August 13, 2012 - Leaving Soon!

Back to Antarctica!  On Sunday, I'm making my fifth trip to "the ice" to explore the OTHER frozen tundra.  It's my first trip since February 2009, which seemed like a lifetime ago!  Since then, I've changed jobs, moved to a new state, and had some pretty major life changes.  This season, instead of visiting weather stations such as in years past, I'll be working on a team that will fly remote controlled planes that will collect weather data to study how the atmosphere behaves in the interesting Antarctic environment.  I will be deploying with five other people - four people from the company that builds the planes and will be in charge of flying them, and the fifth being my advisor.  This trip will be interesting not only for the work we are doing, but because I will be in Antarctica during "Winfly" (Winter fly-in).  For one week in late August, several flights go to McMurdo to begin to bring in the support staff that will start to get the station ready for "Mainbody", which is when most of the scientists come to Antarctica to do their work.  I'm typically used to temperatures in McMurdo being 20F, but this time I'll see temperatures more like -30F!  I'm also excited to see darkness in Antarctica for the first time.  When I arrive, there will be approximately 4 hours of sunlight per day (much different than the 24 hours I'd seen in years past), but by the time I leave the sun will be up for more like 14 hours, so things will change pretty quickly.  I'll hopefully get to see some really great clouds and the Southern Lights too.

Since my last trip, I've had two big changes in my life, and all in the last year.  In January, my father passed away very unexpectedly.  He was always very dad-like about my trips - worried, but proud.  He would always introduce me to people as "my daughter who goes to Antarctica".  I'll be thinking about him a lot on this trip as I do more things I know he would be proud of me for.  In February of this same year I gave birth to my son, Aiden.  It will be hard to leave my six month baby to return to a seven and a half month old, but I hope he looks back on this someday and is as proud of me as my dad always was.  I'm lucky to have people like Paul, my mom, and my in-laws to help out with him while I'm away.

Next stop - New Zealand!  Be talking to you soon!