Race around the world

At the pole, every Christmas we have a "Race around the World"- since here we can literally walk through all time zones.  It was 2.3 miles, and I walked part of it, ran part of it.  We had pretty crummy weather on Christmas eve here.  The winds were blowing a good 20+, and it was something below 0.  This is me walking... It was a whiteout kind of day..

2 Hercs on the ground!

Yesterday we had 2 L-C130's on the ground at once.

Christmas Carols

On Christmas Day, I participated in a long standing tradition.  Before the days of iridium and regular telephones, those stationed in Antarctica communicated using the HF radio.  We still have and use the HF radio in comms, but in addition to other means of communication.

On Christmas day, all of the field camps, as well as McMurdo station, get together at a designated time and take turns singing carols over the HF radio.  It was a memory from here I'll never forget.  It was especially magical this year, because the Norwegian tourists (some of those who skied to the Pole, and are now camping outside our station) came in to join us.  They sang 2 Christmas carols in their native language.

It made Christmas day for me!

The Norwegians, singing...

And, another first!

For the first time, we had a Catholic Priest at South Pole Station for Christmas.  Fr. Rossetti has been great to have here!

His story:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/23/my-faith-an-unexpected-christmas-at-south-pole/

And the highest temperature today!

A record set at South Pole Station, Antarctica

Weather for South Pole Station Today is Sunday, December 25th 3:03pm Temperature-12.6 °C 9.3 °F Windchill -18.4 °C -1.2 °F Wind 5.6 kts Grid 216 Barometer 690.0 mb (10,253 ft)

Ice Tunnels

Here at the South Pole, all of our electrical wiring and water pipes are housed below the surface, in "ice tunnels".  They are 60-80 feet below the surface.  It's a constant -60C/-50F in these tunnels.  I had an opportunity to take a walk in these tunnels.  I lasted about 35 minutes!

Looking up the escape hatch

Top is water into the station; Bottom is waste flowing out of the station

Many items are left in the tunnels

-50C inside

More of the same; Below the 2 large tubes, there are smaller tubes of electrical wiring; The tube sticking out on the right allows plumbers to check the "flow" inside the tubes (to make sure nothing is frozen)

Me, after 30 or so minutes; I have ice crystals on my eyelashes

My exciting week!

This week has been a very big week here at the South Pole.  On Wednesday we celebrated the 100 year anniversary of Norway’s Ronald Amundsen’s finding of the South Pole.  We had nearly 100 tourists ski, drive, and fly all across Antarctica the pole to be part of the celebrations.  The tourists camped about 1/2 mile away from our station, as they are not allowed into our building.  We set up a visitors tent (that was warm!) for them!  

I met, and hung out with Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg.   He and his entourage were here 3 days.

And we had a group photo with him at the pole.  This is nearly all 200 of us who live and work at the pole this summer.  It’s a pretty big deal to get your picture on the walls at the  south pole station.  I’m happy to say, I will have checked this box.  I’m in the front row, kneeling, near the center, in blue ski pants, white fleece, and red jacket.  I’m just to the left of a a firefighter in uniform.  

Last night I met up with Borge Ousland, an adventurist.  He skied along Amundsen’s route to the pole, unsupported a few days ago.  He was really inspiring.  

We watched a movie “Patagonia, A Travel to the End of the World”.  It was about Borge and a friend, Thomas Ulrich who climbed over the ice cap between Argentina and Chile.  They were the first to do it unsupported, and it took them 55 days.  I don’t have great internet down here, but if you can find it online, definitely watch!!!

Borge's website and blog: 

http://www.ousland.no/

And, at some point during the week, I felt I needed a hero shot.  It was -27F outside!

Skua Sighting!

Skuas: a group of seabirds with about seven species forming the family Stercorariidae and the genus Stercorarius. The three smaller skuas are called jaegers in North America. The English word "skua" comes from the Faroese name skúgvur for the Great Skua, with the island of Skúvoy renowned for its colony of that bird. The general Faroese term for skuas is kjógvi. The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter". Skuas nest on the ground in temperate and Arctic regions, and are long-distance migrants. They have even been sighted at the South Pole.

So, as you can imagine at the pole we have no wildlife of any kind… usually.  BUT!  Today, we had a lonesome skua flying around.  An announcement was made and most of the station came to take a look!  It’s a big deal at the pole!  We can assume he flew in with the traverse or with the tourists who skied in this past week.  At any rate, the decision for the bird to come to the pole was a fatal one.  We have nothing for him to eat or warm place for him to hide.  And, he has no other friends here, he came solo.  Poor bird……

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week- my scheduled has changed and I am either sleeping or working when the satellites pass overhead, and the internet is up.  The Prime Minister of Norway did come, as well as nearly 100 tourists (who are here camping outside)!  I will post pictures and tell all about it soon!!

The Dark Sector

On Tuesday, I went to the Dark Sector.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, we have different areas or "sectors" around the main station building.  The dark sector houses all of our telescopes.  The scientists here are studying what the universe was like after the big bang.  They are using microwaves to see the light at a point in space where it is no longer reflecting off other objects- I forget the number, but it was something like 180 million light years away.  (It's hard to wrap your brain around!)  By studying this light, and it's heat, they can tell what the universe was like in the very beginning.

Since it is summer here, none of our telescopes are actually looking at anything- all the scientists are working on the telescopes.  We should have some telescopes up and running within a few weeks, and I'll be back!!  I was able to climb up in the space where the telescopes would normally be housed.

Martin A Pomerantz Oberservatory (MAPO); first 4 pictures
astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/darksector/mapo/


South Pole Telescope link (SPT); last 2 pictures
http://pole.uchicago.edu/

This telescope goes in the above "yellow section of the building" - 5 of them fit in the small circle where I am standing.

This telescope is housed in the building above

A sundog at the pole

Went out about midnight last night and saw the sundog!

The traverse is here!

Every summer we have a traverse that brings us fuel and supplies.  They are a group of vehicles that travel a great distance over a "road" in Antarctica.  Our first traverse left November 3, and arrived at South Pole December 3.  The traverse travels between 8-12 mph, and the workers drive 14-16 hours a day.  They left McMurdo with 120,000 gallons of fuel, and plan to offload 15,000 gallons to us.  Although this isn't very much fuel for us, we are just a stop over for them.  The traverse will be continuing to East Antarctica, on the high plateau to AGAP, where they will offload nearly 50,000 gallons in a fuel cache.

The second traverse will be here in about 3 weeks, and they will offload significantly more fuel.

I walked out to meet them upon arrival!!  The bladders hold 3,000 gallons each, and are just pulled across Antarctica on the sleds you see.  Some of their bigger trailers are living/eating quarters.

Just a webstite from the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Traverse

Amundsen and Scott, trecking South, 100 years ago

100 Years ago…

Notes from Amundsen:

“On December 1 we left the glacier in high spirits. It was cut up by innumerable crevasses and holes. We were now at a height of 9,370 feet. In the mist and driving snow it looked as if we had a frozen lake before us; but it proved to be a sloping plateau of ice, full of small blocks of ice. Our walk across this frozen lake was not pleasant. The ground under our feet was evidently hollow, and it sounded as if we were walking on empty barrels. First a man fell through, then a couple of dogs; but they got up again all right. We could not, of course, use our ski on this smooth-polished ice, but we got on fairly well with the sledges. We called this place the Devil's Ballroom. This part of our march was the most unpleasant of the whole trip.”

“On December 2 we reached our greatest elevation. According to the hypsometer and our aneroid barometer we were at a height of 11,075 feet -- this was in lat. 87º 51'.”

Notes from Scott:

Thursday, November 30.—Camp 26. A very pleasant day for marching, but a very tiring march for the poor animals, which, with the exception of Nobby, are showing signs of failure all round. We were slower by half an hour or more than yesterday. Except that the loads are light now and there are still eight animals left, things don't look too pleasant, but we should be less than 60 miles from our first point of aim. The surface was much worse to-day, the ponies sinking to their knees very often. There were a few harder patches towards the end of the march. In spite of the sun there was not much 'glide' on the snow. The dogs are reported as doing very well. They are going to be a great standby, no doubt. The land has been veiled in thin white mist; it appeared at intervals after we camped and I had taken a couple of photographs.
Friday, December 1.—Camp 27. Lat. 82° 47'. The ponies are tiring pretty rapidly. It is a question of days with all except Nobby. Yet they are outlasting the forage, and to-night against some opinion I decided Christopher must go. He has been shot; less regret goes with him than the others, in remembrance of all the trouble he gave at the outset, and the unsatisfactory way he has gone of late. Here we leave a depôt [31] so that no extra weight is brought on the other ponies; in fact there is a slight diminution. Three more marches ought to bring us through. With the seven crocks and the dog teams we must get through I think. The men alone ought not to have heavy loads on the surface, which is extremely trying.
Nobby was tried in snowshoes this morning, and came along splendidly on them for about four miles, then the wretched affairs racked and had to be taken off. There is no doubt that these snowshoes are the thing for ponies, and had ours been able to use them from the beginning they would have been very different in appearance at this moment. I think the sight of land has helped the animals, but not much. We started in bright warm sunshine and with the mountains wonderfully clear on our right hand, but towards the end of the march clouds worked up from the east and a thin broken cumulo-stratus now overspreads the sky, leaving the land still visible but dull. A fine glacier descends from Mount Longstaff. It has cut very deep and the walls stand at an angle of at least 50°. Otherwise, although there are many cwms on the lower ranges, the mountains themselves seem little carved. They are rounded massive structures. A cliff of light yellow-brown rock appears opposite us, flanked with black or dark brown rock, which also appears under the lighter colour. One would be glad to know what nature of rock these represent. There is a good deal of exposed rock on the next range also.

*  On November 28, 1929, Byrd and three others took off in their Ford Tri-motor and headed south. After a harrowing climb over the Transantarctic Mountains, Byrd and his crew became the first to fly over the south pole, at 1:14 in the morning on November 29, 1929

*  The Antarctic Treaty was signed on December 1, 1959 and came into force on June 23,1961. Among other provisions, this treaty limits military activity in the Antarctic to the support of scientific research. In essence, this treaty (ratified by all parties in 1961) set the continent of Antarctica aside for peaceful, scientific purposes and placed all territorial claims on hold.

NOAA

So, here at the South Pole, we have the cleanest air on Earth.  Literally.  We have an area on station known as the Clean Air Sector, which belongs to NOAA.  The area is completely off limits, on the ground and overhead.  NOAA samples this air, and compares it to other Clean Air Sectors, worldwide.

I was lucky enough to get a tour by one of our scientists out there on Friday.  I have posted a few articles, which will explain everything much better than I could type it out.  The first link is very informative with what is measured here.

At the end, I got take samples of our air, and bottle it up.  A bit cheesy I suppose, but at the same time really neat!  2 NOAA scientists are hired every year, and winter over.

http://www.omao.noaa.gov/oldies/nspt.html

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1234

http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2010/01/21/the-real-uncertainties-about-climate-change-and-why-antarctica-may-have-the-answers/

The NOAA building

A few things to note here: 1- these are the only windows that "open" and close on station. They are sorta freezer door'ish, which is how all of our door are on station. Scientists use these windows to open and sample air, even in the dead of winter at -100+.  2- the picture on the window was taken a few years ago.  Those are the Southern Lights above the NOAA building. Lovely, lovely photo!

This is scientific equipment from NASA.  It shoots a beam out the window and reflects on a mirror up to space.  They measure cloud height, and is very precise given our clean air.

A hard to read graph that depicts the South Pole having the cleanest air on the planet.  

Device used to measure CO2.

The long walk back to the station.  Flag poles in place to note the path.

100 years ago...

On this weekend Amundsen and Scott were making their way to the South Pole; this is what was recorded in their journals.  (Copied from an email sent out by our Area Director). 

Amundsen recorded that the dogs were doing well and he pitched his tent in the most beautiful campsite in the world.

Scott recorded “quite the most trying march we’ve had…. If it were not for the surface and bad light, things would not be so bad. There are few sastrugi and little deep snow. For the most part men and ponies sink to a hard crust some 3 or 4 inches beneath the soft upper snow…. Our forage supply necessitates that we should plug on the 13 (geographical) miles daily under all conditions, so that we can only hope for better things. It is several days since we had a glimpse of land, which makes conditions especially gloomy. A tired animal makes a tired man, I find, and none of us are very bright now after the day's march, though we have had ample sleep of late.” 

By Comparison:
85th Parallel
Reached by Amundsen Nov 17, 1911
Reached by Scott Dec 21 1911
558km to the Pole

86th Parallel
Reached by Amundsen Nov 27, 1911
Reached by Scott Dec 26, 1911
447km to the Pole

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my stateside friends!!  We, Polies celebrate the holiday on the weekend.  So, we will have a big feast on Saturday- well, as big of feast as we can!  Rumor has it we had freshies and a few other menu items on plane that never made it here.  At the pole, we haven't seen any airplanes in 3 days because of the weather!  Guess we'll just make do!

Many, many thanks to all my supporters of my journey south!

Weather Balloon Launch

Yesterday, I went out with one of our staff meteorologists to launch the weather balloon!  As it rises 100,000 feet above sea level, it collects atmospheric pressures, temperatures, and various other things used to forecast South Pole weather.  When it pops (90,000ft above the South Pole), it lands somewhere over the continent- I was told we don't go collecting the boxes.  We launch 2 balloons a day from the South Pole.

 

We keep the balloons in a heated box so they inflate properly

We blew the balloon up...

Attached a GPS, and a weather measuring computer, and then I got to launch it!!

Why yes, everything is North from here

Everything points North from here!

Postcards

Friends and Family...  I have a few postcards from our store here!  Email me your address if you would like one!  We don't get mail very often here, but a lot seems to go out, so hopefully you'll get it by Christmas!!!

The poles...

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, located at 90 degrees south latitude, sits at an elevation of approximately 2,836 meters (9,306 ft), most of which is ice. Because the Earth’s atmosphere is thinner at the poles, the resulting average “physiological altitude” is 3,223 m (10,576 ft).

The average annual temperature at the South Pole is -49.5° C (-57.1 °F), with a record low temperature of -82.8° C (-117.0° F) in June 1982 and a record high of -13.6° C (+7.5° F) in December

1978.  The extremely dry environment limits annual snowfall. However, a relatively constant wind speed of 5-15 knots accounts for the snow drifting common to inland Antarctic stations. The surrounding terrain is virtually flat, except for shallow waves of sastrugi (small snowdrifts).

Went out last night about 9pm and took a few photos around the poles.  I'm sure more pictures will be posted in the future, once it warms up a bit and I can shed my coat.  It was around -40 last night.

The geographic south pole is above, the ceremonial south pole is below.  The main station- the one and only structured building at the south pole- is behind the flags.