Merry Christmas!

I just attended the 11:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service here at the McMurdo Base Chapel. The chapel is aptly named “Chapel of the Snows”. It is listed in the literature as the southern most dedicated place of worship on earth. Attending the Christmas worship service here was an experience I’ll never forget. Imagine singing Silent Night at almost midnight on Christmas Eve with sunlight pouring through the stained glass windows. The chapel is aligned so that the sun shines directly through the window at midnight. It was absolutely beautiful – both the sight and the experience. When we started this campaign, I knew there was an outside chance of getting home by Christmas. Due to a variety of circumstances, most of them weather related, it didn’t pan out. I know that there is no such thing as a random occurrence. God is in control of everything. If the weather had been good and I was home by now, I never would have had this experience. Being home would have been very nice. We would have attended Christmas Eve services and had our traditional Christmas Eve gathering at our house just as we have done for years. Tradition makes you comfortable, experiences make you alive. My soul is alive tonight. I thank God for the blessing I have received from Him. My heart is full. Merry Christmas everyone!

The Chapel of the Snows. Note the anchors out front signifying the Navy origins of McMurdo.

The very unique stained glass window above the altar

Where exactly am I?

It's a little tough to visualize exactly where I am on the globe. Here is a little geography lesson. The Ross Sea is just about due south of New Zealand. I'm not exactly on the continent of Antarctica. I'm on Ross Island. McMurdo Station is on the southern tip of the island. For you Google Earth users, the exact coordinates of our dorm are:

Lat: -77.845418 Lon: 166.662462

Google Earth image with the McMurdo area at the center of the globe here.

This is a recent satellite photo of the sea ice. The green arrow is pointing at McMurdo. As you can see, we are completely surrounded by ice.

The mainland of Antarctica is visible all around us from McMurdo. This view of Ross Island shows where Mt. Erebus, Terra Nova, and Mt. Terror are on the island. McMurdo is on the southern tip of the long peninsula coming down from the island. The entire island is built by volcanic action, so it is just a bunch of black dirt. There is no native vegetation. McMurdo Station has the nickname "Dirt Town" because of its lack of snow and lack of vegetation. It looks like a dirty old mountain mining town.

Here is a map of McMurdo. I have labeled some of the landmarks in town. It has basically everything that a small town has except all of the residents live in communal living and eat in a central dining hall. In the 1950's, when this was a Navy base,it was called "Little America". In the Navy days, the power for town was provided by an aircraft carrier sized nuclear reactor. Today, the power is produced by a bank of huge diesel generators. I'm not too sure about why the waste water plant is so close to the fresh water treatment plant.

If we zoom out a little, you can see the whole tip of the peninsula. McMurdo is on the west side and Scott Base (NZ) is on the east side. We take a van or bus across to Scott Base where the "transition" is from the dirt road to the sea ice. The weather has been very warm lately with highs in the mid to upper 30's F. The transition is getting very slushy. Van traffic has been shut down now so we can only travel to and from Willy field in vehicles that have big balloon tires like Ivan the Terrabus or Deltas.

ANITA at Float

After a beautiful launch, the ANITA mission ascended to its planned float altitude of 121,000 feet and is merrily making its way west toward the heart of the Antarctic ice. Just as it was going into float, I took these photos of ANITA through Peter Gorham's telescope. I sure am glad he brought it down.

The balloon is amost completely full here.

Just about to start venting at peak altitude

Fat and Happy!

ANITA Launched!

The ANITA mission was launched today in perfect weather. The balloon climbed straight up for quite a while after launch. Let's hope this very favorable weather holds out a bit longer for the ULDB launch. The ANITA instrument has very sensitive radio receivers on board "listening" for neutrino hits, so they would prefer to have some distance between them and the ULDB telemetry transmitters. We hope that the winds at altitude for ANITA will carry it over the horizon so we can take advantage of these great conditions as soon as possible.

Dwayne looks like a proud papa

Inflating a balloon to 10,000 lbs of lift takes about an hour.

Just after spool release

Good Luck ANITA!

ANITA Launch Attempt

Today, we went out to the pad for a launch of the ANITA payload. ANITA stands for Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna. Here is the link to their web site: http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~anita/web/index.htm

The ANITA instrument is looking for the very specific radio emissions that are created when neutrinos hit the Antarctic ice. The structures that look like loud speakers on the payload are very finely tuned receivers that are looking for very short spikes of energy that would indicate the presence of the neutrino impacts.

ANITA on the pad

Each year, they have a contest to decorate the battery box for the payload. Here is this year's winning entry. Notice the figure inside the antenna on the far right.

Since this is a group from the University of Hawaii, they added a hula girl to their payload.

GO CATS GO!

Our Sulphur Springs Wildcats are playing in the State Championship football game on Saturday. Even though I'm not physically in the stands to be obnoxiously loud, I'll be there in spirit, and on the phone. Susan and Taryn keep me informed of the score by cell phone text messaging. Isn't technology wonderful? For all you Wildcat fans who are in the stands Saturday: LETS MAKE SOME NOISE! ! !

Your southern most Wildcat fan

CREAM Launch

Today was the first launch of the three balloons in this campaign. CREAM stands for Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass. The launch was beautiful. You can track the position of the balloon on the CSBF web site over on the links menu.

A perfect launch in perfect conditions. Photo by Gary Marchant, CSBF Electronics

I'm not holding my belly because I have a tummy ache. I had to hold my camera under my coat when I was not using it or the battery would freeze up. I think a good way to test camera equipment for use down here is to put it in your freezer for an hour. If it still works, it might be ok for Antarctica.

Dr. Peter Gorham, Principle Investigator for the ANITA experiment brought his telescope. I took this photo with my camera by holding it up to the eye piece. The balloon is 450 feet in diameter at 128,000 feet in altitude.

CREAM Launch Attempt

Today was the first time to take a payload out to the launch pad for this campaign. We went as far as taking the payload, balloon, and all the launch equipment out to the pad. As it does so often in this business, the weather in the area was just not stable enough so we cancelled today's launch.

The CREAM payload all buttoned up and ready for launch.

On "The Boss" launch vehicle in launch position.

The equipment and arrangement for launch are just like other places, except the launch spool, helium tanks, and balloon are pulled by bulldozers and are riding on sleds instead of trailers.

Seal Sighting

I took a walk down by the Discovery Hut yesterday and saw a family of seals at the water's edge. There were three adults up on the ice sunning themselves and two smaller ones in the water. One of the smaller ones was trying to get up on the ice but just could not make it. Everyone on the shore was rooting for the little guy, but he just couldn't make it up. Mom, on the other hand didn't seem to care much. The baby was not in any danger of drowning or anything It was just going to have to stay in the water.

I'll go back tonight and see if the he got to go up and do some sun bathing like his parents.

Pressure Ridge Tour

We signed up earlier this week for an up-close tour of the pressure ridges just off shore from the Scott Base. In order to qualify for the tour, you had to go through the outdoor safety course and have all the proper clothing. The tours are small groups and the sign up sheets fill up fast. We were lucky to be in town when the sign up sheet went out. Here are some photos from our trip.

This was a no-kidding semi-dangerous trip out on the sea ice to look at the pressure ridges up close. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me. This is our group with the specially trained guide. She had a radio and rescue equipment just in case one of us broke through the ice. Yikes!

These formations were beautiful. Unfortunately it was cloudy and snowing during our tour. Flat light is not the best for taking photos of ice.

Henry looked like a real live Antarctic explorer here.

More cool (pardon the pun) ice formations. There was a little blue sky in the background for this shot.

These sheets of ice are HUGE!

The Balloon Bunch: Henry, Me, Dave, Dwayne, and Jill.

We really had to be careful in areas where the ice was thin. This was not your usual retired-folks cruise ship excursion here.

The trail actually took us UNDER the ice in 0ne spot.

Yes, I know I look like Admiral Byrd here, but instead of pitching a tent and sleeping out in this stuff tonight, I took the heated bus back to town, took a warm shower, put on my jammies, and posted these photos. Hope you liked them.

First Day of Crummy Weather

Since we arrived last Saturday (it seems like month ago), it has been really sunny and "warm". The temperature has been in the 20's or 30's and very little wind. If you are sitting in the shuttle bus and the sun is shining on you, you would actually be hot. In addition, our building is very well insulated. When the sun is shining on the building, it can get really hot. It was pushing 90 F a few times last week here. I actually said; "I am so sick of being hot." I got my wish today. It is foggy, cold, and windy. The wind chill is about -4 F. I know you guys in South Dakota are rolling your eyes. I really don't mind cold as long as you can dress for it.

Here is my first attempt at posting a video on my blog. The flags blowing in the wind tell the story quite well.

Pressure Ridge Photos

I walked down to the edge of the ice next to New Zealand's Scott Base and took some great photos of huge pieces of ice being pushed up by the pressure of the ice movement. We drive right past this every day on the way to and from Williams Field.

The sign on the road overlooking the ice just before going down the hill.

Wide view of the pressure ridge from the "shore".

Mt. Terror in the Background

Mt. Erebus

Closer view of the ice ridges

I loved the blue tint to the ice.

One of my favorite shots

Just doin' what I'm told

Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself. Is this really happening? Since I am supporting handling the balloon during the launch, I might need to go back to the building and get some tools or equipment. The normal method of travel to and from the launch pad is by snow mobile (or snow machine as my sister from Alaska calls them). Since this is a government operation, we had to take a snow mobile safety course. Yup, just following orders. If you want me to drive a snow mobile, I'll take the course. Yea, twist my arm (ha).

Those of us needing the training gathered with the support person and she fitted us with helmets and showed us how to start the things. After a few more minutes of do's and don'ts, we took off to the launch pad in single file. There I was - driving a snow mobile across the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica looking at an erupting volcano. I thought to myself; "I wonder what those 'extreme adventure' tour companies would charge for something like this?" Then I thought; "Holy smokes, I'm getting paid to do this!" Just doin' what I'm told, that's all.

An unusual commute to work

I’ve been trying to get this shot since we got here. I have not done a good job at conveying where it is that we are working. The McMurdo base is on solid ground on Ross Island. Ross Island was selected because it is not completely covered with ice year-round like so much of Antarctica. The place where we work is actually out on the ice in the Ross Sea. This photo properly conveys where we go to work each day.
We take the road down to the ice and drive about six miles out to Williams Field. On the way off the island, we pass by New Zealand’s Scott base. Those are the green buildings you see in the foreground of the photo.

A few hundred yards off shore are a set of very impressive pressure ridges. This ice is perhaps 300 feet thick. As it flows toward the island, it heaves up into ridges. Some of the pieces that get lifted up are as big as a house.

The guys who have been coming out here for years say that the base was a lot farther out on the ice when they first started coming here. The people who monitor such things have determined that Williams Field is moving toward Ross Island about 300 feet each year. I guess that is a good reason why all of our buildings are set up as giant sleds and can be moved around from year to year.

When we were out taking these photos, we saw this person moving along the ice road on a pair of skis being pulled along by a kite. You can click on any of these photos for a full size version.

I had to share this

Here is one of those inflatable Christmas decorations set up in one of the science labs here at McMurdo.

I guess it gets unplugged during the night. Someone saw the pitiful sight of the deflated penguin and creativity got the best of them. In this kind of environment, you just have to make your own fun.

No Plumbing

You knew this was coming right? We are about seven miles out on the ice shelf by the Williams Field. We have no running water soooo . . . We have outhouses. They are a step up from the fiberglass ones at the state fair, but not much. Here's a funny story. One of the guys went out last week and was having to hold the door shut while he was uh "going". Well he lost his grip and the door didn't just blow open, it blew off.

The "head" is in the center of this photo
Yes, that's snow on the floor.