so I could be contacted to be a volunteer.

Mike Pastirik; High School Science Teacher; ANTCI Cedar Grove High School (near Atlanta, Georgia); pastirik1@hotmail.com

Cold calibrations and Sunday evening movie

Today was less fun than most with high winds and a bitter fog hanging over the ice runway making it feel like one of the coldest days since we have been here. This afternoon I calibrated both of my systems and as my hands were starting to feel frozen, Jason brought over the Herman-Nelson heater (the yellow box with the green hose) and heated things up right away. It was so hot that it started to melt the ice next to me. So I shut it off as I finished things up. It is nice to know that if need to work outside for long periods of time, we can find some heat to keep us from getting too uncomfortable. Luckily, I can calibrate the upward looking radiometer inside the aircraft. This was much warmer, but took much longer because 4 of us were trying to work on the same rack (Lee on the laser altimeter, Glen on the water vapor instrument, and Jim on decoding the navigation system feed). Here is picture of Lee working behind my calibration system (the black cylinder on top of the white power supply). This plus the fact that we are sitting right next to the door means that we have to move when anyone is trying to get to one of the forward instrument racks. I am not complaining, it was much warmer inside, just took a bit longer. Otherwise, we had a fancy dinner tonight, with big/ thick strip loin steaks, potatoes, and green beans. It was too much food. But a special treat. The fog of the morning finally gave way to a light snowfall at night. While I had some work to do, I heard that the Sunday Evening movie at the Coffee House was a good one: "Rabbit Proof Fence". It was a nice break, the first movie I have watched since I got here. And the first time I forgot that I was in Antarctica. Coffee House is a nice place because it is not too loud and they sometime have live music there. While I usually don't drink much coffee, I have started to drink more since I have been here because it is a quick way to get warm and the caffeine helps keep me awake in the afternoons. So things are pretty easy here, much easier than for the first scientists to work at McMurdo Station.