POLENET season 2 work

This year has been a bit different than last year, which was the first season of POLENET. Last year we spent most of our time installing new sites. This year we've been spending time installing new sites, but also servicing sites installed last year. This photo is from a new install this year at Deverall Isnald, and shows what a complete site setup should look like. I’m standing very professionally next to the frame that holds 4 solar panels (blue panels in front), wind generators (black wind mills on top), an iridium antenna (thin stick on top), and a met pack (white thing on top, collects temperature and wind data). In the background off to the right is the GPS antenna (gray mushroom). So I say this is what a site 'should' look like, because we’ve been finding some 'surprises' at the sites we are re-visiting this year, as you can see below in the photo from a location called Lonewolf Nunatak (standing in the photo is Joe, from UNAVCO). First off, we chose the stations to re-visit because we knew that they were down. We communicate with the stations through the iridium, and can get state of health info. So if we get bad state of health data, or if we can’t talk to the station at all, we know something is up and that we need to make a visit. We expected mostly electronic problems, but obviously that hasn't been the case. Definitely unexpected. Basically, the wind is too strong, and is ripping the front half of the frames off. This pulls the cables from the box, smashes the solar panels, and usually kills the wind generators as well. The picture to the left shows the fatal wounds to the solar panels, after we’ve flipped the broken frame front over. We think the culprits are the couplings used to hold the frame tubes together, which are cast aluminum. The picture below shows an 5/8" steel anchor bolt from Lonewolf, used to anchor the frame to the rock. The wind completely snapped it in half. Antarctica is no joke. The wind here is strong. Lonewolf is a particularly legendary site for wind, but since we've found a second downed frame, it's clear we are going to have to make some adjustments. We've temporarily fixed the problem, at least we hope, by adding braces to the joints that have been failing, but for next year, we will likely need to switch to steel couplings, and possibly re-think the solar panel configuration for particularly windy sites (the four solar panels basically act like a sail, catching wind and significantly increasing the strain on the frame).

jaw dropping scenery

While I think people shots are always the favorite, I’ve got to put in some scenery shots. I wish I could do this place justice through photographs alone, but it really is a total body experience. The mountains, the air, the ice, they never lose their ability to take my breath away. This is a photo of the Transantarctic Mountains, about 100 km south of McMurdo, the U.S. base. It gives me the urge to reach out and run my finger along the spine of the ridge, like it’s a little pet lizard landscape or something, just sunning there in the snow.

Do you see all that color?!?! People ask me if Antarctica is all white, they ask me if I miss color. I try and explain how on the contrary, there is every color imaginable. The light plays off the snow and ice, reflecting all the different subtleties in the spectrum, intensifying contrasts. It’s incredible. Even in the sky. This photo isn’t doctored at all. I didn’t even want to crop it. Granted there is some darkening around the edges from the camera adjusting to the brightness of shooting straight at the sun, but what you are looking at is pretty much what I saw in the sky, only with the brights a bit brighter and the darks a bit darker. So much color pops out. Reds, purples, greens, pinks. I left this photo in full resolution, so you can click on the image and see it in its entirety. I just think it’s shockingly gorgeous. Every little facet. It’s like a game, looking through and seeing all the different plays on shapes, color, depth. Mmmm. I love it.

He's back!!!! If some of you remember, we had a plane crash last year. Is was in a Basler on the way to a site called Mount Paterson. Well, they fixed him, and he's back! This is a photo of that exact plane, after more than 6 months of work, including two months of a dedicated crew camping in West Antarctica at the crash site to get the plane fly-able back to Canada. As you can see, he's quite happy (or maybe it's a she?!?) The plan is to try again this year, and take this exact same aircraft back to Mount Paterson again. Hopefully everything goes great this time around...

This photo is from Deverall Island, the southernmost island in the world in fact! We just finished the site today. It was beautiful weather, pretty close to freezing, maybe mid 20's. I wish I could explain what it feels like to be out there. The air is so clean and fierce, and everywhere you look there is incredible scenery. It's such a high. You can't help but be happy. In this photo, Eric and I are sitting by the GPS monument just after installation. Our little mushroom child. We drill into the bedrock, and install the white 'monument' base, before putting on the GPS antenna, which is the mushroom-looking thing (technically, the mushroom looking thing is just a cover to keep out snow, and the actuall antenna is underneath this cover, but you get the point). Behind us you can see the Transantarctic Mountains.

Made it!

I made it! We got in about 1 week ago. This is a photo from right after we landed. I'm standing with Adrienne, who worked with Terry (my current advisor) for her undergrad, and who is now at Columbia. This was about 10 am in the morning.