Friday, November 19, 2010

Bitter Sweet Brimstone

We've tried twice now to get to our most northern helicopter supported field site, known as Brimstone Peak. Unforutnately, because it is so far north, it is difficult to know what site conditions will be without actually flying out there. So far, we've given it two shots, and both times we've had to turn back. This is the bitter part of the equation. Look above, and you'll see the sweet factor. Paul has flown us both times, and both flights we've been lucky enough to see some incredible features on the return flight back. That deep, vibrant blue is a chunk of submerged iceberg. I honestly do not think I have ever seen such a color occur naturally. I was a giddy fool when I saw this berg. There's a close up of it below. Seriously??? Unbelievable.All of these photos are from our first attempt at reaching Brimstone. The weather forecast said it was clear, but we soon found out that the site was completely socked it. It was quite a surreal thing actually, I've never seen Antarctic weather like it before. The sky was gray, almost purple, and there were pockets on the horizon where it looked like it was raining. I think this strange lighting helped to make all of the views so stunning. Below are just a handful of photos from that night.
Above, one of the trippy "rainstorms" on the horizon. Wow.
The water adds so much dimension to the views. It's such an deep blue, the reflections are unreal.

Penguinos!!!!


I've literally got dozens of photos like the one above. The helicopters we fly can't go over water, but we got to fly back along the sea ice edge because of where we had to turn around when the weather went bad. It was an experience of a lifetime, and I will not soon forget it.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Flying in style







I've come down to Antarctica many times now, and it has always been on an Air Force plane. However, the United States Antarctic Program has started a contract with Australia to fly commercial Airbus passenger flights to Antarctica, and I was lucky enough to take one. The above photo shows me stepping foot on the ice for the first time this season, with the Airbus in the background. While flying in first class was awesome in itself because of the posh seating (yes, I am fully reclined in my seat!), the real treat was having two huge windows to look out of the entire time. With the Air Force planes, you have a teeny little round window the size of a grapefruit, and you can't look out of it while landing, so having a giant window to peer out of during the entire flight is an incredible luxury. I saw views of the continent that I have never seen before. Huge, broad expanses of the mountains (because we were flying so high), incredible sea ice formations, features to the north outside of our normal work region, the Italian base (I couldn't actually see the base, but we flew right by the location), basically all the way from the coast along the spine of the mountains to the U.S. base on Ross Island. The photo at left is just one of many from the flight. It shows a section of the Transantarctic Mountains and the frozen Ross Sea in front. The wind-blown snow on the dark blue ice made for a surreal image, and was an effect that I have never seen quite so spectacularly. I was giddy the entire time. Awesome experience.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

first helo flight of the season

***OK, don't pay attention to dates. I hate that blogger doesn't keep things in order (they don't keep the first entry at the top so you can read through in a logical order) so I fudge the dates to make them show up correct.***
Last Friday we went on a night flight to a place called Mt. Coates in the Dry Valleys. They call this area the Dry Valleys because it remains relatively ice free throughout the year -a rare occurrence in Antarctica. We were doing some minor upgrades to the existing site, and also performing what is called a tie. When we installed the POLENET system, we installed a new antenna in a new location, however, there was a system installed prior to our POLENET site. While this older site is no longer running, we can link the data from our new site to this old site by collecting data from the old antenna. This is called a tie, because you are "tie-ing" the old data to the new data, giving you a better record of how the rock is moving. The above photo shows me working on the old antenna, originally set up by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Not a bad day at the office! Because we wanted to collect at least 2 hours of data to get a good tie, we ended up having some time to look around. Mt. Coates is one of my favorite sites in Antarctica, because the surrounding landscape is like a giant playground. There are huge cliffs, beautiful valleys, peaks, glaciers, gnarled wind sculpted rock formations perfect for jumping around and playing on. It takes your breath away. Below is a photo of me doing a yoga pose on top of one of the rock formations. Myself and two friends of mine have a contest going to take yoga photos in front of impressive landscapes around the world. I'd say this backdrop qualifies for some seriously high marks.