Safe Flight Home

Sorry for the late reply. I did not have good internet access while in New Zealand. They do have good internet cafes, but the place I went to did not have a way for me to upload my photos. Anyway, after a delay we flew from McMurdo back to Christchurch on a Kiwi C-130. The most exciting part of the trip was when our shuttle van got stuck in the ice on the trip from McMurdo Station out to the aircraft on the ice runway. The ice is starting to melt and in the transition between the land and the ice was particularly soft. Luckily a bulldozer was nearby and able to quickly pull us out so we did not miss our flight. It was a 8-hour flight and pretty crowded, but we were all happy to be on our way home. My wife Maggie was waiting for me in Christchurch. And we spent a few days exploring the south island. We went visited some old volcanoes near Christchurch, went to the beach and a harbor cruise (where we saw a bunch of dolphins). We also took the train to the "Southern Alps" of New Zealand and spent some time hiking (or "tramping" as the Kiwi's say) around some of the areas they filmed Lord of the Rings. Then we flew to the North Island and visited our friends Nancy and Bryan. They moved from Boulder to New Zealand a couple of years ago and we had a really fun time touring and hiking around the North Island with them. I had a really had a great trip South, but glad to be back home. I have another field trip coming up in February when study the Mexico City air pollution problem. Take care. Barry

Last Flights

We had two really good flights the past two days. On Tuesday, Otter flew back and forth across the Reeves glacier and we mapped out the NO at multiple altitudes at both the top and at the mouth of the glacier. This should give us a good start at calculating a budget for NO outflow on this day. In addition, all the instruments were working well and we should have another good day of photochemical measurements (NO, NO2, OH, SO2, H2SO4, O3, jNO2, jO(1D), etc). Fred and Doug flew back North on Wednesday, and they hosted an ANTCI Project party. Thanks Doug and Fred for paying for all the refreshments. I wish I could have made it to the party, but I was out at the Otter doing my calibrations and then the 9:15 Shuttle driver forgot to pick us up at Willy field, so everyone was in bed by the time I got back to town at 11:15. This was Doug's last trip to Antarctica as he is going to retire. I know, he has said this before, but think this really is going to be his last project. So Ed got a poster of Antartica printed out at NCAR and well all signed it as a going away present. Today's flight was up to the plateau to get some more sampling of the "OH canopy" that surrounds the Antarctic plateau in the boundary layer. We could use some more data of this, and sounds like we go some. On the way home they stopped to sample some more glacial outflow. Even though the winds were weak, we still saw some modest amount of NO, so sounds like we can not ignore these types of days either. Interestingly, the weather forecast was for bad weather on the plateau, but pilots (Chuck and John) said is was beautiful. Chuck took a bunch of photos with my camera, but I forgot to get it back from him, so I will have more photos later. Other exciting news is that we all thought that we were not going to get back to New Zealand until the 18th or the 21st of Dec. But word we got today was that the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) has fixed the broken C-130 and we might get headed home on the morning of the 16th. We are not sure about this, but we don't want to miss our flight home, so after plane came back at 6:00 PM today we started taking everything off. By the time we left on the 10:15 shuttle we had about 1/2 of the instruments pack up. We still have a lot to do since we have to get instruments over the hill back to McMurdo and to the science cargo office. Hopefully we will have a few seconds to spare tomorrow to get this done. I better get back to my packing. I'll try to post more photos tomorrow. If you don't hear from me I was too busy and will try to post again from NZ. Take care. Barry

Flight over Mt. Erebus and sea ice edge

Yesterday we had bad weather in the morning and so it was a good opportunity for the NCAR guys to work on the OH instrument. We were thinking about doing a test flight in the afternoon, but things just got a bit too crazy and then it started to snow again, so we had to cancel it. Good news is that today we went for a 4 hour flight and it is easy to say that it was a best flight of the season. All the instruments are working really well. The weather was quite nice. While the winds were not quite blowing exactly as we wanted them to, we still go a lot of good data. With only a few days to go, we are just happy to get a bunch more data. I gave my camera to our pilot (Chuck Slade) and he took a bunch of really nice photos. Here are a few of them. The top one is a view of the Mt. Erebus volcano with a bird's eye view of the plume of volcanic gases. Today David and Sae Wung measured quite a lot of SO2 in that plume. For the 2nd half of the flight we flew along the edge of the sea ice looking to sample trace gases that are emitted by the ocean. While the winds were blowing from the ice to the ocean (and not from the ocean to the ice as we were hoping) we still intercepted a few patches of air that had elevated levels of some of the marine gases we were looking for. Here is a cool shot of the ice sheet edge (with the shadow of the Twin Otter). This gives you an idea of how thick the ice sheet is. Someone told me the ice sheet where the Willy Field runway is (not this photo) is 25 feet of snow and 240 feet of ice on top of 1800 feet of water. In this photo, sure looks like the ice is over 200 ft thick. Tonight after dinner Fred Eisele gave the Sunday Science talk about the ANTCI project. We have a science talk every Sunday night and the idea is to tell all the non-scientists (and other scientists) here in McMurdo what we have been up to for the past month. There are also Wednesday Science lectures in the Crary Library, but the Sunday talk is geared towards the general public. I was encouraged to see how many people were interested in hearing a talk about the "Antarctic Tropospheric Chemistry Investigation" and really surprised how many good comments and questions the talk generated. Nice job Fred. On the way back to my room I almost stepped on this Skua. He or she really has a good camouflage. Then off the back porch of my dorm I saw a big seal hanging out on the McMurdo floating ice dock. It was starting to get cold and I didn't have on my heavy jacket so I didn't get a good photo of the seal, but I'll check to see if he is still out there tomorrow. Tonight we also found out that one of the C-130s that was going to take a bunch of McMurdo people back to New Zealand is have some major mechanical problems. So chances are not all of us are going to get out of here before Christmas. This is really tough for everyone. Not sure how it is going to work out, but we only have a few more days of flights and then packing up. But would be good to know when our flights will be. Anyway, not much we can do about this. Take care. Barry

Snow delay followed by two flights on Friday

Again, sorry for the lack of postings. The weather delay turned into a snow storm that lasted until after midnight. The good news is that I was able to collect some more snow samples for UH Professor Jim Lawrence. Bad news is that we were stuck in McMurdo and not flying around collecting data. Everyone was snowbound and trying to use the internet at the same time, so I couldn't get any photos on the blog. I took the break in flights to finish up the Final Exam for my Introduction to Climate Change. Exam is next Monday, I wish my students well. I tried to make it fair and not too hard. I have been testing questions out on the graduate students here in Antarctica, and they all think the test is too easy, this is a good sign as my Intro class is aimed at freshmen and sophomores. This morning we finally made it back to Willy Field, and it took over 45 minutes in the Delta to get there. As the road is all drifted in with soft snow, the Delta is the only passenger vehicle that can make it. It is a long bumpy 45 minutes, so you don't want to forget to bring something important because it will take you at least 2 hours to get back to the airfield. When we got there we found the buildings and aircraft were surrounded by snow drifts. After a couple of hours of shoveling and digging out, we got everything back to normal and started up the instruments for a 1.5 hour OH test flight. Looks like the NCAR guys have figured out the problem and now are working on a solution. That is good news. Three hours later we did another short (3 hour) science flight sampling the gases coming out from the Mt. Erebus volcano. Bad news for me is that one of my computers did not start properly, so I didn't get any data. This happens sometimes, and no one to blame other than myself. I have to do a better job of training the guys that are on the flight to recognize and fix any problems with my instruments.

Weather Update

Weather forecast was pretty good. We woke up to Condition 1 weather on Willy Field this morning. But now down to Condition 2, and starting to look like Condition 3. The snow crews our out on the road to Willy getting it useable again. So looks like airfield will open at noon, and we hope to get our test flight off at 2:00 PM. Weather is not favorable for a trip to the Plateau, so 2nd flight today could be a glacial outflow experiment.

Twin Otter and windy conditions return to McMurdo

A tired Twin Otter crew returned to McMurdo on Monday night. While weather conditions prevented them from sampling at AGO4, they still made it to the TAMS site and collected lots of data between Pole and McMurdo. Actually, the weather was quite nice at AGO4, winds were only 5 kts, but because AGO4 is about 12,000 ft, our Twin Otter (weighted down by all the scientific instruments) is too heavy to take off from AGO4 without some stronger headwinds to help us out. That and the fact that there really isn't much of a runway, so the drifts over the old runway make it difficult to get up to the required speed. Luckily, the guys were thinking a head and collected snow cores from Seismic Center, TAMSEIS Camp, and AGO4 on the way to the pole. Tuesday was a rest day for the pilots and gave us a chance to work on the instruments. I was lucky that the spectroradiometer calibrations had not changed very much over the 3 long days of sampling and we have beautiful weather for calibrations on Tuesday. For Wednesday we planned two flights. A short 1.5 hour flight to investigate the NO levels near the NCAR OH inlet. We are still trying to figure out why the OH instrument sometimes has problems when we are flying at higher altitudes. Since the winds were not cooperating (i.e, conditions not favorable to measure outflow from the glaciers) we decided to try and sample the Mt. Erebus plume in the afternoon. So we all went out early on Wednesday morning and got instruments warmed up and ready to go. Unfortunately, the winds started to pick up and 30 minutes before takeoff the airport was shut down as it became Condition 2 visibility. By the time we got back from Willy Field to McMurdo we had condition 1 visibility. We kept hanging around the Crary Lab hoping for the winds to die down, but no luck. I went over to the McMurdo machine shop to get a core extractor fabricated. We are really lucky to have such top notch facilities here in town. These guys are really good at what the do and it makes it so much easier to do our science. For tomorrow, we have rescheduled a morning OH test flight, and as forecast has changed we are hoping to have an afternoon flight to Midpoint Charlie up on the plateau. This is part 2 of a "day/night" sampling strategy. As Sun is up 24 hours a day, this is really a "higher Sun vs. lower Sun" comparison. All the instruments are going to be sampling on the way to Midpoint C and then they will land there and Doug will get a long sampling tube and sample NO coming out of the snow. While this is going on, Ed and Sae Wung will collect a bunch of snow cores. Forecast says that conditions should be better in the morning. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Cesar Chavez HS Advanced Placement Environmental Science Class

Here is a photo of Millie Cowart-Priest's 2005-06 Advanced Placement Environmental Science senior class at Cesar E. Chavez High School. I visited this AP Environmental Science class before my trip to Antartica, and plan to talk with them again in January. I also want to get this class interested in the Megacities Impact on the Regional and Global Environment (MIRAGE-Mex) field campaign in Mexico City, in March 2006. This is an NSF project that will involve many scientists and students from dozens of Universities and national laboratories in U.S., Mexico, and Europe. Chavez HS is the only Environmental Science magnet school in Houston, and is a mere 7 miles from the University of Houston - Main Campus. To learn more about their school take a look at the following website (http://hs.houstonisd.org/chavezhs). I am also hoping that some of these excellent students will think about coming to the University of Houston next fall to major in the Environmental Science or Earth and Atmospheric Sciences programs.

McMurdo is melting

For the past 3 days the afternoon temperatures have been above 0 deg C (i.e., above 32 F) so everything is melting. We have had some warm days before, but it has gotten bad enough that they have had to create a network of small drainage ditches to keep the water from pooling up during the day. At night the standing water freezes up again. Since we are all acclimated to colder temperatures, this is almost much T-Shirt weather. Problem is, that if the wind picks up or a cloud blocks the Sun temporarily, it feels much colder. Since the weather was so nice and we were all anxiously awaiting the return of the Twin Otter, Will, Andreas, and I took a hike up Scott's Hut Ridge. This is a new hike that starts at Scott's Hut (see Andreas' earlier post on Scott's Hut for more information) and goes up near Arrival Heights, you get a not so flattering view of Mac-town from up there.

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.

Tales from Happy Camper School

Happy camper school was a lot more fun than I thought is was going to be. The whole idea of HC school is to teach the scientists and staff here what to do if they find themselves stranded out in the field. Away from station with only thing things in a survival kit. This could happen if you are traveling by helicopter or Delta or snowmobile to a remote field camp and something bad happens. For our project, if you want to fly on the Twin Otter (which is flying hundreds of miles from station) and the plane has problems, then you might find yourself camping out in the cold. I am not afraid of camping out in the snow. I have spent over 12 weeks camping in a tent on the Summit of the Greenland ice sheet as part our research up there. The difference is that if something goes wrong in Greenland, I can always walk less than a quarter mile to the "Big House" to get out of the elements. It could be cold in there, but better than being in a tent. With our work in Antarctica we could find ourselves stranded a long way from station and it could be a few days before help arrives. So while I wasn't scared of sleeping in a tent I knew that I wasn't prepared to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Photo of the guy in blue dragging a Scott Tent is Trevor, our happy camper instructor. He is over qualified for this job has he has lead mountain climbing expeditions all around the world. Seems like he might sleep half his nights outdoors in a given year. In any case, the day started out pleasant enough with cloudy conditions and a little bit of snow as the 12 of us rode in the Delta from McMurdo out past the Scott Base to Happy Camper School on the Ross Ice Shelf. As we hung out in the instructor hut (aka the I-Hut, the blue Jamesway on the left) and learned how to light a stove and to use the VHF and HF radios it started to snow a little bit more and it started to snow a bit more. Then we went outside tested are radio skills by trying to call the South Pole. One of our radios didn't work, which was a valuable lesson to test you equipment before you go into the field. With the other radio we were finally able to call the Pole and chat with them. Jim Crawford got to tell the Pole-Ops (South Pole Operations Center) to keep a look out for the Kenn Borek Twin Otter (with tail number SJB) that was heading their way. Then we gathered up some sleeping bags, tents, and tools (shovels, saws, snow axes, sleds) and headed out to our campsite. By now we could not see more than a 1/2 mile and the wind was starting to pick up. As we started to set up camp, we heard that we were now in Condition 2. And we could see less than 1/4 mile. The weather rapidly got worse, and as the winds picked up we could barely see 30 feet. After we got up the first Scott Tent. Trevor sent Jim Crawford (Guy with the beard on the left) and Dan Rudd out to set up a line of flags to make sure we could find our way back to the road and the outhouse. Jim said they could only see about 2 flag lengths at a time. So they had to be sure to stick together. After the 2nd Scott tent was up, Trevor taught us how to build an snow wall to protect us from the wind and create a space to set up the mountain tents. I was surprised how easy it was with people all working together. In a matter of 2-3 hours or so, we had all the tents up and Jim Pierce had the stoves on and was melting snow for us so we could make some hot chocolate. We were pretty busy hauling snow blocks and fighting the wind will setting up our tents that we did not take many pictures. Normally snow school students are supposed to build a Quinzee, an igloo like structure but because the weather was so bad, Trevor let us off the hook. Fortunately, there were a couple of Quinzees near our camping area from previous Happy Camper classes. So we all picked a place to sleep, and went over to the cook tent to enjoy a dehydrated meal. Two choices were beans and rice or chicken and rice. They were not that bad, but I would not want to live off of them for a more than a few days. Will, Jim, and I (the 3 ANTCI campers) shared the larger mountain tent. It was a bit cozy, but super warm with the sleeping bags they gave us. I was a bit noisy with high winds blowing the tents around, but thankfully the wind died down after midnight and I was able to fall asleep. While Trisha, Estiban, Jim, and Peter divided among the other tents, 4 members of our group (Andre, Mike, Laura and Megan) decided to sleep two of the Quinzees and Dan slept in a snow trench. Sounds cold, but Dan swears he was comfortable. The survival kit only has a couple of small tents, so chances are if you are stranded in Antarctica, some of your party is going to have to sleep in a snow trench. If I every get a chance to do this again, I'll try to snow trench. The next morning is was beautiful out, bright and sunny and no clouds to be seen. We packed up camp in less than 2 hours and then had a chance to explore the neighborhood. Here is photo of Will crawling through the entrance to a Quinzee. Then Trevor arrived with the Delta to pick up all the equipment. We went back to the I-Hut and he showed us how to make a Quinzee and then tested us on our survival skills. He gave us a survival kit and said that we had 20 minutes to set up the tent, set up the radio and place a call to the South Pole, build a snow wall, and melt a liter of snow. So we all split up and get everything going. We selected a patch of snow for our "snow quarry" that was more like concrete. While that wasted some time, 25 minutes later we had everything accomplished. I have to admit after taking the class, I feel a lot better about how I would do if I found myself stuck away from McMurdo.

Heading South

Hi. As Barry told you I will be writing this blog while he's away. He also had mentioned in his previous post that the Twin Otter's flight to the South Pole was cancelled yesterday. The reason is that between McMurdo and the South Pole the plane has to land 3 times to refuel. It lands at locations on the plateau where oil drums have previously been left. (While refueling, we will be taking 20cm snow core samples. These samples will be frozen and analyzed later to look at the snow photochemistry happening in these places.) Because of all these refueling stops in order to leave the weather must be good at McMurdo, the South Pole, and these 3 stops. And it must be good weather for the next 10-12 hours (how long the whole trip will take). Luckily, the weather was good enough this morning to leave. So 3 of the 11 members of the team headed to the South Pole. Another 3 members (including Barry) went to "Happy Camper." This is over-night survival training where they teach you how to build ice huts and be able to survive if you are stranded. Because I already took this class, I remained behind. Myself and the remaining 4 members of our group had the job of packing up the tent we've been using as an office (above). This is because the runway where the Twin Otter has been located is moving. McMurdo is located on Ross Island and up until now the runway has been located on the sea ice surrounding it. However, this ice will start to melt and in February an ice-breaker will break up the ice (hence the name). This allows supply ships to dock at McMurdo. To the right is a picture of the runway now (you can almost smell the VOCs) and at bottom is a picture after the ice breaker comes through. The new runway for McMurdo is called Williams Field (aka Willie Field) and is located on Ross Island.

Bad Weather and More Test Flights

Today the weather was overcast and windy (i.e., cold) in McMurdo, but it was the bad weather on the Plateau that canceled the Twin Otter flight to the South Pole. Photo on the left shows how grey it is out there this evening. So today we did two test flight around McMurdo as a chance to look at a problem with the OH instrument. It is a strange problem that only occurs on the airplane at the higher altitudes. This also provided an opportunity for our Teacher from Atlanta (Mike P.) to get a ride on the Otter. Here is a picture of Jason, the Twin Otter mechanic that keeps the plane flying and also helped us install all the instruments and probes on the aircraft. These guys spend a lot of time away from home, so it has got to be tough for them. The other two photos below were from yesterday (30 Nov) when we flew across the mouth of the Byrd glacier looking for outflow. This was a good science flight. The winds were a bit lighter than forecast, but we still measured elevated levels of NO (in the newly fixed NO instrument). It was good to get some data again after a few days down. Now we have to try and fly almost every day to get in all the flights. It will be tough, but hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and the Ottter will make it to the South Pole. In which case we will fly one local flight and then (after a crew rest day) fly back to McMurdo on Monday or Tuesday. While this is going on, I will be at Happy Camper School learning how to camp in the snow and how to light a camp stove and use an emergency radio. Sounds kind of silly, but this is required before you can fly on the Twin Otter. Since Otter will by flying in some remote regions. If aircraft has some problems and needs to land out in the middle of nowhere. It is good if everyone has had the proper training on what to do in an emergency and how to set up camp, cook, and call for help on the radio. yesterday on the way back from the Byrd glacier the Otter overflew the Mt. Erebus volcano again. Here is a photo of some steam coming out of the top. No surprisingly, there was quite a bit of SO2 in this plume. Since I will be out on the ice (camping) tomorrow night, Andreas is going to try to write a guest blog tomorrow. Pleas feel free to email me any questions. Take care. Barry

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.