South Pole Update

Sorry for the late reply, McMurdo has been undergoing some network upgrades, so evening internet access has been patchy. Seems to be working quite well right now, maybe the upgrades are working. On Friday, after 13 hours of flying, Dave, Fred, Lee and our Pilots (Chuck and Tony) finally made it to the South Pole. They were facing a pretty strong head wind much of the way, and also had a tough time getting off back into the air at AGO4. As the Otter was quite heavy with all the extra equipment and fuel. Everyone was pretty tired from the long flight on Saturday. On Sunday the plan was to fly from Pole to AGO4 and then fly up the slope. The hope was that we would the nitric oxide level would decrease as the Otter flew up Dome Argus. Since the NO is produced in the snow, our hypothesis was that the NO would be higher as it accumulates down the slope (and lower as you go up the slope). Unfortunately, the weather was still not very good at AGO4 on Sunday so they did a local 4 hour flight out of Pole. I have not yet heard what they found, or exactly where they flew, but it was probably something like this: a bit down slope from pole, and then back up the slope as far a they could go, before they needed to turn around to get back. Sounds like most of the instruments are working well and the current plan is to head back to McMurdo today. If the weather cooperates, they will try again to fly to AGO4 collect a snow sample, refuel, fly up the slope, refuel, and then fly back to McMurdo. We are expecting them back later tonight (Monday) and we will be waiting for them at Willy Field. Since they haven't sent me any photos of the pole, I have attached a few from my trip there 5 years ago.