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.