Antarctica 2012: 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.