Transport Time

The C-17 flight from CHC to MCM has taken off. We received notice about our transport times. 1300. The flight will land around 1430 in McMurdo. With a turn around time of about 1 hr we might be leaving for  New Zealand around 1530. We can track the progress of the C-17 flight to Antarctica on the USAP site. Very cool!

Another Boomerang

It is departure day at the Pole. Everyone is anxious to leave. You settle in to station life quickly and adapt well to the daily routine at Pole. But once your departure day has come everyone is anxious to leave. We are watching the flight schedule, the departure times from MCM, as well as the estimated arrival times at Pole. The first flight to Pole is usually the PAX in/out (passenger in and out flight).
We go outside waiting for the plane to land.  Far in the distance we can see the plane appear in the sky. It is the reflection of the Sun that you first notice. The plane is a Hercules C-130. The propellers leave a white trail behind. We notice that the plane is still unusually high. Is it our perception? After a few more minutes it becomes clear that the plane is maintaining altitude. It turns, makes a loop over the airstrip and heads back into the direction it came from.
Communciation tells us that the skis didn't deploy. Mechanical problems. Like yesterday. We go inside and wait for the next flight.
Luckily another flight will be coming in later in the afternoon.
We end up leaving Pole in the afternoon, arriving at Pegasus airfield near MCM in the evening. With temperatures just below freezing it feels warm at MCM.

Transantarctic Traverse

Every year there are some groups traversing Antarctica. To deliver supplies and fuel to the stations around the continent, to test new vehicles and methods of transportation, or to push the limits of human endurance. This year a supply caravan went from McMurdo to the South Pole. The round trip takes about 5 weeks. Three weeks in (with fuel) and 2 weeks out. Snowcats and tractors are used to pull bladders of fuel. Bladders turn out to have much less resistance than fuel containers on skis or sleds. They plan to develop GPS-guided machines and robots that can make this traverse...

Unrestricted visibility

Today we have blue skies and unrestricted visibility. It is a clear day with -30 deg C (-44 with windchill).  It is amazing how far one can see.  The South Pole is a very flat and large place. STP, ICL, Viper, and the clean air lab now all appear so close to the station. I see for the first time how far the horizon extends behind these buildings. A seemingly endless desert of snow and ice.

It is tourist day. A plane with a handful of tourists just landed. They land on the same air strip next to the station but then taxi all the way to the Pole. I guess for about $40,000 per person you can expect to be "driven" all the way to the Pole.

Maps and Info on Antarctica

I just came across the website of the British Antarctic Survey. It is a great resource for maps and all sorts of info. Check it out: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk
For some useful fact sheets from the BAS see: http://neutrino.physics.wisc.edu/antarctica/

Boomerang

The new South Pole station let's you easily forget that you are at the end of the World. With good food, a gym, a science lab, conference rooms as well as game and video rooms you find here more facilities and amenities than in many other experimental locations I have worked at. But sometime Nature tells you that it is still in control down here. Everything depends on the weather cooperating and equipment not failing in the harsh conditions. 

Yesterday the satellite connection failed and we lost internet connection. There is nothing one can do about it. And there is  no coffee shop around the corner to help you get your webfix. You are just disconnected from the world. Life is confined to the events on the Station. While there is an Iridium link for emergency phone calls, on days like yesterday life on the station is quite isolated. 

Several flights were planned for yesterday. The first flight had to "boomerang" after it had flown 3hrs from McMurdo to the Pole. The landing skis didn't deploy. The plane circled for about 15 min above the Pole and then made a decision to return to MCM. On the Pegasus airfield at MCM the plan can use its wheels to land on the compressed and hardened runway.  

It's snowing at the South Pole

It is snowing at the Pole! - Usually the Pole is a very dry place. And most days the wind picks up ice crystals so that you have the impression of snow falling. Today we have whiteouts again and it just started snowing for real. A rare occasion for the Pole. The air warmed up. Moisture is coming from the Weddell Sea.

The weather here is dominated by either the cold clear air from the plateau (the East Grid, as they say) or the Wedell Sea. The plateau brings nice cold weather, the sea brings the clouds, whiteouts, and....snow.

We are scheduled to leave Pole tomorrow. We will have to watch the weather closely. The C-130 planes require at least 1km of visibility to land.