ARTEMIS

Crary Instrument Lab

The resources here to support science are really impressive. We’ve felt very well supported by the people and equipment available. One mundane example for which I happen to have a video is the instrument lab in the Crary building. The other day, we were re-mounting a mapping sonar in the Sunfish robot, and I needed to tap some threads that had been corroded. Richard, who runs the Crary instrument lab, got me set up with a tap set, compressed air, isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners, and oil in no time. Tapping threads is a pretty generic task, but we’ve had all kinds of obscure needs met quickly and easily at McMurdo Station.

Reporting by Peter Kimball

Hole Drilling at our Candidate Field Site

Great news! After a few days of severe weather and equipment problems, we were able to head out with the drillers and get an access hole drilled through the sea ice at our candidate field site. The drill rig is quite a site to see, with a 48″ auger at the business end, and a huge tracked Cat Challenger vehicle to tow the drill over the sea ice and move snow around at the site. Once we got to the site, it only took about half an hour for the drillers to create the access hole. Then, they used the Challenger to tow our fish hut over the hole, and berm snow around the sides of the fish hut to insulate the bottom opening.

We will be able to drop the qualifier, “candidate” if we can determine that the underside of the ice around the candidate site (especially at the nearby ice shelf transition) doesn’t present a hazard to vehicle operations. Sea ice forms in platelets on the underside of sea ice. The ice itself is cooled from above by the cold air coming off the continent. The seawater is much warmer, at about -1 C. The layer of water that touches the cold ice above freezes into platelets. Those platelets consolidate over time and thicken the sea ice. A layer of platelet ice thicker than the vehicle would present a freezing hazard. Consolidated platelet “spires” could also be hazardous.

Platelets are almost everywhere under the sea ice right now, but they are larger and more numerous at our candidate field site than at the fish hut we borrowed last Tuesday. When the drill was removed from the hole, it sucked a hole’s volume of seawater and platelets up onto the surface. The platelets are beautiful, but if we had our way, we’d probably choose to have fewer of them in the area.

The view back to McMurdo and Mt. Erebus from our site was spectacular as winds swept snow up the slopes of Hut Point Peninsula, and steam rose from the top of Mt. Erebus.

Winds sweep snow up the slopes of Hut Point Peninsula as we look back to McMurdo from the sea ice. (photo: Peter Kimball)

Reporting by Peter Kimball

Observation Hill

Our group hikes up Observation Hill towards Memorial Cross. (photo: Peter Kimball)

After we gave our lab tour this past Sunday, we hiked up Observation Hill at the south end of McMurdo Station. It was cold, but hiking in our full cold weather gear was a tricky thermal management situation. The snow will soon begin to melt from the dark volcanic rocks around McMurdo Station, and all of these views will look very different.

Sea ice in McMurdo Sound as seen from halfway up Observation Hill. (photo: Peter Kimball)

I spent some time at the top making use of the camera gear I schlepped up. Here are some views from the top:

Reporting by Peter Kimball

More Aurora Australis!

Aurora australis over Discovery Hut and sea ice in McMurdo Sound. (photo: Peter Kimball)

We were smiled upon with ANOTHER aurora event this past Saturday night. These aurora were just as amazing as the ones we saw last Tuesday night. A group of us went out to Hut Point and found ourselves giggling and wowing aloud as the beautiful display transpired. I wondered if I should make ANOTHER aurora post… YES!… and I’ll do it again if we’re lucky enough to see another display!

Once again, it was fiercely cold – wind chill below -55 C, according to the NASA building sensors. Even in our full gear, we were only able to stay outside for about an hour before we had to head in. Just inside the dorm, I took this picture of Josh in the last moment before my cold camera lens fogged up completely:

Josh – even happier than he is cold after viewing the aurora australis. (photo: Peter Kimball)

Reporting by Peter Kimball

The Beginnings of Field Site Setup

Justin and Josh disconnect our outhouse from our Pisten Bully out at our candidate field site. (photo: Peter Kimball)

A few of us went our to our first-choice candidate field site today. We’ll need to do some exploring under the ice with Sunfish before we can call it our “for sure” field site. The plan today was to watch the drillers put in a 48″ access hole, position a fish hut over the hole, and then deploy Sunfish. It was quite cold again today, though, and the drill couldn’t be started. So instead, we accomplished a small chore and dragged our outhouse out to the site. Our expedition’s string of amazing natural phenomena continued today with a beautiful sun dog.

After dropping off the outhouse, we went south of our field site to check on the status of a crack in the ice we saw there during site selection. It’s the tiniest thing on the surface, but it’s a bit scary under the snow. The crack is still small enough to be crossed by our Pisten Bullies, but wouldn’t be crossable (at this location) by snow machines. We’ll have to keep an eye on this when we start doing surface tracking of ARTEMIS later in the season.

Reporting by Peter Kimball