September 29, 2012 - Finishing Up

Hi all - we're in the last days of finishing up here, and this will likely be my last blog post from here.  

The last few days have been filled with catching up with work, getting cargo together, laundry, and things of that nature, but yesterday John and I did get out with some scientists from the New Zealand base down the road.  They have a few measurement stations on the sea ice where they measure changes in ozone in the layer nearest to the surface (the boundary layer).  They wanted some atmospheric measurements to go along with their chemistry measurements, so we went out to fly the SUMOs there.  

I'd not been out on the sea ice that much, and it was a bit unnerving, to be honest.  It shouldn't be, since they will be landing a C-17 on it in a few days, but I've always been a bit uneasy about driving on ice.  When I was younger, my dad would always drive out on the lake to go ice fishing or sometimes to get from point A to B quickly, and I was always uneasy about it.  However, the Hagaland, which we rode in, floats, and the sea ice is a few feet thick now, so all was good.

The Hagaland.

At any rate, the ride was interesting.  We had to cross one crack, which occurs in the same spot every year and has been named the "Big John Crack".  It's been pretty active lately, but we were able to cross it without problems.

Tim, Caro, and Denis, our NZ guides, checking out the Big John Crack.

We went out for about a 45 minute ride, until we arrived at our destination.  We were to launch one SUMO flight, and be done.  However, the SUMOs seem to hate me this trip - every time I'm with one, it does something we weren't expecting.  This time, when John launched it, it flew for about 2 seconds, then went into a nosedive and crashed into the ground, breaking.  We still don't know what happened, but it looks like it lost air speed for some reason, and tried to get some by going into a nose dive.  This generally doesn't end well when you're only a couple of feet off the ground.  At any rate, the plane is easily fixable, and John and I just had to shake our heads.  What else can you do?

John launching the SUMO (Picture by Caro).

We bag drag tomorrow (take our bags to be put on a pallet to go on the plane), and head out Monday.  We are flying out on an AirBus, which will be my first time flying on a regular plane from Antarctica.  Typically I've flown out on military planes.  I hear they have stewardesses and everything.  Should be interesting.  There's only ~30 people heading north, so the plane will not be very full.  I am looking forward to getting to New Zealand, and then getting home.  

As I think about this trip, I think it's been my favorite trip to Antarctica.  I've made no secret about how frustrated I get with coming here sometimes, and despite the fact that I enjoy doing field work, I've always been a bit out of sorts down here.  This time I didn't really feel that way, despite all the changes that I detailed in my life that have occurred since my last trip.  I had a lot of fun on this trip.  I very much enjoyed spending time with the five people I came down here with - John, Paul, Peter, Nick, and Cam - and I really enjoyed flying the planes.  John really made me feel very involved in the project here, and I got a good sense of how to manage a field project like this, should I become a fancy scientist someday who continues on with this line of work.  Of course, I miss my family at home, and on this particular trip, I've missed my dad quite a bit.  Grief is a troubling thing, I've found.  

I hope that you don't hear another blog post from me from here, since that means I'm just stuck here, but  I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

September 27, 2012 - Last Flights!

Hi all - We've been super busy the last few days getting out our last flights of the season, and now we are done!  Yesterday evening, Nick figured out that in the last 26 hours we'd flown something like 36 hours (I think I have that right), which you can get at when you realize we'd been flying two planes.

This is one of the UAVs beneath the moon coming in for a landing at Pegasus on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, we had our last night flight to Terra Nova Bay, where we flew two planes in a similar pattern as we had done previously.  Again, we got some really great data from the flights.  I might not have mentioned this earlier, but we also have a digital camera on board, and so if we fly when it's light enough, we also get some really great photos of the ocean and ice at the surface.

One of the photos from the UAVs.  The large white items are sea ice.  You can also see waves and white caps.

Some bergy bits...not officially icebergs, but pieces of sea ice.

Frazil ice.

There are also a few pictures from the landing.  This picture shows the van and a person standing behind it.

Landing at Pegasus.

If you look *a little* more carefully, you can see that person is...

...me!  Not bad...you can catch my hat and everything.

Anyway, the landing for both planes went smoothly the next morning.  All six of us were out for the landing, as it was to be the last one of the season.

Flying high in the sky.

242 coming in for a landing.

Almost there!

On the ground.

The weather the rest of the week looked pretty bad for flying in Terra Nova Bay, and John wanted to take the opportunity we had to fly a bit more locally to another polynya nearby.  So after an hour or two on the ground Wednesday morning, we turned one of the planes around and launched it for a day flight to the Ross Sea polynya.  This flight took about 6 hours, and got a lot of neat data that we can use to compare to what is happening in TNB.

Here's a video of the launch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAiMN5n5aas&feature=g-upl

Sundogs on the left and right sides of the sun.

After the planes all landed, and our field work was complete, there was much mirth and merriment on the runway.  We shot some photos of all of us with the UAVs (all courtesy of Paul).

Me and my five best friends (including the UAV but not Peter) :) from the last 6 weeks.

John and I with the last UAV to land.

I am obligated to laugh at my advisor's jokes.

Me and the UAV.

Right now we are just packing up and getting ready to leave.  We are scheduled to go out on Monday, so keep your fingers crossed.  John and I do have one more fun trip ahead of us - tomorrow we are going out to fly the SUMOs with some people from the New Zealand base.  We'll be heading out on the sea ice, so maybe I'll get to see some penguins.  Stay tuned...

September 24, 2012 - Flights!

Hi all - first of all, it's my little man's 7 month birthday today!  We only have one more week before we are scheduled to head home, and I'm looking forward to seeing him and Paul and the rest of my family soon!  My mom, Paul's mom, and his stepfather have been super helpful helping take care of Aiden, and I'm eternally grateful.  

My boys.

We've been keeping busy the last few days.  We got another pair of flights up to TNB on Saturday night.  We did a similar flight pattern then as we had done the past few days.  I didn't go out for the launch, but I did go out for the landing.  It was really great to see two flights go out, and two flights come back.

The first UAV to return home.

The second one landing.

Here's a video of the landing.

The three flight days we've had have given us some really great data because we've been able to see the evolution of a wind event there from start to finish.  It's given us some really interesting data to analyze and understand the process of the polynya opening in the region.  We've started looking at the data already, and it's pretty exciting.

Other than that, the weather has kept us on hold the last few days, but we're hoping to fly the next couple.  Yesterday, John gave the Sunday science lecture on station so that the community could learn about some of the science they are here to support.

I was so riveted by the talk I forgot to take a picture until the end,.

I'm starting to shift my schedule back to a more normal one...or at least one during the days.  In some ways I liked the night shift because I'm more productive when it's quieter, but it will be nice to actually see some people again.

I got out a few nights ago to get some night photos, which I'll share below.  It's interesting that in the short time I've been here we went from it being pitch dark at 3 am to there being a fair bit of light at that time of night.  Regardless, I got to see some more southern lights, which is always a welcome treat.

Reflection of the moon on the sea ice.  This was taken around 3 am.

The moon on another night.

Stars.

Observation Hill at night.

Southern lights and a satellite, I believe.

More lights.

More stars.

September 20, 2012 - Great Successes and Not So Great Successes

Hi all - Happy equinox!  Today everyone on Earth is experiencing the same amount of daylight!

The last few days have been quite a roller coaster ride.  After sorting out the communications issues and gathering ourselves after the UAV crash into Windless Bight, the weather was also cooperating for us to send some UAVs up to Terra Nova Bay (TNB) to do some of the science we came here to do!  On Tuesday, we sent up UAV 215 and UAV 230 on its way.  The planes took off around 4 and 5 pm, and arrived at TNB around 9 and 10 pm.  The way we sample our measurements are as follows:  the first plane flies parallel to the Antarctic coast.  Once we get to TNB, we are looking for the strongest winds, and once we find them, we turn the UAV and measure the atmosphere with the strongest winds at our back for about 20 miles or so.  Then the plane returns home.  Along this downwind track, we take vertical measurements of the atmosphere over open water and over sea ice.  Once we finish this, we send the plane back to re-sample the vertical measurements again so we can get an understanding of how the atmosphere changed over the amount of time it took between when the profile was first measured and when we went back and measured it.

This is a forecast map of surface winds from the weather model we are using during our flights - AMPS.  The area with the red shows the TNB region and the wind field we are studying.

In the above image, the plane starts flying at the three dots in the center of the image and heads north, flying over ocean along the Antarctic coast (which is to the left of this image).  We are heading toward the wind field that is red and yellow to the north.  Once we find it, we fly within the yellow region toward the east.

The second plane can do a variety of measurements, but so far we've had it run horizontal transects across the area of strongest winds to understand a number of things, such as the horizontal extent.  We can also map the wave height using a laser altimeter that is on board one of the planes.

On Tuesday, we got some really interesting data from a wind event in TNB that was a bit different than what we were expecting to see, even though the winds were blowing around 60 mph.  This is great though, since we get information from different types of events.  Both planes landed safely around 8:30 and 9 am Wednesday morning.  Of course, if you're keeping track, this means we are flying all night, and so I am up all night.  Paul and I have shifted to a night schedule, where basically we get up around 3 or 4 pm, go into the lab to get ready for the launch, and then are up until 9 am when the plane lands.  Nick, Cam, and Peter have been going out to launch and recover the planes, so they usually come in around 7 am to head out and do that.  John is either out for the launch or in the lab for takeoff, and both he and I are here until 4 am directing Paul on where to fly the planes based on what weather we want to sample.  John and I take turns staying up until 9 am when the plane lands, but now that I've switched to a more night time schedule I've been doing this more.

Cam, Paul, and John doing their UAV thing.

On Wednesday, we were flying high from our great success, and since the weather was again cooperating, we flew two more planes, UAV 215 again and UAV 242, up to TNB.  We were excited to get information on how the winds in TNB had evolved from yesterday.  We flew the two planes similarly to the day before, and got some really great data.

We had almost completed our missions, when Paul said "Uh oh" (which is something you never want to hear a pilot say), and told us that it looked like the generator belt broke on UAV 215.  This is important because the generator belt helps run the battery, which the plane needs to run its systems to fly.  Once the battery dies (which when it is -20F isn't very long) you have a plane that has no idea what it's doing or where it's going.  Paul unfortunately had to cut the engine and send a plane with a perfectly working engine into the ocean, since it would never have been able to make it home.  This belt issue is a known weakness for 215, as this happened to them in 2009.  However, in 2009 it happened shortly after take off, and they could land it.  Here that wasn't an option.  They believe it was the cold that did the belt in.  Fortunately, we did get a lot of data from that plane before it crashed, and hopefully we can do some interesting things with it.  On the bright side, we do have interesting information all the way to the ocean surface, which you generally don't get.

Fortunately, 242 landed safely around 9 am this morning.  It was covered in sea salt, which, since it never flew closer than 150 feet above the surface is pretty interesting.  Shows you how big the waves were out there!

After this, we took today off to regroup, and are hoping to go back out when the weather improves.  We're going to run more cautiously though, as we don't want to lose another plane.  It is disheartening to lose a plane, but it's important to remember that we are pushing the limits of the planes in an environment that's harsh and unpleasant, and we're doing some really, really great science in the process.  It's not inconceivable to have lost two planes doing this.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some pictures of the moon and from a walk John and I took this evening.

The moon looking toward the southwest around 3 am on Thursday morning.

The moon looking toward the north around 7 pm Thursday evening.

McMurdo - where I am staying.  Those are fuel drums in the foreground.

Me and McMurdo.

It gets a bit frosty on the walk.

Icy.

September 17, 2012 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Well, maybe no trains.

Hi all - a lot has happened since my last post!  We've had several planes go into the air, one of them not come back, and one instance of McMurdo AAA required.  Let's dig in!

On Thursday the 13th the weather was finally good enough to fly up to Terra Nova Bay (TNB), and so we decided to launch two planes to the region, #214 and #230.  Nick, Cam, and Peter went out to Pegasus to launch the plane, and Paul stayed back in Crary (our lab in McMurdo) to fly it once it was in the air.  John wanted to be out for the launch, but wanted a meteorologist back at Crary to pass weather information to the pilot (Paul).  So I stayed back, and checked the weather models, and advised Paul when we got into situations of high moisture or winds as to whether it would make sense to climb or sink to a lower altitude, and whether we should move horizontally.  I really enjoyed this a lot.  It was good to have a primary role in the mission.  

Me and Paul, working to keep the plane in the air.

UAV 214 took off without a hitch around 4 pm, and started heading to TNB.  Paul and I watched it on the screen back in Crary, and maneuvered it around clouds and high winds.  About an hour later, they launched 230, but the prop fell off almost immediately!  Cam again put his pilot skills to the test and landed it quickly without incident.  By the time the new prop was on, the engine was too cold to start again.  

About 3 hours into 214's flight to TNB, we lost communications with the aircraft.  After 15 minutes, the plane is programmed to return to its original position - in this case, Pegasus.  About an hour later though, it came back online and was still flying to TNB!  This is concerning because it wasn't doing what it was supposed to, but we quick put in a flight plan to do our work in case it went offline again.  It did end up doing that, and eventually came back to Pegasus, but we did get some useful data out of the flight anyway.

The next day the weather was good again, and so we launched two more planes (#216 and #230).  I went out for the launch this time, and both planes took off and all was good.  By the time we got back to Crary though, they'd already lost communications with #216, and it was on its way back to Pegasus.  About an hour later, they lost comms with #230 as well.  Clearly there's a bigger issue at play here than what we thought.  

216 about to launch.

216 is on its way!

There it goes!

230 on its way.

UAV 230 flying in the sunset.

More sunset.

Me on the runway after launch.

Nick, Cam, and Peter on the runway after launch.  Nick is holding the shock absorber that fell off the van that day.  See more below on fun times with the van.

John decided to make the best of it though, and wanted to do some sampling at some of the neat topography near McMurdo.  As long as we were close to Pegasus, we could communicate with the plane.  The best part of this though was John decided that I should get to run the missions!  I was pretty excited about this.  I thought about what I wanted to sample, and where I wanted to go, and how to do it.  It was really great for me to do this.

Paul and I were getting some great data all night, sampling the winds near Black and White Islands, and flying through a small high pressure system nearby.  I then decided to take the planes to Windless Bight.  Windless Bight is about 30 km from McMurdo, and it was a large part of my master's thesis when I studied blowing snow in Antarctica.  I was super interested in sampling there.  So we took the planes up there, and were taking some measurements first with #216.  We were in an ice cloud for awhile, and I was getting nervous because I didn't want the plane to get iced up.  We had brought #230 over as well, but had decided we should probably sample elsewhere since the moisture there was too high.  Just as we were discussing this though, #216 falls out of the sky and crashes rather dramatically into the ground at Windless Bight.  We didn't know what had happened and if icing was a problem, but we got #230 out of there as quickly as we could.  It was a harrowing hour though, as we couldn't get out of the moisture for quite some time.  We finally found a pocket of (somewhat) lower relative humidity values, and circled the plane there for the rest of the night.  We landed 230 at 6 am without incident.

After discussing it, they thought the autopilot had gotten iced up and therefore couldn't find its air speed.  It thought it stalled, and went into a nose dive to try and recover, and ended up crashing.  I felt pretty terrible about this, since we were flying in an ice cloud.  But they told me that we weren't flying in conditions we hadn't deemed reasonable prior to this flight, and that in the end it wasn't my fault.  I've learned a lot from the experience, and even though it ended rather dramatically, I'm still glad I did it.  It's better to try and fail then never to try at all!

The last time I ever saw 216.

They will attempt to recover it with a helicopter once they start flying in October, but my guess is that it will be buried by then.  We did get some of the data from the flight though, so not all is lost.

After this day, they decided to take a few days to sort out the communications problem they are having with the planes.  Yesterday, John and I had a bit of free time and so we went to Pegasus to fly the smaller UAVs, called the SUMOs.  These only fly for 30 minutes at a time.  We went out during the day to fly three flights.  For these flights, John launches the plane by hand, and I basically run it off the computer.  I really like this also, as I'm flying a plane!  John used to do manual takeoffs and landings, but, especially in the cold, it's easier to just automate it all.

John and I communicating before launch.

To launch the plane John throws it in the air.

There goes the SUMO!

Me watching it on the computer.

We got some really interesting data from the flights, and decided to come back at 9 pm that night and spend the night at Pegasus and sample how the atmosphere changes overnight.  Paul came along for the ride, and we took our first flight around 9.  This all went well, and we scrambled back into the van to head back to our hut (we were on the runway).  I put it into drive, and it made a loud popping noise, and did not sound normal.  We limped a mile back to our warm hut (which I was grateful for, since the only other option was walking back in the cold), and radioed for assistance back in McMurdo.  Since it is about 15 miles to McMurdo from Pegasus, we needed help.  Two guys came back to pick us up on what is called the "magic carpet ride", which is basically a big sled hooked up to a big machine.  They put the van on top of the sled and had us ride back.  But they didn't want us to turn on the van, so we had to ride back in temperatures around -15F for about an hour.  I was COLD!

Anyway, we're hoping to do another flight tomorrow, and hopefully our communication issues are sorted out.  Stay tuned!

The van on the magic carpet ride.

Hooking the van up on the magic carpet ride.