A day in the life of a McMurdo scientist

A lot of people have been asking me what I've been doing since I got to McMurdo, so I thought I would try to describe our typical work day. After arriving on the Ice, the first week or so is filled with training, collecting gear, and prepping equipment. This is usually a very busy time, but it is one that is tough to describe. So here is a "typical" day in the life of a McMurdo scientist.

My alarm usually goes off pretty early - sometime between 5:15 am and 6:30 am. I usually start the day by giving my email a quick check. Depending on the day, I might give Tom and Emma a quick call (5:30 am for me is 11:30 am for them, so this is convenient) or take a shower (we are asked to limit our showers to 4 times per week, so I do not take a shower every morning). After this, I head over to breakfast. Breakfast is served until 7:30, so I usually try to get there by 7:00.

 My corner of the dorm room

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals (this is true whether I am in McMurdo or at home). In McMurdo, I usually get in line to get a fried egg. In McMurdo, fried eggs are made with fresh eggs instead of "liquid" egg (I'm still not sure what that means). In a place where most of our food has been frozen, canned, or dehydrated, a fresh egg is really exciting. Depending on what is available, I'll add either fruit (canned or, if we're lucky, fresh), hash browns, or bacon. And of course, I can't make it through the day without a cup or two of coffee.

 My typical McMurdo breakfast

After eating breakfast, I head over to the lab. Our lab is located in Crary, which is the science building in McMurdo. In the lab, I check my email and then start on the tasks for the day.

Crary - the science building in McMurdo

Today's morning task was to test all of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that we will fly at Tall Tower. I have not done this before, so John walked me through the process. I must say, the UAV and software seem pretty slick. I am excited to see these planes in action.

Me in the lab with the UAV

I am still amazed that a plane so small can give us so much information about the atmosphere. This plane will measure the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and pressure. Surprisingly, with this information we can learn quite a bit about the lowest layer of the atmosphere (the layer that we live in and that most of our weather occurs in).

Once the UAVs were tested, we went to lunch. The galley has implemented a new system this season - 24 hour pizza. This is useful for two reasons. The first reason being that if you miss a meal, you don't need to go hungry. In the past, if you got in late from the field, you had to wait until breakfast to eat. The second reason 24 hour pizza is great is that sometimes you just don't like what is being served. Let's just say, I had pizza at lunch today.

After lunch, we had snow mobile training. See my previous post about this (we saw a penguin!).

Snow mobiles on the Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Once we got back from snow mobile training, it was time for dinner. I chose the vegetarian option for dinner tonight. It was a garbanzo bean patty with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. I washed this down with a nice cup of hot cocoa for dessert.

After dinner, we usually head back to the lab. If we are really busy with work, we'll work for a few more hours. On more chill nights, I'll blog, catch up on email, go for a hike around McMurdo, read a book, etc. After which, it is time for bed. So there you have it, a day in the life of a McMurdo scientist.

First Penguin of the Season

It happened, I saw my first penguin of the season!

 

 A molting emperor penguin

This afternoon, our group (myself, John, Dave and Lee) had snowmobile training. This consisted of two sessions. The first session was held indoors. The instructor covered basic maintenance and repair of the snow mobile. This is important for field work. If something on the snow mobile breaks while we are in the field, we are the only mechanics available to do the repairs. Following the indoor session, we went outside for a hands on session. We started by doing a walk around of the machine. This includes checking that all of the bolts are tight, the springs are in working condition, nothing is leaking under the hood, and making sure the skis are not frozen to the ground. After the walk around was complete, I started up my machine and we went for a ride. We were on the snow road for most of the riding, but also did a little off-roading at the Long Term Balloon launching facility. At the launching facility there were a lot of snow drifts, which were great obstacles and made for some fun riding. On the ride back, we spotted an emperor penguin on the side of the snow road. We stopped to check it out and get some photos. This was definitely the highlight of my day.

Emperor penguin on the Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Me with an emperor penguin

 

McMurdo

We made it out of Christchurch on our next try - Saturday January 4th! The shuttle picked us up from the hotel at 6:30 am and we traveled to the CDC. At the CDC I repacked my gear, merging the gear I brought from home with the gear that was issued to me. Then I traveled next door to check in for the flight.

Even though this flight is run through the US Air Guard, the check in process is fairly similar to the process at a regular airport. I had to show my passport and get a boarding pass. The boarding pass is not a typical boarding pass. Instead, it is a laminated number attached to a chain that is worn around your neck until you board the plane. The luggage process includes verifying that your carry on bag meets the dimension restrictions (a testing box is provided for this), that your checked luggage is below the weight restrictions (a total of 150 lbs), and that you have not packed anything hazardous in your checked baggage. The main difference is that you do not need to remove your shoes when you walk through the metal detector.

After we were checked in, we watched a safety video and took a shuttle bus to the tarmac. The LC130 was awaiting our arrival. 

LC130 on the tarmac in New Zealand

I think this plane is cool because it has a combination of wheels and skis. Obviously, the wheels are used while the plane is in New Zealand and the skis are used while the plane is in Antarctica.

When we boarded the flight, I was the second to last person to board the plane. Somehow, I was still lucky enough to score a seat directly in front of a window. Being located near a window is key to looking at the beautiful Antarctic scenery during the flight.

Me on the LC130 on my way to Antarctica - check out the window behind me

Our flight was pretty uneventful (just the way I like my flights). We left around 9:30 am and arrived around 5:30 pm. Here are a few pictures from along the way.

You can see a chain of mountains in the background. I assume this must be an island, since we saw it long before the mainland.

 

Open ocean water in the foreground, sea ice in the middle, and our first glimpse of Antarctica in the upper left corner.

The scenery over the continent is just incredible.

The picture below was taken just prior to landing. The black dots in the center, right of the picture are the Pegasus airfield, or the airport. The "stripe" through the center of the picture is the runway. The landing for this flight was incredibly smooth and I'm guessing it should be credited to a combination of a great pilot, the LC130 skis, and a nicely groomed runway.

 

 It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 40's (about 60 degrees warmer than Maine, where Tom and Emma were located).

Mt. Erebus is in the background. It is the southernmost active volcano.

LC130 on the Ice

 Me on the Ice

Due to the warm temperatures, the snow road was quite bumpy, which made for an interesting ride into town. A bunch of us loaded up in a 15 passenger van and I'll just say that it was quite a wild ride. 

We made it to town, went through welcome training, got our room assignments, picked up our luggage, and grabbed dinner. I feel very fortunate to call that a good day at work. I hope you're all doing well back home.

Traveling to Antarctica

I commonly get asked, "how long does it take to get to Antarctica?" This is a difficult question to answer, because we do not travel directly from the US to Antarctica. Instead, we fly commercial from the US to Christchurch, NZ and then we fly with the US Air Guard from Christchurch, NZ to McMurdo, Antarctica. To give you a better idea of what this involves, let's take a look at my travels for this trip.

Tom (my husband), Emma (my daughter), and I were fortunate enough to spend some quality time with our families during the holiday season. Therefore, my trip started in Portland, ME on December 30, 2013. I woke up at 6:00 am to get a shower, eat breakfast, put my bags in the car, and get Emma ready for the trip to the airport. There was about a foot of fresh snow on the ground, which was really pretty. Although, it made for an interesting trip out of my in-laws long dirt driveway. Let's just say, it involved Tom digging a path through the snow-plowed bank. Fortunately, Tom is a fast shoveler, so by 8:00 am we were on the road.

We made it to the airport by 9:30 am. I checked in and said goodby to Tom and Emma (which was the hardest thing I've ever had to do). Fortunately, I didn't have too much time to think about the fact that I wouldn't see them for 5 to 6 weeks because my flight from Portland, which was suppose to leave at 11:30 am, had been delayed until 5:02. My original flight itinerary was from Portland, ME to Philadelphia, PA to Los Angeles, CA to Sydney, Australia to Christchurch, NZ. Therefore, this delay would cause me to miss my connection in Philadelphia and the remainder of my flights to NZ.

At this point, I got in line to rebook my flight. Unfortunately, the gate agent had a difficult time rebooking my flight. At one point, the agent told me that she couldn't help me and it was more important for her to help the other passengers who were in line behind me (for your sake, I'll refrain from stating my reaction to this). Eventually, a very nice gate agent was able to get me on a direct flight from Boston, MA to Los Angeles that would allow me to catch my original flight from LA to Sydney. The airline paid for a taxi from Portland to Boston and I eventually left the east coast around 4:40 pm. 

My flights from Boston to LA to Sydney to Christchurch were all pretty straight forward. They mostly involved reading a book, watching movies, and trying to get some sleep. I eventually made it to Christchurch around 3:00 pm on January 1, 2014 (we crossed the dateline on the flight to Sydney). By the time I caught a shuttle and made it to the hotel, I had been traveling for a total of 38.5 hours. As you can imagine, I was in desperate need of a shower and a new set of clothes.

The following day, January 2nd, we went to the CDC to get our clothing for Antarctica. This includes large parkas, snow pants, large boots, etc. I spent the rest of the day picking up a few things for the trip and taking in the warmth and greenery around Christchurch.

We were scheduled to fly to Antarctica this morning (January 3rd). The shuttle was suppose to pick us up at 6:30 am, so I woke up at 5:00 am to get one more FaceTime session in with Tom and Emma. I got a call around 5:30 am that said our fight was delayed and our new shuttle time was 12:00 pm. About a half an hour later, I got another call that said our new shuttle time was 9:00 am. Therefore, I took a shower and got packed up. I check out of my room and grabbed a cup of coffee. Within 10 minutes, the front desk has received a call saying that our flight for today had been cancelled. I am not sure why our flight was cancelled, but my guess is that it has something to do with the strong, gusty winds in Christchurch. 

As you can see, it is very difficult to answer the question, "how long does it take to get to Antarctica?" We have been rescheduled for a 6:30 am shuttle pick up for tomorrow morning (January 4th). If all goes well, our plane (an LC130 - see pictures below) will leave Christchurch at 9:30 am and we will land in McMurdo sometime between 3:30 and 5:30 pm.

Since I promised you all a cool picture, I have attached two from my last trip. Hopefully, we'll make it to McMurdo tomorrow and I'll have some news ones to share with you all.

 LC130

Camping at the Central Transantarctic Mountain Field Camp

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! It's 2014 and time for me to head back to Antarctica.

I am heading down with the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) project that is run out of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of Colorado - Boulder. This is the same project that I worked on for both of my previous Antarctic trips. Our activities usually involve installing new stations and repairing existing stations. Although, this year, John (my boss) and I will be working on something a little different. We are planning to take atmospheric measurements using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the Tall Tower AWS. The Tall Tower AWS was installed during my last trip to Antarctica (http://melissaontheice.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/tall-tower.html) and is a 30 m tower with 6 levels of instruments. Tall Tower is located about 100 miles from McMurdo and is located along the South Pole traverse road (a snow "road" that is used to transport fuel from McMurdo to the South Pole). The plan is for John and I, along with a mountaineer and a scientist from New Zealand, to snow mobile out the South Pole traverse road to the Tall Tower AWS. We will camp there for two weeks, flying the UAVs to sample the evolution of the boundary layer. I am pretty excited for this trip. It will be my first time camping at a remote field camp in Antarctica and it should be an exiting adventure.

Wind Power in Antarctica

New Zealand's Scott Base Wind Turbines

I was talking to my Mom on the phone this morning and she inquired about the use of wind power in Antarctica, so I thought it would be a good topic for a blog post. There are currently three bases on the continent that have installed wind turbines. These include the New Zealand Scott Base, the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Station and the Australian Mawson Base. See the following links for information on each of these renewable energy programs.

http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/scott-base/ross-island-wind-energy

http://www.antarcticstation.org/station/zero_emission/

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/mawson/mawson-electrical-energy

From what I have heard, the New Zealand 3 turbine installation provides enough energy to power all of Scott Base and about 18% of the US McMurdo Station (the US and New Zealand programs share a lot of resources due to the close proximity of the two).

Castle Rock

Today Julien (he works on the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System Project - the model that I use for my disseration research) and I hiked up to Castle Rock. The hike is about a 6 mile round trip and leaves out of McMurdo. The goal of the hike was to reach the top of this rock.

Castle Rock - photo courtesy of Julien Nicolas

My first thought when I saw Castle Rock was that it belongs somewhere in Utah, not Ross Island, Antarctic. My second thought was "how are we ever going to get to the top of that?" Approaching the Rock did not give me much reassurance.


As we rounded the backside of the Rock we found a trail and the rope system that the McMurdo mountaineers have set up. We very carefully made our way to the top and were rewarded with some amazing views.

It was quite windy and cold at the top, so we did not stay long before heading back to McMurdo. Although, even though it was cold and windy, it felt great to get out of McMurdo and see something new.

Photo courtesy of Julien Nicolas