Frozen Daze

Flying the Gauntlet

2009-02-16T21:05:00.030-05:00

I made it back to Columbus around 1 AM Monday morning...here are the details between leaving McMurdo and getting back...

Wednesday 2/11

Transport to Pegasus airfield was set for 2:30, and we left a little after that since some schlub was late. Didn't really matter, since we just sat at the airfield for awhile. The plane was there (having arrived from Christchurch shortly before we got there), and they had to unload and then load cargo. he primary cargo was a helicopter. It was fun watching them load this into the plane. It was cold (15 F or so) and windy, and for some reason I stayed outside for the 90 minutes or so we waited. They have a small passenger terminal, and the transport vehicle (Ivan the Terra Bus) was also there, but I am a little picky about my seat on the plane, so I stayed outside. Here are some pictures from that:

It paid off, because I jumped the gun on loading the plane, as I saw a crew member in front of the plane radio the woman that was in charge of the passenger transport to the airfield, and her start to motion for people to board. I was the fourth one on the plane, and got the exact seat I wanted, last row of center seats on the aisle. On the C-17, there are seats along the side of the plane, similar to the C-130 (but more comfortable), and a bank of airline seats in the middle. Many people like the side seats for having a little more space and power outlets for laptops. I like the middle airline seats, they are comfortable, there's storage space underneath seats, and I like facing forward. Plus, with the back row, there is storage space underneath the seat in front of you and underneath you. The flight was just over 5 hours. As soon as the seat belt light was off, I lost the big white bunny boots and wind pants, and rode comfortably in street clothes. Really the only issue was that I was stuck next to a "polie" for the flight back. A polie is someone stationed at South Pole. Normally this is not an issue, but this year (I think) they started sending these people straight thru - a morning flight from South Pole to Pegasus, then out to Christchurch that afternoon. There are water restrictions at South Pole - two showers a week, and I'm not sure about laundry, but I'm guessing they have rules on that as well. The guy next to me stank like a sack of rotting garbage. You'd think they'd at least truck these people to McMurdo for a shower. Somehow I managed to not get sick from that.

Upon arriving at Christchurch, they trucked us to the international terminal to go through immigration and customs. We got in the same time as another flight...the polies must have been a ghastly sight and smell for the people off of that flight. After that, it was a short walk through the misty air to the CDC. The humidity felt great. In two ways, the CDC experience was much easier than last time. First, they don't inventory clothing anymore, you just dump everything in the center of the room. I had everything already separated, so this was really quick. I picked up my stored bag, and went to the shuttle. Last time, they had shuttles assigned, so I had to wait an hour for the other people to show up. This time, they just loaded up the shuttles and left. I got back to the hotel (Holiday Inn City Centre, same as inbound) just before 1 AM. The only place I could find open to eat was KFC, so I had that, then went back to the room to unpack and go to sleep.

Thursday 2/12

This day was a washout - 60 F, and rain all day. I saw this coming from looking at the forecasts the week before leaving McMurdo. I wasn't surprised - just like last time, bad weather followed me north. I slept until about 10:30 AM, went for a run at the hotel gym, showered, and took off. I made arrangements for a bike ride and advice on getting to the cricket and rugby matches at the info center at Cathedral Square. After that, I had lunch at Subway, went to buy the rugby ticket, then took the bus to a mall, Westfield Riccarton. Westfield must be a huge mall conglomerate - they have malls in the U.S. as well. It was okay - maybe 100 stores on one level. I got food from Wendy's - not the Wendy's chain I adore here in the U.S., but the same ice cream / hot dog chain that I had at a mall in Hobart a few years back. This one didn't have donuts, but the shake and hot dog were good. Similar to Dubai, the mall had a grocery store in it, so I got some fruit and soda there. I took the bus back around 4:30 PM, and after watching some TV, went to bed early since I was really tired for some reason.

Friday 2/13

Another crappy weather day - at least it didn't rain much (just some light rain early AM), but it was low 50's F, cloudy, and very windy. I had a late breakfast, then walked around some shops before my city bike tour. I did this last time, and decided to do it again on this trip. A tour guide takes the participants around to the city sights on bikes, along bike lanes, bike paths, and trails. It was pretty much the same route as last time with slight deviations. It was a different tour guide (the one last time runs the whole deal and just had a baby), this time being a young gentleman who was a college student. His parents were American - having emigrated to New Zealand during the Navy's Operation Deep Freeze. There were two other participants, a middle aged woman and an older man, both from England. The former kept putting her helmet on backwards, and the latter kept falling off of his bike. Here are some pictures from that:

After the bike tour, I stopped by the room briefly before taking the bus out to QEII park, where the cricket match was being held. I got their a little late, but still early in the match. This was really fun. I've been acquiring some knowledge of cricket over the past two years or so, just enough to have an idea what is going on. This was a match between two of the state league teams, Canterbury (the region Christchurch is located in) versus Wellington. There weren't a lot of people there, probably because of the crap weather. The seating area, save for a small corporate area, was all on a grass ridge surrounding the oval. What surprised me was the access the fans have to the players. Between bowls, fans would get signatures (autographs) from the fielders along the boundaries. At half time, they allowed people onto the field (just not the area around the wickets), where bowlers and fielders were warming up. I had a late lunch / early dinner of chips and beer (440 ml for NZ $2!). Here are some pictures from the game and half time:

I had to wait for the bus forever to get back to the city, and by the time I got back, most restaurants had quit serving dinner. I had a quick dinner at Burger King (having the mini donuts I liked from my last visit), then went to a bar for a few drinks before retiring for the night.

Saturday 2/14

The plan for this day was to take the bus out to Lyttelton harbour, then go to the rugby match early evening. Before and during the bus ride, it was raining. This bus went by the gondola, which I did last visit, when it rained the entire time and I couldn't see squat from up there. In a way it felt fitting that all of the tourists going there had the same experience. Lyttelton is small town that makes up Christchurch's sea port. I walked around a few blocks, then had a lunch of (meat) pie and ginger beer overlooking the harbor. After that I went the Timeball station. This was really interesting. It is in a small building that looks like a castle, perched on a hill overlooking the harbor:

The timeball was used in the late 1800's and early 1900's, dropped each day at 1 PM to allow captains to accurately set their chronometers. They still drop the ball most days at 1 PM, but GPS has long replaced chronometers and astronomical measuring techniques. Luckily, I happened to stumble up there just before 1 PM, so I got to see them drop the ball. Besides being a great view from up there, they offered a lot of history and knowledge about seafaring and time-keeping methods of the past.

After this, I took the bus back to the city, and then went to the room for a little while before going to the rugby match.

The stadium was about a 20 minute walk from my hotel. It cleared up on the way back to the city from Lyttelton, so it was a nice, cool walk. I got to the stadium plenty early, to get my free souvenir and to check out the stadium. This was a matchup between the Canterbury Crusaders and the Waikato Chiefs, part of the Super 14 competition. This league has teams in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Canterbury is a powerhouse in this league, having won seven titles in thirteen years, including last season. It was the opening weekend of the season for the teams. The stadium is undergoing a renovation. One entire side of the stadium was closed and under construction. The other three sections looked brand new or extensively renovated. I got there early enough to get my free foam sword, and to watch part of the match between the two development teams. After that, there were performances by the dance team and the NZ Army band, and the mascots, which were horsemen.

The game was alright, the Crusaders won, sending the fans home happy. I didn't understand the rules very well, but could follow what was generally going on.

I don't like rugby as much as American football or Australian rules football. It is slow save for a few exciting moments during the game. It doesn't have the constant motion and high-scoring of Aussie rules, nor the action of American football. And don't give me any of that no-pads crap...similar to Aussie rules, there are nowhere near the head-on and lined-up collisions like there are in American football. But these guys are tough, and great athletes. The Chiefs stayed at my hotel Friday and Saturday nights, and these guys are fit and strong.

The fans did not seem all that enthused. There is tremendous support for the team in the community, but it really didn't show at the game. There were many open seats upstairs and in the side sections, which seems strange for the defending champions' first game the next season (there was no ceremony, or even mention of that, during the match). Overall the fans were not that loud, which is not necessarily a knock, and doesn't mean that they don't care (e.g. some Canadian hockey fans). Another negative was that there were no team songs. But at least they had cheerleaders.

After the game I went back to the hotel, then to the Holy Grail, a sports bar, for dinner. This place is enormous, with a giant projection screen television airing rugby matches. A section was set aside for the Crusaders to have their post-match dinner later. After dinner I went back to the hotel to pack.

Sunday 2/15

I had a big breakfast buffet at the hotel, thenI did some last minute shopping, checked my email, and met Melissa at the Dux de Lux for lunch. She had toured most of the south island over the 8 days since leaving McMurdo. We exchanged New Zealand travel experiences before returning to our respective accommodations to check out and catch airport shuttles. I left for the airport at 1:30 PM local time (7:30 PM Saturday U.S. EST). I checked in at the Qantas desk, walked up to the observation deck to watch planes and enjoy the warm sunshine, before going to the departure gate. There I met up with Melissa again, and also Natalie, an Ohio State graduate student who works in the same building as me with another group. I've known her since arriving at OSU, and was part of the small group that I would swim with last year. She was at WAIS Divide camp since November, then spent two weeks in New Zealand. It was nice being on the same flights as her. The flight to Auckland left at 4:00 PM, just over an hour. In Auckland we walked to the international terminal (even warmer there, probably mid-70's F) and had dinner at the food court. The flight to Los Angeles was packed on the 747-400, mainly due to a returning cruise ship. I was lucky to get an aisle exit row seat on that. It had the advantages of unlimited leg room and not having to get up for anyone else. The disadvantages were the lack of a seat pocket and the hordes of geriatric cruise ship goers that waited in front of and next to me for the lavatory after each meal. Overall, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages for me, considering that I am tall and don't sleep on planes much anyways (maybe an hour on this one). Upon arrival in Los Angeles, I got through immigration X-tremely quickly, then changed clothes while waiting for my bags. Both bags then arrived quickly, I said goodbye to Melissa, then went through customs (again very fast) after switching out some clothes between bags. I just had to walk upstairs and through another security gauntlet before getting to the American Airlines terminal. I had lunch at BK with Natalie before our next flights (she had one to Dallas about 45 minutes before mine). Mine was late and they had to switch planes, but we both made the connecting flight to Columbus, getting in around midnight. I got to my apartment around 1 AM, getting takeout at Wendy's on the way back.

Life is getting back to normal for me. That is it for this blog, hope you enjoyed it.

Northbound

2009-02-10T19:26:00.002-05:00

I should be leaving soon...my transport to the airfield is at 2:30 PM (an hour from now). There are some low clouds moving in, but it looks like it should be okay for the flight - it is already on the way. It's almost an hour out to the airfield, then it'll probably be at least an hour wait there while they unload the plane and get us on. Then a 5 hour flight back to Christchurch. With customs, returning clothing to the CDC, and a shuttle to the hotel, it will probably be midnight-ish before I'm back and settled for the night. I have three days in Christchurch...tomorrow looks like a washout, so I will get my plans together for the following two days, and maybe go to a mall or something. Friday I'd like to get to a cricket match, then a rugby match on Saturday. Then I leave for the U.S. Sunday afternoon, getting back late Sunday night. The same route on the way back - CHC to AKL to LAX to DFW to CMH.

I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have in New Zealand. I'll try to check in on here, but a total recap may wait until next week.

Build Ford Rock and Up, Up, and Away

2009-02-09T07:22:00.017-05:00

My time here at McMurdo is winding down. It's currently early Tuesday morning, and I should be leaving Wednesday afternoon. I'm currently doing laundry so I have a full compliment of clean clothes for the rest of the trip. Later today (after sleeping) I have to clean my room, as I have a room inspection at 3:oo PM. Rooms need to be cleaned to specifications before leaving. If one is an employee of Raytheon or a contractor, bonuses can be revoked. With grantees, some kind of repercussion comes as the PI is notified. Whatever, I generally enjoy cleaning so I have no problem working on that tomorrow, the room doesn't need that much attention anyways. Then at 8:30 PM, I have to "bag drag." This involves taking my checked luggage, carry-on luggage, and ECW gear (basically everything) up to the MCC (movement control center) to have it weighed for the flight. I'll have to turn in my checked luggage so it can be palletized in preparation for the flight the next day. It just requires some careful packing of the carry on luggage. Luckily I will be on a C-17 for the trip back, instead of the C-130. I was on a C-17 both ways back in 2006, and it is luxurious compared to the C-130, plus three hours less travel time. There are 70 people listed on the manifest, which is much lower than the 116 and 125 that went on the last two flights. I am one of the few NSF people on the manifest, most are employees clearing out for the season. Most of the other science people have already left. The station closes for the summer season on February 23rd. It has been feeling like winter the past several days. Temperatures have been struggling to get to 20 F, the wind has picked up, and it's getting darker at "night."

On to the subjects of this post. First, my trip to Ford Rock last Saturday. One of the forecasters, Trish, has been trying to set me up on the trip with the met. techs to this AWS site. This is not a Wisconsin AWS site, rather this is one of the sites run by SPAWAR, the group that handles the weather forecasting and other logistical operations here. They are in some way affiliated with the Navy. It's not competition or anything, the AWS's are in different location and have different uses. All of the data is shared, and all of it archived on the AMRC's website. Anyways, we had a nice morning for the hour or so ride out there in a truck with tracked wheels. For those of you familiar with the area (a few of you), it's just past Castle Rock up the peninsula. It was quite blustery and cold up there. The two techs had to swap out a temperature sensor, so they worked on that while me and one of the observers also along for the ride took pictures of each other and the scenery. It was high enough and away from other terrain features so that we could see the open water to the north, and the mountains along McMurdo Sound. To the south, it's snow and ice as far as one can see, blending into the sky. It's also a closer picture to Mt. Erebus. Here are some pictures from that morning: to the east, the open water to the north, back towards McMurdo, and me in front of Mt. Erebus:

The time out there was under an hour, then we rode back to McMurdo. Another nice junket out of town for a few hours.

Then on Sunday, I went with the observer on duty (Carol) to launch a weather balloon. These are launched everywhere at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC every day. At McMurdo we are on NZDT, which is UTC+13, so 1 PM and 1 AM (actually a little earlier, the data should be in about that time). They moved the location of the launch, and we had to drive over there. Here are some pictures from the setup and launch of the balloon:

Sunday was my birthday, so I got to launch a weather balloon on my birthday! Here is the skew-t of the sounding:

Additionally, the launch area is down by the ice pier, so I got good shots of the winter resupply ship, M/V American Tern, and the icebreaker Oden leaving port to clear the channel. The ships left earlier today.

Along With Shelley (AWS) and Melissa

2009-02-07T04:40:00.014-05:00

I finally got out into the field on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, with the folks that run the automatic weather station (AWS) project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2006, I was here in December, and totally missed seeing their group here, since they came in January 2007. When I arrived, there were four of them here working on that project. Matt is the PI of much of the work they do there, and I've known him since soon after I started graduate school (although not before, when I had classes in the same building). Shelley currently works there...she was a year ahead of me in the UW AOS program, although I did not know her well until I got into this Antarctic stuff. John is a professor at the University of Colorado, and has been involved in Antarctic research for many years. One of his students, Melissa, was along as well, and I had met her at the Antarctic meteorology meeting last year in Madison. Matt left the first weekend I was here, and John later that week. Shelley and Melissa were also out to WAIS Divide during my first full week here. They said they would try to get me out somewhere with them this week.

Last Monday, they tried to get me on the flight with them to service Sabrina and Lettau AWS sites. These are on the southern end of the ice shelf, and would have been really cool to go to. However, the flight people never got the email from Shelley, and for reasons I'm not sure of, they wouldn't let me go along. Bummer. At least the girls tried for me. But they still had to service two local stations at Williams and Pegasus airfields, which were short truck drives away. On Wednesday evening all three of us went out to Pegasus North AWS. The drive there was almost an hour, even though it's only a few miles from McMurdo (this is the same airfield that I arrived at). The main work there was to swap out the antenna. I can't remember if there was anything else, I was having fun playing in the snow. It didn't take too long, then we headed back into town. Here are a few photos from that excursion, with the sky, Melissa (ground) and Shelley (tower), and me:

The plan for Thursday was for me to go to Williams Field with Melissa while Shelley stayed back and worked on packing things up (they were leaving on Friday). Thursday morning, a return visit to Pegasus North was added to the itinerary, to change the electronics box. We went to Williams Field first that morning. Melissa was driving the truck, and upon arrival, pulled the truck just past the flags that line the snow/ice road. The leading front tire got buried in some soft snow, and after only a few revs, it was stuck. We had no shovel along, and it was pretty deep. We waited for a vehicle to pass by (weather observers ironically), and they radioed for assistance for us. One of the big tractors they use to groom the runways came by. She was really helpful and dragged the truck out. Overall not a big deal, probably something that happens fairly frequently. At the site, we installed a new aerovane and acoustic depth gauge. However, the new antenna was forgotten in the lab, so we made a return trip to Williams Field early that afternoon after lunch. Between that, we went back to Pegasus. There was a sharp difference in weather between the two sites, only a few miles apart. Williams Field was sunny and dry, whereas Pegasus was more exposed to the McMurdo Sound and was cool, dark, and windy. Here are pictures from Williams Field: looking out towards Pegasus, Melissa up on the tower, and my photo ops from each site that day:

On Friday, Shelley and Melissa were supposed to leave. However, the flight was cancelled Thursday evening due to mechanical issues. In its place they scheduled a LC-130 flight going north to Christchurch, for a medevac. Roughly 30 of the 116 on the original C-17 manifest were put on the LC-130 flight. Shelley was on it, but Melissa was not. So Shelley left Friday morning, and Melissa and I went back to Pegasus again to try to fix some wiring inside the electronics box, I think to the wind speed sensor. It was cold and blustery, at least compared to the lollipop weather we had been having. That went pretty quick, and we were easily back for dinner. Here's a picture Melissa took of me there:

It's really quite an operation to handle everything from the construction of all of these instruments and the associated equipment, shipping it here, dealing with the hassles of getting to these sites (LOTS of flight delays), and taking care of or mitigating any unforeseen issues that come up along the way. I'm not sure I could handle what they did, especially Shelley and Melissa, who have been here since New Years. It was a lot of fun getting to go along with them...I never get to do anything this "hands on" in my work. I hope I was of some help, and glad I didn't sabotage their efforts with my clumsiness!

Melissa is still here, as the flight today was cancelled due to X-treme turbulence south of New Zealand. We'll see if it goes tomorrow...I always have some insight on the pending flight decisions, being in the forecast office most of the day. If things keep getting pushed back, my return might be as well! Next post will be about another excursion I had with some of the met techs here to Ford Rock.

Discovery Hut and Ob Hill Loop

2009-02-05T01:31:00.015-05:00

It's hard to believe I've been here for two weeks now. It's been a good stay overall. I've gotten around the laptop issues at the weather office. Last night my ethernet connection mysteriously worked, and still does, at the forecast office with a different cable. I'm going to try that cable in my room tonight. My sinuses are finally getting back to normal...I think it is the X-tremely dry air here that sets them off. Last night the wind shifted to northwesterly (really for the first time this trip), which brings in much moister air, as there is open water not too far north of here. Much to my dismay I got a new roommate last Monday night...after the previous one moved out last week Friday I assumed with this place clearing out that I would not get another one. However there are a lot of "transit" passengers through McMurdo these days, with the outlying camps closing down. He seems like a nice guy, and might be out of here on Friday. The big cargo ship American Tern arrived in port on Tuesday morning, with winter supplies. There are a lot of Navy cargo handlers at the base these days working on that. While the ship is in port, the station store has drastically reduced hours, alcohol sales there are halted, and the bars are closed.

Here are some pictures and descriptions of two short excursions I went on last week. Last Wednesday night I took a tour of the Discovery Hut, which is maybe a mile from McMurdo on Hut Point. This structure was built in 1901 by Scott’s Discovery expedition, and used later by Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, and two of Shackleton’s expeditions. The Americans dug it out in the late 1950’s when they built McMurdo. It was originally built in Australia. Over the years it has been pillaged, and now is locked and only opened for tours like the one I went on. Even with the age and vandalism, it is extremely well preserved. The first sight (and smell) when one walks inside is a rotting seal, left over from one of the expeditions. With the perennially cold temperatures, it is somewhat preserved, although it was a bit “thawed”, to put it nicely, when I was in there, as it had been above freezing for several days in January. This building was mainly used for storage and rendezvous, especially with the later expeditions, so it is mainly filled with supplies. Here are some pictures from inside:

Then, last Friday night (actually Saturday morning, it was around 2 AM), I did the Ob Hill loop trail. There are several trails around the base, and like Hut Point, this is one I never did last time for some reason. It goes around Observation Hill, which I climbed last time, and is only a couple miles long. It is quite blustery on the southward-facing portion on the first half of the trail. But after I rounded the peninsula point, I was sheltered and it was much more comfortable. It’s a great view southward of White Island, Black Island, Minna Bluff, and the associated cloud formations. The trail ends on the road between McMurdo and Scott Base, so I just walked back to McMurdo, watching the night crews at work. Here are some pictures from that:

On the next post I will have some pictures of my field trips to automatic weather stations at Pegasus and Williams airfields.

Life on the ice: Part II

2009-02-01T00:15:00.008-05:00

Note: Picture upload isn't working, so I'll wait on posting those.

Work

I am here under auspices of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) project. AMPS is a real-time computer model used by the U.S. Antarctic Program in support of their flight, ship, and field operations. It uses the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for its computations, which is a popular choice for regional applications in the meteorology community. The version used in AMPS has been optimized for polar conditions by some of the other folks in my advisors research group, both past and present.

My purpose here is to work with the forecasters to find out how well AMPS has performed this field season. This is the first season that WRF is used within the AMPS framework, so we are especially interested in what the forecasters have seen. I follow the model forecasts (they come out twice a day) along with the satellite imagery and other observations to gauge how the model is doing for various weather situations. Then I discuss those situations with the forecasters, and often that jogs their memories about a similar situation with the model earlier in the season. I also take any suggestions as far as any additional products they would like to see produced for the operational forecasts, but those will be redirected to the folks that handle the actual production of the model runs (NCAR in Boulder). I am also keeping up with my normal work from back home while I am here, as the work specific to here does not take up all of my time.

I get a lot out of just discussing the weather with the forecasters. Most of them are seasoned forecasters in the Antarctic and have a lot of knowledge of and experience with the weather patterns and other features local to this area. They are much better at interpreting how certain weather pattern will develop, and how to interpret satellite imagery, than I am. In my work I easily get out of the mindset of following the day-to-day weather, so it’s a good jolt of practical application for me. There are four forecasters here right now, and three of them work four 12 hour shifts on, then two days off. One of them works 8-9 hours every day as the briefing forecasters – preparing most of the briefs for the morning flights. Several other forecasters work remotely in Charleston, SC. In addition, there are several weather observers who work at the airfields and at the weather office, handling observations and launching weather balloons. One forecaster and one observer will stay for the winter. Most if not all of the forecasters and observers are ex-military or currently in the reserves, and have served all over the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Bahrain, Korea, among other places).

The computer issues that have been dogging me...I arrived late Thursday 1/22, and everything was fine on Friday. On Saturday, I woke up and could not connect to the wired internet from my room. I thought it was the network, so I waited until after my happy camper refresher to try again. Still no luck, so I contacted the IT guys here. After a bunch of troubleshooting, we narrowed down the problem to the ethernet card in my laptop. Now, normally this would not be a huge deal, but a) the office I am working in does not have wireless access, neither does my room, and b) no one has a USB ethernet adapter. So, the techs gave me an old (I mean old, I nicknamed it "box of rocks") laptop that I can use for network connection. Unfortunately, it cannot run the Java required for our model forecasts (at least not well, I don't feel like dragging it through extensive updates), so I sit at the UW AMRC computer for that. Kind of annoying, especially having to shuttle data back and forth. But at least I have a work-around in place. The broken ethernet card could have been a result of a couple things...back in December we had a bad ice storm in Columbus, and I fell down with my laptop strapped on my shoulder, and dinged it up pretty bad. However, the wired ethernet did work during the time period up until I left. It may have been loose and then eventually broke with the jostling on the plane. Static electricity is another possible cause - it's a big problem with electronics, more so at South Pole, but it is extremely dry here as well.

Activities

There are a wide range of activities to keep oneself occupied outside of work. I have been trying to do some running while I am here, although sinus problems have cut into that a bit. There is a building with several treadmills and other cardio machines in it. There is a building with weights and also a bowling alley, but that building has been closed most of the season due to structural issues. There are two bars, one smoking and one non-smoking. Several of the higher-ups in the operations side were in from Charleston last week, and there was a party with brats and burgers at the smoking bar. Being in there was a bit of a shock, as I’m used to the public smoking ban back home. The recreation department always has activities going on, such as the tour of the Discovery Hut that I went on last week (more on that in the next post). There are several trails around the outskirts of the base that are open weather permitting. Last visit I did the Ob Hill hike…last Friday evening I walked the trail around Ob Hill.

New Zealand’s Scott Base is only a few miles down the road, and yesterday I went to visit their station store. The also have an “American Night” at their bar on Thursday nights. There is a church here (Chapel of the Snows), and I went to their Protestant service this morning. On the weather end of things, I’m hoping I can help launch a weather balloon again sometime this week. I had to attend two meetings, both the first Saturday I was here. The first was for recreational travel, which was just a brief video. The second was a refresher course of “happy camper school”, which I first took back in 2006. It was about three hours, and all indoors. I barely remembered anything. I learned that I can’t tie knots, and overall, I would probably be borderline useless in a survival situation.

Life on the ice: Part I

2009-01-29T23:56:00.012-05:00

McMurdo from the sea...

So I’ve been here for over a week now, and have adjusted to life here at McMurdo. Outside of some computing issues (more on that in the next post) and sinus problems, my stay has been uneventful. The weather has been beautiful – there were a few cloudy days earlier this week, but otherwise sunny and low 30’s during the day, and sunny and low 20’s at night. The sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day, but there is a small diurnal cycle, and the sun angle lowers a bit at night. I think that “dusk” conditions begin to appear in late February before the dark winter begins to set in around late April. This docile weather is nice for outdoor activities and just everyday life here, but boring for me. There’s a hint of something in the forecast models on Sunday and Monday, but it’s a little early to have a good idea on that. There was some atmospheric wave activity over the terrain features south of here the other night:

The horizontal line of clear skies is the descending air on the lee side of Minna Bluff. It’s exciting for me to see something like this in person, that I’ve seen on satellite imagery from home many times.

Enough about weather (for the most part)…below are some details about my time here so far.

Accommodations

There are several dorm buildings here, with several categories of comfort. I am in 203c this year, which is slightly different than 208, which I was in back in 2006. In 208 I had one roommate until he moved out about 10 days into my stay, and we shared a bathroom with another room. There was a TV and mini fridge. Here, I also have one roommate, but there is a communal bathroom for the floor, a mini fridge, but no TV. It’s slightly smaller as well. It seems to be the place where they are putting many of the short-timers and non-PI science people. It’s not too bad. I really haven’t watched much TV, I’ve been reading instead, which is probably good. I just met my roommate two days ago, as he was in the field for all but three nights. He is manager of the ice core drilling group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He went north today, so there’s a good chance I will have the room to myself for the rest of my stay. The base is clearing out, as the field season is wrapping up and the place closes for the winter in under a month. At peak this season there were about 950 people, down from the nearly 1200 there have been for some seasons. Only about 150 people remain for the winter. Here are two pictures of the room:

Food

Food is one of the major topics of conversation here. There are four meals here – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and “mid-rats”. Mid-rats is midnight rations. It is only available from 12:00-12:30 AM for those that work night shifts. The next half hour is open game. My hours here are approximately 1 PM to 1 AM, so I can stay out of the way of morning flight briefings in the weather office. So lunch is my breakfast, dinner is my lunch, and mid-rats my dinner. Sometimes they check ID cards at mid-rats, but I just go with the weather office employees and it’s no problem.

The conversation tends to drift towards the negative end of things. That is, if there’s a good meal, it’s not really mentioned, but people don’t hesitate to bitch about a bad one. Then the conversation turns to how people would prepare something similar themselves, or some variation of it they really like. Now, I can see this from those that have been here all season. After several rotations of the same meals, it might get old pretty quick. I think it’s the lack of choice that gets to people. Personally, I absolutely love it here. First of all, it is FREE. This is saving me several hundreds of dollars for the time I am here. You can have as much as you want – just take what you eat, and eat what you take. And I don’t have to make it or do dishes afterwards. Just show up, like pigs at a trough. Second, the desserts are fantastic. This is a widely accepted opinion, even from the seasoned personnel here. Cheesecake, pies, cookies, on down the line. Delicious. Plus, there is a soft-serve ice cream machine (“Frosty Boy”), which I have probably frequented too much for my own health. Toppings are also available.

The mains tend to center around whole foods (a lot of chicken, to the disgrace of some), and at least to short-timers like me, there’s enough rotation. There is always some kind of bread, a wide variety of fruit, and fresh vegetables as long as the planes are flying between here and Christchurch. There is also a sandwich line. There is no soda in the dining hall (only for purchase from the station store), but a wide variety of juice. The only knock might be the lack of actual milk (it’s powdered).

I can’t get over some of the quality of food they get down here. Earlier this week we had cherries. Those are what, like $6 per pound back home, and only seasonal in early summer? And one night they had tenderloin cutlets, cooked perfectly (light red to pink on the inside). I never buy that back home because it is so expensive. Sunday brunch is usually amazing, with a wide selection of pastries. I am already looking forward to surf and turf (shrimp and prime rib) on Sunday…I remember that meal fondly from last time.

Check in next time for details of my work and other activities going on here…

Who closed Wolski's?

2009-01-28T05:44:00.004-05:00

I'll try to get some new material up tomorrow...but not a lot going on.

Anyone from Milwaukee will recognize the top center bumper sticker in this photo. This was in the delta vehicle that transported me from Pegasus airfield to McMurdo. I had seen this last time as well.

Chasing the sun

2009-01-26T00:52:00.017-05:00

I made it to McMurdo! Here is a somewhat delayed report on my trip here (I had to pay for internet in New Zealand, and have been tired/busy so far at McMurdo). I actually wrote this post last (my) Friday, but had the "perfect storm" of laptop issues that have interferred with my network access. I have a work-around, but it's definitely less than ideal.

I left Sunday afternoon from Columbus on American Airlines to Dallas-Ft. Worth. The flight was late arriving, and then was delayed more because they had to de-ice the plane since it was snowing. There must have been some wiggle room because it only arrived 15 minutes late, despite us leaving 45 minutes late. It was a nice flight though, I had an exit row seat on the MD-80. Anyways, I had a turnaround of 25 minutes in DFW where I also needed to change terminals. After consulting with a pilot next to me on the best way to get to the next gate, I hustled to their inter-terminal train, and got to the gate during final boarding for my flight to Los Angeles. I figured there’s no way my luggage was going to make it. I had a few hours in LAX, where I had dinner at Chili’s and just walked around to stay loose. The flight from Los Angeles to Auckland on a Qantas 747-400 was packed. It’s the travel season to New Zealand, plus this flight continued on to Melbourne, where the Australian Open is going on, so I’m not sure if that had something to do with it. I got stuck with a middle seat, but next to two not-large ladies. I actually managed to get 3-4 hours sleep on the 12-hour flight, better than usual for me. In between periods of sleep I watched episodes of Family Guy, The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, 2008 British Open golf highlights, and a show about the best Australian Rules Football (footy) Grand Finals on the personal entertainment system.

Upon arriving in Auckland, I cleared immigration, and went to baggage claim. Both of my bags made it! Unbelievable. Thanks go to DFW baggage handlers on that one. New Zealand customs has sniffing dogs, not only for drugs but mainly for food products. They are very strict on what they allow in. The best plan is to throw away any food before, to avoid being questioned when the dog starts pawing at your bag. The dogs are cute looking beagles, or some kind of mix thereof. I wanted to pet one of them but decided against it. I cleared biosecurity, and was set loose in the terminal. After waiting a little while at the domestic transfer desk to re-check my luggage, I found the shower facilities that I read about on the airport website. I went to the florist to check out a shower, rent a towel, and get soap. That shower was glorious. Combined with a total change of clothes, it was so nice to remove the stench and gross feeling of an overnight flight. After that I had a McDonalds breakfast, than made the hike to the domestic terminal. The flight to Christchurch was about an hour, which I had a window seat for. The scenery over the southern portion of the north island is spectacular.

In Christchurch, USAP no longer has meet-and-great, but there was a shuttle waiting for me and some other folks for transport to city hotels. We were soon on our way. I was at the Holiday Inn City Centre. It’s in the midst of the Christchurch CBD retail area. They had a room ready for me at 11:30 AM, which was an improvement over last year. I got settled, then took off for Cathedral Square to get a fish and chips lunch, get a calling card, and check my email. I also filled up my bus pass and got some groceries. I got back to the room at 2:30 PM, and laid down for what I thought would be a brief nap before dinner. Instead, I ended up sleeping until 11:00 PM! At that time, I got undressed and took my contacts out (my eyes were burning), then slept for another 6 hours. Wednesday was great. I started it with a run at the hotel gym while watching the Dukes of Hazzard on TV. Then I had a massive breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant, taking down three full plates of food and two bowls of cereal. After some quick shopping, I took the bus out to the Antarctic Centre near the airport, where the CDC (clothing distribution center) is. We had a 1:00 PM briefing and clothes fitting there. I also got my laptop screened for USAP compliance. That all got done in just over an hour. After that I stopped at a department store to get a new pair of shorts. The pair I was wearing got a huge ink stain when I was at some point leaning forward with a push-release pen in my pocket. I can’t take myself anywhere. Luckily they were on clearance at the end of the summer retail season. For dinner I had a lamb pasta dish at Sticky Fingers on Oxford Tce, then took a walk through the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. I somehow missed this place last time, but it’s really nice. By the way it was mid-70’s F and sunny, and there are virtually no bugs like there are during summers back home. After that I bought some candy for dessert, and went back to the hotel to pack. After redeeming my free drink coupon for the hotel bar, I went to sleep for the 4:30 AM wake-up call the next morning.

I was the first of the shuttle pickups to go to the CDC. We reported there at 6:30 AM. We all got dressed in our extreme cold weather (ECW) gear, and finalized packing. With the ECW gear, we get two orange duffle bags. One is a carry-on bag, and the other is checked. In addition to that, we can bring as many bags as we want as long as it’s under the 75 lbs limit for summer personnel. So I had the one carry-on bag, two checked bags, an additional checked bag (just a backpack) that was my “boomerang bag.” This is the only of the checked bags returned if the plane turns around (boomerangs) and returns to Christchurch. I put shoes and toiletries in there. Then I had a small bag that I kept at the CDC in Christchurch, mainly with some warm-weather clothing for my return. After getting dressed we walked over to the terminal, where we had our bags weighed and got checked in. There’s a waiting room with old movies that the Navy took during the period where they ran U.S. Antarctic operations.

I spent a decent amount of that time outside enjoying the warm weather while I could. We were delayed briefly (maybe 15 minutes) leaving the Antarctic terminal. They took us on a bus out to the tarmac, where we waited for maybe 15 minutes before they sent us inside to another waiting room while they were working on mechanical issues with the plane. They had a foosball table in there, where I made quick work of an Aussie challenger. That brought me back to church confirmation, where we’d play that before and after class. After about 30 minutes, we walked out to the plane, and about half of the people were onboard before they pulled us off again. Some kind of problem with a new black box they installed apparently. So this time, they said it would be at least an hour, and told us we could walk over to the Antarctic Centre for breakfast (there is a popular tourist attraction at the Antarctic Centre, which includes a small café). While many of us were eating, the crew told us to get back to the terminal ASAP. This time it was for real, we boarded the plane and departed.

A few words are in order about the plane. On this trip, I was on a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF, kiwi) C-130 cargo plane.

This is in stark contrast to the C-17 cargo plane I took back in 2006. I was quite spoiled last time with the C-17. The C-130 has cargo netting for seats, with almost no legroom because you are directly across from someone else. There is little room for any carry on items – unless it’s a small bag, you take a few items you want for the flight with you, and they take your bag to the back of the plane. It’s accessible, but not easily. Bathroom facilities are very limited – I actually held it for almost 12 hours – so I don’t have any comment on the conditions of the toilets. Just like the C-17, it’s loud and they gave us earplugs. They also gave us a bag of food and a water bottle for the trip. The food bag was smaller than last time with the U.S. Air Force, but sufficient. The biggest difference between the two planes besides comfort is the transit time. The C-17 makes the trip in about 4.5 hours, compared to about 7.5 hours with the C-130. The extra three hours in cramped conditions is miserable. I slept for maybe a half hour, otherwise I read a book and otherwise stared at the wall. I lost my old mp3 player on the last flight of my monster trip of 2007, so I had no music. The music they pipe in on the plane’s PA system is not decipherable. The temperature fluctuates wildly, I don’t have a problem with being cold, but when they had the heat cranked up I felt a little sick. It could always be worse though – at least we had a smooth, safe, and direct trip, and there are worse planes (C-141, saffair). Plus the guy directly in front of me bailed to some other part of the plane for most of the trip, so I bought a little extra legroom.

Here's me on the plane, and some fellow passengers yucking it up for me...

Here's some pictures on arrival, and of some wave clouds over the Transantarctic Mountains.

When we arrived at Pegasus Field, we had an hour ride into McMurdo on the delta vehicles. They are big, slow, bumpy all-terrain passenger transport vehicles. They took us to the NSF Chalet, where we had a short briefing and some paperwork to fill out. They gave us room keys and we were set free. It was nice this time that I knew where I was going. Last time I was again alone, but additionally X-tremely disoriented. I got my bed linens, found my room, changed clothes, got dinner (dinner service was over, but they had some plates saved for our flight), took a shower, unpacked, then went to bed. I have a roommate, but he is out at WAIS Divide field camp (according to some paperwork in the room), and I have yet to meet him.

So those are the details on the process of getting here. I’ll post more soon about my time at the base so far.

Pre-trip Briefing

2009-01-15T21:17:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Frozen Daze. This site will detail my travels to New Zealand and Antarctica during January-February 2009. I find this an efficient way to keep my family and friends updated. Anyways, this is my second trip to the ice. I first went there in December 2006 - see the previous posts on this site for details of that trip.

My functions on this trip will be similar to last time. I will work with the weather forecasters at McMurdo station, while doing some of my own work along the way. I'll write more about that later. I am essentially on my own for this trip, but at least this time there will be some people I know there.

I leave this Sunday...Columbus to Dallas-Ft. Worth to Los Angeles to Auckland to Christchurch. After arriving in New Zealand on 20 January, I should have two days there to recover and get issued gear before hopefully leaving for Antarctica on 22 January. Of course that all depends on the weather! I will try to post either in New Zealand (if I have time and anything exciting happens) or once I get to McMurdo. I will have about three weeks at McMurdo. My tentative return to New Zealand is on 11 February, then returning to the U.S. on 15 February.

Thanks for stopping by!

LAST NO AMDS

2006-12-27T15:25:00.000-05:00

The trip is over, I'm back at the folks' house for a few days before returning to Columbus on Friday. Here's the details of the end of the trip:

I left McMurdo on Thursday night. The plane was scheduled to leave at 9:00 PM, and we were required to report for transportation to the airfield at 5:30 PM. I grabbed a quick dinner before getting dressed in ECW gear, turning in my room key, and going to the shuttle. We boarded "Ivan the Terra Bus", a huge vehicle that took us to Pegasus Runway in just under an hour. There we waited for two hours before boarding the plane. There's a small building for waiting passengers, but most people remained outside, as it was sunny and warm. We got on the plane about 8:30 PM, and left about 9:15 PM. I tried to grab a seat in the back row again, but some people had already grabbed those. At least I got an aisle seat. It was a comfortable ride, once we got airborne and steady, I took off the boots and windpants, and got to ride in regular street clothes. The only annoyance was that someone near me was farting, I'm guessing it was the woman next to me.

We landed about 2:15 AM in Christchurch, in pouring rain. As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't much warmer than when we left. I'm guessing it was maybe mid-30's when we left, and mid-40's in Christchurch. We boarded buses which took us to the immigration and customs in the main passenger terminal. After immigration, it was on to baggage claim, which was fast compared to a typical commercial flight. Customs was no big deal. The screening was not as strict as when we arrived from the U.S, as all items we purchase at McMurdo go through New Zealand. Then it's about a 10 minute walk from the airport to the CDC. I didn't load my bags onto a truck, and instead carted them with me on the walk. More on this later. Once I got to the CDC, I went to the changing room and emptied out my carry-on bag of personal items. I got all of the issued gear together, and an employee checked items off as I threw them into a big pile in the middle of the room. I was doing this before the truck with the bags arrived, so I was happy that I had carted my bags and got through the clothing return before the big rush. I claimed the bags I had left in New Zealand, got my travel arrangement documents, and went outside to get a shuttle. They were arranged by hotel, so I ended up waiting at least a half hour for other people on this shuttle. So my prior efficiency turned out to be useless, but not a big deal, I just dozed off in the shuttle for awhile. Some guy was freaking out, wondering why we couldn't leave. I can understand some of the frustration of people that were leaving the next day. I overheard conversations from people that would only have 1-2 hours at the hotel to shower and rearrange baggage before going right back to the airport again. I checked into the hotel at about 4:15 AM (The Heritage, the same hotel I was in on the way to Antarctica back in November). It's a really nice hotel, and I had a big corner room on the 10th floor. I unpacked my stuff and had a snack from the mini bar before going to bed as dawn broke.

I didn't do much on Friday, as I slept until 12:30 PM. I took care of some laundry, did some shopping, and had a nice dinner at the Viaduct along "the strip" on Oxford Tce. Most restaurants in this area have outdoor seating, but it was in the 50's and very windy, so I sat inside. I had a chicken, cream cheese, and cranberry pizza. It was really good, and must be a common variety there, as I saw an ad on TV for the same toppings from Pizza Hut. I also made arrangements for activities for the rest of my stay. These included a Lyttleton Harbor wildlife cruise and a gondola ride on Saturday, and a city bike tour on Sunday. On Saturday I went for a run at the hotel's health club, then checked on my planned activities for the day. It had been raining all morning, with low clouds. The wildlife cruise got cancelled, and I decided against the gondola ride, since there was no way I was going to be able to see anything. I decided to go out to the International Antarctic Centre. This is the same complex that the CDC is in, but there is a big science exhibit there that USAP participants get 50% off admission for. So I took the bus out there and spend a couple hours. They have a room filled with snow where they simulate a storm, a bunch of exhibits and videos, and other stuff. It was a good way to spend a rainy day. That night I went to McDonalds for dinner, it tasted fine, but I felt awful the rest of the night. Not sure if it was the food itself or that I hadn't had fast food in three weeks. I watched a cricket match for awhile that night on TV. I'm still not clear on all of the rules, but it looks awesome. I would definitely follow it if I lived there. I love baseball, and it seems similar in many ways.

On Sunday I had the city bike tour at 10:00 AM. It was a nice morning, and the bike tour was great. It started at Cathedral Square, and there was the tour guide, two gentlemen from Los Angeles on vacation, and myself. The tour was two and a half hours, and we rode through part of the city centre area, Hagley Park, and some nice neighborhoods. We got off the bikes for awhile and walked through Riccarton Bush (the only native forest left in the area). This was well worth the money and maybe the best part of the trip.

That afternoon I went to the gondola. As I was getting on the bus to go there, it started raining. When I got there it was still raining and the clouds lowered, restricting the view. It cleared a little bit and I could at least see Christchurch from the top.

After having fish and chips for lunch at the restaurant, I walked around the trails just below the gondola station. After returning to the hotel, I had dinner at another restaurant on Oxford Tce, Sticky Fingers, where I had roast lamb. That was Christmas Eve, and I went over to Victoria Square where there was caroling. I didn't make it to church at midnight, since I had to get up fairly early to leave the next day. As I was on a shuttle to the airport the next morning, it started to clear up and got nice outside. Figures. I enjoyed a little of that from the observation deck at the airport. The flights back went fine, I again had my own row on the trans-Pacific flight. From Los Angeles, I went through Salt Lake City on the way to Milwaukee. That last flight was delayed almost two hours from mechanical issues (we had to switch planes).

I'm finally caught up on sleep now, but still getting caught up on Christmas cookies. As the title says in flight forecast code, this is the last report, with no further amendments (unless I screwed something up). Hope you enjoyed it!

Flight Brief

2006-12-24T02:52:00.000-05:00

I'm back in New Zealand, and getting ready to leave for the U.S. tomorrow. It was a long day last Thursday, the day I traveled from McMurdo back to Christchurch. The flight did not leave until 9 PM, we got into Christchurch in the pouring rain at 2:15 AM, and I finally checked into the hotel at 4:15 AM. And seriously, it was not much warmer in Christchurch than in McMurdo. The weather hasn't improved a whole lot here, but I've had a good time the past few days. I'll have more details and some pictures in a couple days, I'm paying for internet right now so I want to keep this short. Have a blessed Christmas,

Dan

House Cleaning

2006-12-18T07:05:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my last "normal" day here in McMurdo, as I hope to be leaving on Thursday. Last Thursday when my roommate Markus left, I realized I had been here for two weeks, and it seemed like that time went by very quickly. I still have the same feeling now, that the past week, and my entire time here, has gone by fast. I'm ready to head back, first to New Zealand for a couple days of R & R, then back home to see the family for a few days, then finally back to Columbus. I'm not sure why I'm ready to leave, I could not think of anything today that bothers me here. My work is going well, I have my own room now, which is nice, I'm eating well, getting regular exercise, and get to watch ESPN and many sporting events. This doesn't differ much from my existence back in the U.S. It may be choice: from what and when to eat, where I live, more retail options, and so on. If I was here longer I would also miss pets: I miss my cat Wendy, along with the two dogs and two cats at my parents house. But I've had a great stay here, and I'm very proud and often in awe of the operation that the United States has in this harsh and remote region of the world. Just another reason why it's is the greatest country in the world.

Here's some of my activities from the past several days:

On Thursday afternoon I spent a few hours with a weather observer (Jen) at Williams Field. This airfield handles the ski aircraft that fly to South Pole and some of the field camps. The observer takes observations every hour and otherwise when needed of standard meteorological variables. I got to see some of the equipment there, along with learning some more on how cloud levels and visibility is taken. It was also fun taking in the take-offs and landings (I still like watching this at any airport). Anyways, here's a picture of the small tower:

On Friday night, I got to help launch the weather balloon. Weather balloons go up at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC every day, around the world. I went over to the balloon shack with one of the observers, Cliff, who happens to be an Ohio State meteorology undergrad. He got the equipment set up and filled the balloon, and we went outside to launch it. Here's me just before launch:

and here's the balloon, long gone:

These things can go up to about 13 miles into the atmosphere before blowing up. If you ever come across the December 15th 2006 1200 UTC McMurdo sounding, I let that sucker go.

On Sunday afternoon I took a tour of the pressure ridges near Scott Base. These form as two converging ice sheets buckle (at least that's the layman's explanation). Apparently the ice moves up to 3/4 meter per day, so that the field is constantly changing. We walked around the marked trail for about an hour, and got to see some cool ice formations. The overcast sky also brought out the bluish hue of some of the ice. We also saw a couple of seals (I forgot what kind). I got someone to take my picture:

This morning I took the hike up Observation ("Ob") Hill, which is just outside of town. I can't remember the elevation and I can't find it right now, something around 200 m sounds familiar. Anyways, there's a trail up there, and it was another beautiful, warm, and calm day today, so I decided to go for it. Here's a view from the bottom:

The first section of the climb was tough, probably because I had just woken up. Once I got warmed up, it wasn't too bad, although the trail has some spokes and dead ends and I had to backtrack a little bit once. It tested some climbing and hiking skills that I don't have (there's likely no way I'd do something like this elsewhere). It's a great view from the top though, the view down to McMurdo is a near-famous picture. I set up my camera on some rocks, set the timer, and got a crappy picture of myself in my goofy cone-shaped hat:

That's the cross in memory of Scott's 1912 return expedition from the South Pole in the background. The descent was annoying, as I was hoping not to break my knees and also trying not to fall down and gouge myself on the sharp outcroppings.

As I said, tomorrow is my last normal day, because Wednesday I need to get ready to leave. I'll have to clean my room to specifications (it shouldn't be too bad because it was cleaned last week when my roommate left), then turn in my checked baggage that night ("Bag Drag"). By tomorrow we should get a better idea of the weather for the flight back Thursday.

Traveling Violation

2006-12-13T04:55:00.000-05:00

Nothing too exciting in this post, just some updates:

My travel plans got rearranged Tuesday, big time. The original plan was to fly back to Christchurch on December 19th. Well, the C-17 flight got cancelled. So I was left with either December 14th or 21st. I chose the 21st because leaving today would be a bit hasty and I still have some work to do. Part of my trip report involves documenting model performance for selected cases while I'm here. Well, we've been under weak flow and unorganized weather since I've gotten here. It's made for very nice conditions, everyone is loving it, and the met. manager noted that no flight operations in/out of McMurdo were affected at all last week by weather, and he cannot remember that ever happening before. But its boring weather for me and it's hard to gauge model performance for this almost chaotic weather (scattered clouds and light snow).

Anyways, my original plan included two days/three nights in Christchurch on the way back, meaning I leave Christchurch and get back to Milwaukee on December 22nd. By leaving on the 21st, my choices were to keep my original commercial-carrier flight plan and head back on the 22nd (basically no time in New Zealand) or stay until the 25th, because they would not be able to book me on either the 23rd or 24th. I decided on the three days/four nights in Christchurch. Any delays leaving McMurdo could put a December 22nd departure for the U.S. in jeopardy, and I don't want to pass up a couple days vacation in New Zealand. Of course I'm missing Christmas with the family, which is tough because I've never not been home for Christmas before. But I think I got the best possible option out of what was available to me. It's disappointing that they cancelled that flight on the 19th, and surprising to me, with the mass exodus of beakers (scientists) from here before Christmas. The flights on Dec. 14th and 21st out of here are packed. But it's out of my control, all I can do is deal with it.

Pun City alerted me to the fact that there are two people from our hometown of Grafton, Wisconsin in Antarctica right now. Ryan Hammetter (Grafton H.S. class of 2001) is at the South Pole right now with UW's IceCube project. My guess is that he was here in McMurdo last Thursday between flights. I don't know him very well, the only connection I can possibly think of is 1998 Grafton JV baseball. I would need to go through my records to confirm this. But it's exciting that two people from a town of about 12,000 people are in Antarctica at the same time.

I've been trying to take in some of the area activities while I'm here. I've been to the Protestant service at the Chapel of the Snows:

both Sundays I've been here. Tuesday afternoon I went to New Zealand's Scott Base:

to visit their station store. It's a short, maybe 10-minute, shuttle ride from McMurdo. It's much smaller, I think it maxes out around 100 people. But it's a well-constructed base, it's very nice inside and it appears that most if not all of the buildings are interconnected. I went there last Thursday for "American Night", when their bar is open to us. Had a good time and the people there are very friendly. But the store was closed, so I needed to make a return visit. They had some really good candy there, I got a chocolate bar with pineapple-flavored filling and a pack of milk-flavored gummy pieces. Both were delicious. While I was waiting outside for the shuttle back, I was standing too close to their helicopter pad, because it almost hit me when it came in. I just got blasted with dust and dirt as I was moving away.

Tonight I went to Burger Bar at Gallaghers. Got a double cheeseburger, fries, and root beer. It costs money, but is a nice change of pace. The guy from Cudahy I met in Christchurch and attended happy camper school with was there, so I ate with him and one of his colleagues.

My roommate took off for New Zealand this morning, so we'll see if I get another roommate during the rest of my stay.

Live Feed

2006-12-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

I've been in town for a little over a week now, and have settled into a nice routine (it was interrupted a bit by happy camper school, but not a big deal). Here's some information about my life here so far.

First of all, here's a picture of the dorm I live in (208):

and here's a picture from inside the room:

that's my half of the room, the refrigerator, TV, and my roommate's half of the room are behind the picture.

I've been working roughly 2 PM - Midnight in the forecast office, which is a portion of the top floor of this building (165):

In a way I am on my own in regards to the work I am doing here. My advisor and I, with the help of some of the more senior graduate students in our research group came up with a plan for my work here. It's a bit open ended and dependent on what I initially found here. I'm here from the AMPS (Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System) project, developed by NCAR and the Polar Meteorology Group at Ohio State about five years ago. I'm here to get feedback from the forecasters on AMPS, whether it be specific products or its performance. They are the "customers" of AMPS, as they work with it real time every day. Also, work has been done to transition AMPS from using the MM5 forecast model to the new WRF model. We're also looking for any feedback on how the preliminary AMPS WRF has been performing during the field season. I'm also on the lookout for case studies of events that occur while I'm here. There hasn't been much so far, but that could change soon. Finally, we came up with a small research project for me to do while I am here, regarding model forecasts of meteorological variables important for flight operations. Along the way, I'm also learning a lot more about weather forecasting for this region, which poses many difficulties not seen in the United States.

A big topic of conversation around here during the past week was this article, one of a series by an MSNBC correspondent. This got around town quickly, and he was labeled as a whiner by many here (his next posting details some of the backlash). Incidentally, he was on the same flight south as me, and also stayed at the same hotel in Christchurch. I was aware of an MSNBC crew in Christchurch, but did not meet or talk with him or the photographer, and did not put everything together until last Sunday. My feeling was that he may not have been familiar as to what the trip down here would be like. Overall, from the empty Los Angeles-Auckland flight, the nice weather in Christchurch, the fact that the southbound flight left the day it was supposed to and we got some extra sleep that morning, and getting to ride in a C-17, we had it pretty good. I felt like I had a lot of the same problems as the correspondent (hasty flight connections in the U.S., lost luggage, first time here, alone). But I got advice and guidance from my friend and colleague Ryan, who has been down here three times and told me a lot of what to expect. So that helped a lot. I don't think anyone would argue that the trip from Christchurch to McMurdo makes for a long day, and I'm guessing other people also feel tired and disoriented from all of the travel (as did I). I heard others here say that the article was good, in that it shows some of what people go through just to get down here. I just tried to prepare the best I could, and deal with whatever happened on the trip here, and everything ended up working out just fine.

In the spirit of being positive, I'll close with some things I really like here so far:

Free food
Casual conversation in the forecast office
No traffic
Soft-serve ice cream with jimmies
Armed Forces Television
Weather nicer than back home (so far at least)
Sunday brunch
24-hour daylight (it's still a novelty to me, all of the pictures in this post were taken at about 10:30 PM in the evening)
Having a brat for lunch today
Talking with my roommate about his work with seals

Somewhat Happy Camper

2006-12-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

For the past two days I was at snow survival school, better known as "Happy Camper School." It involves camping out for the night on the ice, as well as other instruction and scenarios. Many of you know that I am not much of an outdoors person. My outdoors activities usually involve golfing, biking, watching sporting events, and walking through the parking lot to the mall. I cannot recall a true camping experience in my life, and despite the gracious hosts and company on trips to northern Wisconsin, I never really enjoyed them. So this was something I was a bit apprehensive about.

The program started with a briefing about cold-weather injuries and vehicle survival packs. From there they drove us to an intersection between Scott Base and Willie Field. We hiked the mile or so from there to the program site, which is a cluster of small buildings and open camp space. There we were instructed on the use of portable stoves, and then we went to the actual camp site. We were instructed on how to build snow walls, how to put up various types of tents, and other survival skillz. Early evening the instructor left, and spent the night at the small instructor hut down the road. We finished up the snow wall and made dinner, which consisted of hot beverages and dehydrated food. Here is a picture of the finished camp:

We were free to chose our shelter for the night. The options were in one of two Scott tents, smaller mountain tents, in ditches, or in a quinzee (a snow hut). I found an old quinzee that I shared with another guy. All of these were built by the classes earlier in the season that had more people. Here is a picture of the quinzee I stayed in for the night:

The entrance is to the right. The quinzee was actually very nice. It was quiet, and for the most part warm, although it got a little chilly at night. There was plenty of space for two people and our gear. I put hot water in my water bottle and put that in my sleeping bag, which helped. I didn't sleep that well, not from the cold but just being uncomfortable (I'm a light sleeper). It's light out 24 hours a day, which doesn't help either. The next morning I managed to get dressed in there, and we packed up camp and went back to the camp buildings.

The rest of the day we had a couple briefings, some practice using HF and VHF radio, and some survival scenarios. The first one was a "burning vehicle" situation, where we had to quickly make camp and establish communication with Mac Center. I ended up digging yet another trench to make snow blocks from. Then in the bucket game, we have to find someone (in this case a duffle bag) in white-out conditions, which is simulated with having buckets on our heads. A rope is attached to a fixed point and we have to find the victim. We didn't do it the most efficient way, but I actually found the bag and we eventually got back to the building.

After that we cleaned up, hiked back to the intersection, and went back to McMurdo, where we watched some videos on helicopters and the environmental impact on the Dry Valleys. Then we were done, and it felt great to get out of the ECW gear, take a shower, get some hot food, and sleep in a warm bed.

So overall it wasn't too bad. We had great weather (mid 30's both days, low teens at night, sunny skies, for the most part light winds). The views of Mt. Erebus, Mt. Terror, and Castle Rock were impressive. There were plenty of snacks and water, although dinner wasn't that great (I got stuck with a black beans and rice dehy meal). I didn't get sunburned, since I vigilantly applied sunscreen, I just have more freckles on my face. The group was good, we had twelve people from diverse careers (several base support staff, two Raytheon techs, an oceanographer, a teacher, and a grad student (me)). One of the Raytheon techs is from Cudahy, so we had a good time talking about Milwaukee. Several of the people are ex-military, so I enjoyed talking with them. One of them has been to Iraq at least once, I believe in more of a logistical support capacity. But it's interesting talking to those people about their experiences there, and the positive changes that have occurred in that country that are not reported in the media.

Here's a picture of me (the first one of the trip)

Hopefully I'll get another post out tomorrow about my overall experiences here at the base so far.

Indoor Living

2006-12-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

I made it to McMurdo on Thursday. The plan was to wake up at 4:15 AM for the 5:30 AM shuttle to the airport in Christchurch, with a 9:00 AM departure to McMurdo. After I got out of the shower at 4:45, I got a call from hotel reception stating that the flight was delayed three hours and the shuttle would now leave at 8:30 AM. Cool, so I went back to bed. At 8:30 we left for the USAP facility in Christchurch, which is near the airport. I stashed the gear I was keeping in New Zealand, and got dressed in my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. Here's a picture after the changing room was pretty much emptied:

After that it was off to the terminal to get screened and checked in. NZ customs checked everything out, mainly for hazardous materials and bag size. They give us two orange bags, one of which is checked and the other is carry-on. The carry-on needs to fit into a box, which no one's does, but I got drilled about that. So I "rearranged" it, and went through again with a different person checking it, and got through fine. Then we had time in the waiting room or around the facility. They played TV news and a movie (Oceans 11) while we were waiting (and sweating)...

Then our bags were screened, and we took buses to the plane. I wanted to pet the drug-sniffing dog (a nice black lab) but decided against it. The C-17 was actually a very comfortable ride down.

I took a center section ("economy") back row seat so I had some extra storage space. The side seats ("first class") can give me motion sickness in any vehicle, but I had plenty of room in the center. We got a big sack of food (Two sandwiches, two bags of potato chips, apple, orange, two different candy bars, a fruit bar, a bottle of water, and a bottle of juice). I ate everything except for a candy bar and the orange. The flight was five hours, and we got off at Pegasus Runway (here's a picture of the C-17 after arrival):

We then took shuttles through the snow (about 30 minute ride) to McMurdo. There we got dinner, briefed, and were let loose. I found my dorm, showered, got my luggage, and got settled. I have one roommate (some kind of researcher from Oregon, he works with seals) and have a bathroom that is shared with one other dorm room. I'm in a nice dorm, some have 4-5 people with communal bathrooms. Overall it reminds me of college (dorms, dining hall, mass sickness). Yesterday I met up with the forecaster in the weather office, and got familiarized with their operations. I'll observe and learn from their work, along with doing some of my own.

I have a pretty cushy job here. I work inside all of the time (even though it's not bad here, low 30's, light snow). I don't really have set hours, and am pretty much on my own. This morning I went for a run, and will take care of some errands before going to the office. It's not good for me to be there in the morning when they are busy with flight briefings, so I'll work a second-shift schedule. It doesn't really matter because it's light outside 24 hours a day (there's slightly less light and colder during the night-time hours, but it's a weak diurnal cycle).

I'll have more about my work and life here as the days go by...

Lost Angeles

2006-11-29T00:38:00.000-05:00

So I've made it to New Zealand. Having a good time so far, I'll fill in the details since the last post:

I left Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon. The new C Concourse is very nice by the way, for those of you familiar with that airport. I knew it would be a tight turn-around in Cincinnati, and it was (I had about 30 minutes). I had to transfer terminals on a shuttle bus, and just had enough time to use the restroom before boarding the plane. The next flight to Los Angeles was not fun: old 757, middle seat, with a sleeper on the aisle, so I never got up to stretch. Plus it was an hour late, despite leaving on time. So I got to Los Angeles with an hour before my 12.5 hour flight to Auckland left. The signage to the international terminal is poor, and I navigated the circus in there to check in and get to the gate. I picked up a candy bar and some water and had to board the plane.

But it gets better from here. My ticketed seat was on the aisle, so I had some hope for this flight. Then, it never filled up! When they closed the door, the back section of this 747 was virtually empty! Saying the economy section was 20% full would be generous. So I ended up having an entire row to myself, no one in two rows behind or in front of me. Everyone got to lay down in an entire aisle and sleep. I watched some shows about rugby and news before going to sleep. After that flight got into Auckland, there was another 1.5 hour flight to Christchurch. As I was getting my baggage in customs, my name was announced to go to the airline desk. Sure enough, one of my bags got lost in Los Angeles. It had most of my clothing and toiletries. They said I would get it the next day.

In Christchurch, all of the Antarctic travelers on the flight (about 25-30 maybe) checked in with USAP staff and got shuttled to our respective lodging establishments. My hotel room was not ready, so I walked around and got lunch with another researcher, who happens to work for a research group at UW. He's been down there like 10 times. After I got my room and showered, I realized the first goof-up of the trip: I forgot the power cord for my laptop. Fantastic. I walked around looking for electronics stores, and found one that had a cord for about $100 US. I didn't get it, and decided to leave the laptop here in NZ. Very frustrating, but I should be able to get done what I need to with what is at McMurdo.

Otherwise, I walked around today looking inside stores in the vast downtown retail area. This afternoon we all went over to the CDC (clothing distribution center) to try on cold-weather gear for the trip.

Have had a good time for the short time I've been here. Weather has been great (sunny, mid 70's), and Christchurch is a beautiful city. Had both BK and KFC for dinner so far. When I went to Taiwan last year I was fascinated by the variance in menu items at fast food establishments, compared to the US. It's no different here. The double cheeseburger and fries at BK were familiar, but I ordered donuts for dessert (very reasonably priced at NZ $1.40). It had four small cinnamon-plain donuts. They should offer these in the US. Then at KFC tonight, the popcorn chicked and fries were also familiar, but they sold milkshakes for NZ $1! They were very good too.

Tomorrow I (hopefully) leave for McMurdo. Wake-up call is set for 4:30 AM. I'll have another update when I get settled there.

Preliminaries

2006-11-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks for stopping by. In the next couple weeks I'll post the details of travels to New Zealand and Antarctica.

I drove back to Grafton last Friday after a rough week of work. Had to scramble to get a paper re-submitted and to get other tasks accomplished before I left. My co-worker Ryan and his wife Andrea were kind enough to have me over for dinner Wednesday night. Ryan has been to Antarctica three times and gave me some good advice.

It's been a nice week back home. I went to the Wisconsin football game on Saturday with Brian. I was back in Madison Monday to meet with someone at UW regarding some software training. Last night I went to the Milwaukee Bucks game with my two brothers-in-law Dan and Mike, and nephew Jake. After gorging myself today, I leave Sunday afternoon on my trip. I go from Milwaukee to Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Auckland, then Christchurch, arriving late morning Tuesday.

Check back early next week for updates.