Haere rā: Farewell

Well I am about to depart Gateway Antarctica, the department at the University of Canterbury that Dan and Wolfgang are a part of.

I have had a great week here in Christchurch.  I didn't do any touring but did have some great times.  I don't think a few days of sightseeing would do the wonderful place enough justice, so I will just have to come back and spend some time here.  The people are very friendly, especially here at Gateway.

I still cannot get over the warm temperatures and how green and lush everything is.  On the downside it is very hard to believe that Christmas is just 10 days away here (11 back in Canada). I guess I truly am a Canadian as I really think the snow is important for that Christmas feeling.

While here I have attended a Fleetwood Mac tribute concert, went to a museum donation gala and have been out with Dan, his housemates and some of the students here at Gateway.  I had a really great time with all of them and hope to see them again in the not too distant future.

I will still post more pictures but have not had time to sort through them.  I also want to show some videos but we will see, depends if I can edit something together.

As great as it has been here, I am looking forward to being home, seeing my wife, my dog and my family for Christmas.

Well just 10 minutes until I call I cab so I better pack up and say my goodbyes, just 27.75 hours until I am home.

Bags Dragged and Ready

Well it has been a few days again since I have blogged.  We have been quite busy but now with getting ready to leave.  On December 2nd we conducted measurements at our final two sites.  We have completed 23 sites with the second half of our team conducted 15, so very good all around.  The second team consisted of Pat Langhorne (Professor at University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand), Alex Gough (PhD student of Pat's), Greg Leonard (researcher at University of Otago) and Ken Hughes (a soon to be Master's student of Pat's).  They were also doing similar sea ice and snow measurements as our team but were also doing oceanographic measurements of temperature, salinity, pressure and other things.  They camped out on the ice for 10 days while we had the luxury of being in Scott Base.

On December 3rd, I packed away the HEM bird and readied it for shipping, a process that only takes half as long as putting it together.Dan and I walked over to McMurdo Station (on of the USA's bases in Antarctica) to have a look around.  It is a nice place but has a much more big city and industrial feel to it than cozy Scott Base.  The population at McMurdo is over 1000 people compared to Scott Base's 80 or so.

December 4th consisted of a day off, so data processing and organization. And then on December 5th, I stayed back to help Pat and their team demobilize their campaign (cleaning up) while the others in our team retrieved our GPS stations from the ice. 
Today we finished packing our stuff and have completed our bag-drag.  A process of collecting your checked luggage and doing weigh-ins for your onboard stuff and yourself. We are scheduled to depart sometime tomorrow morning, so we will see if the weather is good, the forecast is for snow.

Well the next time I write will be when I am in New Zealand.  I promise to post more pictures and some videos from my trip.

Catching up

I am back to blogging, hope to be more consistent again although our measurements are beginning to wrap up. I feel pretty bad about not blogging more but to be honest many nights I have been just to tired to do so. But I have some free time now so thought that I would blog instead of doing work or just going to sleep.




Okay the last day I appear to have blogged was November 24th so let’s reconstruct the past week.



November 25th ended up being an unscheduled down day. We used the opportunity to catch up on looking at data and getting an understanding of what was working. We have had some major issues with our short EM31 instrument and have stopped using it as the data appear erroneous more often that not. We will trouble shoot this back in Edmonton, as we still have the University of Cantebury’s long EM31 which is working very, very well.



On November 26th we went out and performed more measurements. We completed 6 measurement sites and travelled over 100kms by skidoo/sled. Here is Wolfgang Rack hand towing his ground penetrating radar. He is looking at measuring the depth of snow and potentially ice thickness using this radar. Towards the end of the day my throat started to bother me and I didn’t feel 100%. This got worse over night and I developed a cough. I probably should have stayed in but wanted to go out the next day so I did.

Wolfgang Rack towing his ground penetrating radar.

 The next day, November 27th, we performed three measurement sites in a North-South direction. This took us near Cape Royds, where there is an Antarctic Specially Protected Area around a penguin colony. We saw three large emperor penguins walking south along the ice but they ignored us at first. Later we had moved a bit south and had stopped for lunch and one of these Emperor penguins decided to come closer and investigate. It stopped over 100m out but it was cool to see.


We finished off our sites, but unfortunately by this time I was feeling well and truly terrible. That night I had a bit of a fever but went to sleep early and though I felt better on the morning of November 28th, I was now quite stuffed up and with a cough. I must have picked up the cold here on base but it appears to have made its way through me quickly. On November 28th, we were scheduled for a helicopter flight, but it was scrubbed due to weather. The others in our team went out to take an ice core in the afternoon while I stayed back and took it easy so that we could do more measurements the next day.

You cannot tell but it is very very windy (they are leaning into the wind, not because the sled is heavy (it isn't).

Skidoo with Mount Erebus in the background.  Mount Erebus is an active volcano is is over 10,000ft high.

 On November 29^th we went out to do measurements, completing another 6 measurement sites across McMurdo Sound. It was a beautiful day and I felt pretty good despite covering another 100kms on the back of the sled combined with a few minor wipeouts with the sled as we navigated through some tricky conditions. We managed to find a bit of ice that wasn’t flat and it made pulling a sled behind a skidoo a bit tricky.  We put the sled about 5m back from the skidoo which means that the sled doesn’t necessarily follow the sled. Daniel Price, Wolfgang’s PhD student wanted to have some fun pictures on the way back and I shot this one for him on our way home.

Dan jumping off the back of the Nansen sled,

On November 30^th, we had our first two helicopter flights, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Wolfgang and Christian performed the morning one and then Wolfgang and I operated the one in the afternoon.  We covered a few hundred nautical miles that day and it was good to get the EM bird out.  However we had some issues, our laser scanner did not function, we lost the GPS signal for part of the flight and we had issues with the connection to the EM bird.  Despite these issues we still gather a lot of useful and valuable data.  I had some great views of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Ross Ice Shelf

 Today we had another flight and Kelvin Barnsdale and I went out.  Kelvin works for the Geospatial Research Center at the University of Canterbury.  Kelvin has developed a camera system that we have deployed on the bird this trip.  The package has a camera looking down at the surface and one looking forward towards the nose of the helicopter.  The package also has a laser altimeter for measuring the height of the camera above the surface and an inertial navigation system which tells the system how the bird is moving (its yaw, pitch and roll).  There is also a GPS so each image can be given a position. Again the EM bird laser scanner did not work and we had some more issues with the system that even required us to return to Scott Base and land before taking off again.

A large iceberg.

After finishing the flight we completely took the bird apart and made a change so that the laser scanner would work. It took some work to understand why the laser scanner was not working properly but we fixed the issue in time for our last flight this afternoon. This afternoon, Christian left for NZ again. He is attending the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco in just a few days so he needed to leave early.




This evening we prepared a bit for measuring what will likely be our final two sites of the campaign. We will then use Saturday to retrieve some stakes that Wolfgang left on the ice shelf last year and on Sunday have another day off. On Monday and Tuesday we will pack everything. We are coming back much sooner than I had expected and was told when booking my flights. I will likely stay in Christchurch a bit to do some data processing and data management work and hopefully a little bit of sight-seeing in New Zealand before coming back home. I’m not sure if my airplane tickets are changeable but I can also look into that.



WHEW, well hopefully you feel caught up. Will try to post more pictures tomorrow.

Quick Post

Hello all, sorry about not blogging for the past couple days.  We have been working hard. Yesterday we covered 105km by skidoo and completed six measurement sites.  Today we covered 80km and completed three measurement sites.  The days have been a bit long as a result of the distance, and on top of that I am sick. I probably should have stayed back today but I don't like doing that so I went out, and it was nice to have gone.  I got some great pictures which I will have time to shrink and post tomorrow I hope.

Again, sorry for the lack of posts and the lack of photos.  I promise to post more soon.

Cheers


Justin

Condition 2

Another exciting day in McMurdo Sound and Scott Base today. Last night we were informed we would be scheduled for a helicopter flight today, but that the weather would likely be poor. As predicted the weather did not improve overnight and so we did not do a helicopter flight. However, we had planned for this and departed Scott Base at 9 this morning to do more on ice measurements. The idea was that if conditions did improve we could always head back before our scheduled helicopter flight.

During the day it was quite pleasant, very warm but with some wind. As we continued our measurements the wind increased and the visibility then reduced as the fresh snow we have had over the past two days started to blow around. Let me assure you, it is very difficult to lay out a 30m long tape measure in a straight line when the wind blows. Unfortunately the pictures never seem able to capture the amount of wind.

Pictured above is also the sled that I ride on each day, it gets a bit tiring, but is also quite comfortable and fun. But can be tricky when the light is flat and there are lots of bumps, or when the wind picks up and starts blowing the snow and obscuring the surface, as happened today.

After our final measurement site that we completed today, on the way to another measurement site the wind increased and the snow started blowing around. Visibility was really reduced, was hard to see the skidoos just 100m or less behind me, but we are glad for GPS technology as you can basically navigate by it and don't really need landmarks.

This evening after supper the winds increased at Scott Base and visibility dropped dramatically. It was about -10 but with 25knot (45+km/hr) winds, so felt like -30. Here in Antarctica they use a three level system for weather and activities, Conditions 1,2,3. Condition 3 is the best weather, good visibility, temperatures above -55C and low winds. Condition 2 is when you have temperatures below -55 or higher wind, or reduced visibility, and Condition 1 is when it is really really bad ). You can see the weather for Scott Base at http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/weather/SBweather/sbweather.html. As a result of the worsening weather conditions here, they changed the weather condition from 3 to 2; this limits outdoor activity to on base and with permission, at least for those of us at the base.

Well that is all for today. Tomorrow will be another measurement day, unless of course the weather improves and we can fly, though conditions are again not predicted to improve.

Mush, Mush, Mush

Well despite the title we did not have sled dogs, but it felt a little like it as I was again on the sled behind the skidoo today. We covered another 50kms with our EM sensors and performed measurements at three sites. The measurements we conducted included snow depth, drill hole thickness, EM31 measurements, ground penetrating radar measurements and snow density. We are trying to gather accurate measurements to calibrate and validate the ability of the GPR to measure snow depth, and maybe ice thickness. We are also calibrating and validating the EM31 retrieval of ice thickness and hopefully platelet ice thickness.  We are also collecting valuable information on the properties of the snow and ice for the validation of the Cryosat-2 satellite, which aims to measure changes in the thickness of the sea ice using information on changes in the amount that the ice sticks up above the water surface (called freeboard).  This height is related to the density and thickness of the ice, but is affected by the snow density and depth (weighs down the ice) and by the low density platelet ice layer (what platelet ice is will be explained in a future post.
I only took one photo today, on the way back from our last sight. Just like the other day the weather closed in a bit and visibility dropped. It was not too bad, I quite enjoy it but it does really make you appreciate having a GPS to navigate.

Someone asked yesterday what the weather/temperatures are like. It is usually only -5C to -10C but it is often windy (today was between 10-20 knots at times, so quite windy, at times with the wind chill today it was below -20C. However, I gather that Edmonton has been much colder that past couple days.


Well that is it for today, we did not have a helicopter flight because of the weather. We are scheduled for a helicopter flight for tomorrow but the weather looks like it will be poor tomorrow as well. In any event we will go out on the ice in the morning and if the weather turns out to be good, head back early enough for a bird flight.

Well I should go, it is now midnight and in 6.5 hours I need to get up for another day!

GPS Deployment and Methodology Check

First I want to apologize for missing the blog posting yesterday, and for not being able to keep up with all the things I want to talk about, hopefully this will be rectified in the coming days. Things here have been quite busy and the Internet has been extremely limited in terms of speed so it has not been possible to post the photos I want, and I don’t have time to prepare the stuff I would like to.

Greg checking his GPS on a laptop inside the jacket tent.

Yesterday we deployed two GPS stations on the ice.  This involved three skidoos and sledges as we also towed the two EM31 ground based electromagnetic induction sensors.  We travelled 75km by skidoo, which means that I travelled 75km while standing on the back of the sled.  This was difficult at first but as we crossed West and farther south in the sound there was more new snow which softened the surface. On the way back we went to the ice shelf edge; the edge of the glacial land ice that is floating in this sound.  As you can see there is a lot of rocks, dirt and debris on this ice. Towards the end of the day visibility was dropping quickly and we were essentially travelling by GPS positions only.  Despite being able to easily see the lead skidoo from my position at the back, I know that from the front skidoo it would have been difficult to see anything at all and when I looked sideways or behind it really felt like you could only see a couple hundred meters at most.  Your sense of scale, distance and time completely disappears here without landmarks to reference yourself, and even with them I find it very hard here.

Ice Shelf Edge

After supper yesterday we had a meeting about our activity today and then Christian and I spent time putting the helicopter electromagnetic induction sea ice thickness sensor (“bird”, “HEM”) together.

Scott Base seen from the sea ice today.

Today, we had a full group meeting and went out to the ice to discuss measurement procedures and to familiarize ourselves with the under water camera systems we have to look at the platelet ice. This evening I had a rushed early dinner so that some of the other people could dine with the King of Malaysia who is here visiting the base until sometime tomorrow.  This evening we looked at some data, and did some more work with our HEM system to make sure all is working as we may have a helicopter flight tomorrow.  If we do not fly tomorrow we will be in the field doing measurements.

Well that is what I have been up to.  Last thing, as some of you know I have decided to participate in Movember.  In November, men across the world grow mustaches and collect money for prostate cancer research and for men’s health.  Prostate cancer causes many deaths and has a high treatability rate when caught early.  So far I have raised over 100 dollars but I am hoping some of my blog readers would want to donate some money to this cause. HOWEVER, I completely understand that this may not be a cause you support, or want to support, or that you support another cause, or only support causes you have fully researched, or that you do not know enough about the program (check out http://ca.movember.com). However, if you feel like donating, you can go to my MOVEMBER page (http://mobro.co/JustinBeckers and donate some money. If not, well no harm done in me asking I think, as it is for a good cause.

Sightseeing Anyone?

Well today we went to Cape Evans and the Scott Hut. This was a recreational trip. We journeyed to the site using a Hägglund. A Hägglund is a Swedish tracked vehicle that is also amphibious meaning that it can go through/over water. You see a lot of these vehicles in Antarctica, and I don’t know if you see them many other places. The tracks mean that per square inch of track they put less pressure on the snow than a skidoo, but they can carry about 10 people or 5 people and a lot of gear. The Hägglund has a front and rear compartment. Below is the Hägglund near an iceberg on our way to Cape Evans.

 

The Scott Hut we visited was built in 1910 and was used as the base for Scott’s expedition to the South Pole. This is a historically important hut and so has been preserved. There is old food and many artifacts inside the hut and outside. The hut still has the original asbestos and mercury. It always strikes me that either the men were smaller in this time or just made small beds for themselves out of necessity.

Nearby is the Barne’s Glacier which flows down off of Mount Erebus. Our guide drove us closer to the glacier so we could have a look. I feel this is your typical Antarctic glacier ending, in that it is a sharp drop.

On the way to this point and near where we camped yesterday is the Erebus ice tongue, which in the satellite imagery I have showed in previous points looks very impressive and dramatic, but when seen from the endpoint is much lower and unimpressive than I had expected.

Well that is all again today, sorry for the lack of science info, but it has been very busy again today, and the internet here has been excruciatingly slow, probably due to the weather we have been having. Tomorrow we head out on skidoos and sleds to cover 70+kms with the EM31s and set up two more GPS stations. Talk tomorrow.

Best Campsite EVER!

Hey All,

Well it is now 11:45pm and I have some time to write this blog. So yesterday we had a morning of Antarctic Field Training theory. This consisted of getting familiar with their standard operating procedures for things like safety, responsibility, sea ice travel, radios, etc. Then in the afternoon we were to meet at 3:30 to be ready to go to our field site.

Our excellent guides allowed us to combine some science with our practical training so we went out with three skidoos and a Hägglund (pictures of this and some of the other awesome equipment around will be in the posts). We towed our two EM31 ground based electromagnetic inductions sensors behind two of the skiddos. These are mounted on Nansen sleds and measure the total thickness, or snow plus ice thickness. These require a sled passenger to operate a foot brake that drags in the snow and slows the sled down. On the way out there, I was the sled passenger for one of the sleds. This was a lot of fun as you have some control of the sled by moving your body weight, but you need to hang on tight, especially once you get off the established trails. However we had some problems with one of the EM31 instruments as it kept losing the data connection between the data logger and the sensor.
Around Scott Base and McMurdo Stations there are a lot of trails that are marked and checked. These connect important places like the runway on the sea ice, research huts and so forth with the rest of the base. These trails get marked with flags that indicate where you can travel, where there are dangers such as cracks, holes, or thin ice or where there are pipelines/wires. The colors of these flags are red/green, black, and blue, respectively. The red/green flags that mark routes indicate that 5m to each side of the flag is known to be safe.
Upon arrival at our field site near the end of the Erebus Ice Tongue, we set up camp including some nice mountaineering Mountain Hardware Tents, and some Scott tents (Scott Polar Tents). These tents are really excellent, but are very heavy (30kg or so). Here you can see my tent (shared with Christian) and in the background is Mount Erebus, a mountain/volcano on Ross Island. Definitely one of the best camp spots I’ve ever had.

After cooking a delicious supper consisting of dehydrated campers food, I had the Beef Pasta Hot pot which was very good, Dan, Ken and I took a little walk to the ice tongue just to see it up closer. We were asked by the supervisors and field trainers not to go up onto the ice tongue because of crevasse (ice cracks) danger. Here you can see our camp out on the sea ice.

This morning, we took down camp, and then put up a GPS station near the camp, this involved some basic shoveling of snow, drilling a hole through the ice (to get the water level), and setting up a couple of tripods, one for the GPS unit and one for the solar panels to charge the battery.

Then we headed back to the base, after our amazingly beautiful weather on the first day we had some wind in the morning that really picked up during our trip, making the ride back much less pleasant, with reduced visibility and blowing snow. However we traveled in a close convoy and visibility was not terrible. However I still enjoyed it, nice to see what the wind is like here.

One interesting thing about Antarctica is that because of all the cold ice here, the air moving over it cools. Since cold air is denser than warm air it begins to move downhill as a result of gravity, and as it does so you get a wind called katabatic winds.

Once we got back to Scott Base we had to DEMOB (demobilize) our Antarctic Field Course material. Here at Scott Base the scientists are far more responsible for cleaning up after themselves and helping with base operations (such as helping in the kitchen, with dishes, etc). We had to unpack all of our gear, wash the tents, hang sleeping bags, do some laundry, and so forth. After that we had some more discussion of our training, mostly on things to improve, things to watch out for and other suggestions. We then finished with a practical scenario, in which one member of our party was injured, and another was wet and the other members in the team had to identify the critical issues, delegate and deal with them. This was really good as it forces you to think quickly and carefully. By the time this was all done it was supper time.

After dinner, Dan and I walked along the ice ridge recreational route near the base. Weddell seals area everywhere in this area as they come up through cracks/thin ice and maintain their holes. They come up onto the ice to sun. It must also be calving season as there are several baby seals on the ice. Here in Antarctica you are supposed to maintain a 10m distance from wildlife while on foot, but you should not put yourself in a dangerous position to do so. In this case, the route is flagged and so you cannot stray to far from the flags. We tried to maximize our distance from the animals but this still gets you quite close in some cases.

By Scott Base, there are some very large pressure ridges where the sea ice has collided with the land has has been forced up onto it, forming immense ridges of ice.

I had hoped to have some more scientific information ready to present to you, or an interview with one of our group members, but I haven’t had time. We have been quite busy so far, and this will hopefully get better over the next few days, so maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Dan, Ken, Christian and I are going on a tourist trip organized by the base to Cape Evans and the Terra Nova hut (I actually don’t know the history here but will try to find out for you guys). This will take all day, but I’ve been told to go so no arguments. I also hope to have some pictures of some of the vehicles here, but maybe not as I will have the trip to talk about. But we will see, am really hoping there will be penguins at the site as I have heard that there may be.

Well until next time, hope you are all doing well, especially my lovely wife.

Skidoo Training

After an excellent nights sleep last night and a quick shower (navy style, get wet, turn water off, soap up, turn water on and rinse off: targeted water use is less than 3 minutes), I have had a good day.

After breakfast this morning we had our event “In Brief”. Every science campaign is called an event, and the briefing this morning was between our team and the base coordinators to make sure both groups know what the other wants, expects, etc.

After that we started preparing equipment such as the EM31, our ground based electromagnetic induction sensor.  We have two here, one of ours ( a short version) and the standard version from Wolfgang.  There were also two ground penetrating radar units to set up (Wolfgang’s and Pat Langhorne’s) and numerous GPS stations.

We also started to work on our airborne electromagnetic sensor (HEM bird or Rosie) but discovered that whoever tightened the bolts last really put them far too tight and several needed to be drilled out to get them out.

In the afternoon, we had skidoo training, getting people familiarized with how they work, some simple maintenance tasks and a little driving session.  It was nice to get back on a skidoo.

Our Antarctic Field Training course begins tomorrow and will involving skidoo and  camping out on the ice and learning about some of the safety aspects of our work and some survival training. We will use the field training activity to visit one of the sites where we wish to deploy a GPS station to monitor the tides during the duration of our visit.  We will also tow the two EM31 sensors ground sensors along with us, and maybe more equipment as well.  It will be good for people to get used to pulling the sleds holding our equipment and a good way to familiarize/refresh people with the equipment.

This evening we quickly tested the EM31s on the sleds, and we are ready for tomorrow.  Unfortunately I haven’t had time to write any science or get anyone to write about what they do.  There are 9 people in our team, and I hope to get all of them to write a short blurb about what they study, why they are here and what their favorite thing about Antarctica is, so stay tuned.

Arrived in Scott Base

Well today I have arrived in Scott Base, ANTARCTICA!! We had a good flight, security in the morning and then a smooth 5 hour flight in the C17.  This was really cool, we sat on the side with cargo in the middle which included to large Ford utility vans sitting side by side with enough room to walk around and between them.



After arrival we had a tour and safety briefing followed by dinner and then a team meeting. It is now 10:15pm here and so time for bed, especially after only sleeping 5hrs last night. I hope to have more time to write tomorrow, but have prewritten a little segment on Antarctica for you. Also hope to have some more pictures of Scott Base and area soon, plus pictures and video from Antarctic Field Training and other things.  The internet connection here is not fast though so pictures will be lower resolution and movies may not be possible until I return.

Today I also want to present a little bit of general information about Antarctica, but I find myself having great trouble deciding what to present to you. I think I will start with some general properties of Antarctica, then the Antarctic Treaty. There is much more to talk about but I will spread it out so as to not overwhelm you all. Please note that my information comes from the CIA World Factbook available online (reference at end of the blog).



Antarctica covers some 14 million square kilometers, the average elevation are between 2,000 and 4,000m with the tallest mountain the Vinson Massif towering at almost 4900m. Some regions are ice free, and of these places is the McMurdo Dry Valleys. In contrast to the Arctic which is essentially an ocean that is mostly surrounded by land, the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by an ocean. The atmosphere also has a large ring around Antarctica and some of you may remember the Ozone Hole over Antarctica. Antarctica is often described as two large regions, the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets. This is because the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has large regions underneath it that are below sea level, it has the Antarctic Peninsula which extends to the north and generally contains thinner ice. However this region is also where a lot of the dramatic changes you may hear about are occurring (on glaciers such as the Pine Island Glacier or the Larsen Ice Shelf). The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker, generally colder and has been thought to be less responsive to change (a paradigm which has changed). Besides the ice sheets there are also the glaciers, the ice shelves (freshwater ice that is floating in the ocean), ice streams (rapidly moving glaciers), and of course sea ice. Scientists have discovered large lakes under nearly four kilometers of ice, the most famous being Lake Vostok, and have observed many more lakes in the past decade.

In terms of wild life, well first thing are NO POLAR BEARS, but you get whales, orcas, seals, many bird species, many fish and other marine species, and of course the always well dressed penguins. There is simply to much to discuss, it is like describing what Canada or North America is like, where do you begin, what do you leave out, so I will move on.

Antarctica is governed by a treaty, and while seven countries lay claim to parts of the continent (UK,France,Norway,NZ, Australia, Chile, Argentina) they have all agreed to withhold the claims process/decisions for a very long time. The USA has been VERY active in Antarctica since near the beginning and while not an original claimant maintains the right to claim (along with Russia). In 1961 the Antarctic Treaty came into force, and outlined rules for the governance of Antarctica, including no military activity (except to support science), freedom for scientific collaboration and research(very important during this Cold War period), froze the claims, prohibits use of nuclear power/energy including weapons, waste, etc. All in all it is a pretty incredible thing to see so many nations (7 claims members, 28 consultative status members and 20 non-consultative status members) working together, and much of it came out as a result of the International Geophysical Year (s) in the 1950s. Since the Treaty, other acts have come up to protect the land and marine environment as a result of the increased activity in the Antarctic.

Well there is today’s attempt to include some valuable information to you. Again if you have questions please do not hesitate to ask. Also if I have made any mistakes, I apologize to all my readers, just please let me know so I can rectify the information.

Quick Note

Well it is 5:30 am, on Wednesday November 16, 2011.  It is raining here in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I'm pretty much packed up and ready to go so hopefully the next post says I have arrived.

That is all the news, and hopefully you like the new default blog format.  IF not, you can change it using the little bar just above the blog (where you have options of CLASSIC, FLIPCARD, etc.)

Getting Kitted and Sight-seeing in Middle Earth

For those Lord of the Rings fans out there you will know that New Zealand is Middle Earth.
Some geekiness aside, today was a great day.

After the fantastic evening last night I was pretty tired but this morning at 8:30 sharp we were at Antarctica New Zealand getting kitted out, that is getting our personal clothing. Unlike the system in Canada, Antarctica New Zealand provides cold weather gear to all personnel going to the Antarctic.
I won't be showing any pictures of the gear yet, but I promise to show some as we work.
The gear they provide is really excellent and includes long johns, socks, balaclavas, hats, gloves, mitts, goggles, sunglasses, midweight fleece layer, a synthetic insulated jacket, windproof softsheel, and a big down parka, and ski pants and two pairs of boots.  Tomorrow we have to wear certain things on the plane such as the big down parka, the ski pants and boots, googles, gloves and a hat.
The gear is really nice, high quality and has some bright orange.

Tomorrow we fly out on a C-17 Globemaster III .  We get picked up at 6am, go through security, watch a safety video, then more security and then we depart at 9am.  It will be about a 5hr flight. I will post some pictures as soon as I can.

After the gear outfitting we went back to Wolfgang's house for a few hours while he went back to the University to finish up some last minute things. Then in the late afternoon we went for a short walk to Taylor's Mistake, named after a man who sailed into the wrong harbour.

Well the timestamp in all my pictures is wrong, but will be fixed in the future.  It was actually the 15th of November between 3pm and 6 pm.

New Zealand is an absolutely beautiful country, so many hills and valleys, mountains, streams, twisting curvy roads and because it is spring, very very green, quite nice after leaving Edmonton with snow, ice and leafless trees.


Well I need to shower and sleep.  Keep tuned for more pictures and updates.

Updated:Getting Settled

Today is my second day in Christchurch.  I had a fantastic night's sleep and am ready for today's events. At the very least I know I will be getting "kitted out" today, that is, getting assigned my polar gear from Antarctica New Zealand.

After arriving at our host's house yesterday afternoon, I took the time to get caught up on emails and so forth and to download some satellite imagery, mainly radar imagery. Then last night some colleagues of our host (Dr. Wolfgang Rack) invited us over for a BBQ.  This was really really nice, I had some fantastic New Zealand wines, excellent steak.

As some of you may remember, Christchurch was hit by several earthquakes since September 2010, with earthquakes also happening in  February 2011 and again in June 2011. Driving through Christchurch you can easily see the damage, empty lots, some rubble and in some places the road is warped.  The people who invited us for the BBQ yesterday lived in an area that occurred a lot of damage.  Luckily their house is on bedrock and seems to show less structural damage, though they did lose basically everything inside the house, not just once.  In places the road is bent and warped, houses have been lifted up and slammed back to the earth or have moved down hillsides. Many homes and businesses have been condemned and there are still a lot of issues with safety.  Some places only recently have had sewage connections restored and you can still find lots of portable toilets all over the place. Wolfgang's house lost its chimney and several bookcases,cabinets and their contents were knocked down or broken.

Pretty incredible stuff, I cannot even imagine the forces at work, the amount of energy and how frightening it would be to experience an earthquake.  I think it would also be quite demoralizing to have so many earthquakes.


As I have mentioned a few times, I want to bring in a bit more of the basic science we do and information on the tools of our research into my blog. So today I thought I would discuss radar images.  We use satellite images for many purposes:  planning, monitoring and actually get data from them as well.

Satellite radar image from the ASAR sensor aboard the Envisat satellite.  Image Courtesy of Polar View (http://www.polarview.aq)

Just like a camera, a radar image gives us a picture of an area. An optical sensor essentially takes a picture and is measuring the amount of sunlight being reflected from objects in your picture. Optical refers to the visible light spectrum, what you and I can see with our eyes. I've used some optical images in earlier blog posts regarding this trip.
In contrast to an optical image, A radar image sensor actually sends out its own energy (think sunlight) and measures how much of it is returned from each point in the image.  Radar sensors use energy from a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum so not blue, green, or red like a camera but actually use microwave wavelengths (1-100 Giga Hertz(GHz). The image above is from Envisat, a European Satellite mission that carries a microwave imaging sensor called ASAR (Advanced SAR).  The sensor sends C-band 5.3GHz microwaves to Earth's surface and measures the energy that is returned to it.

Satellite radar imagery is extremely important to our work for several reasons:
1) We like to plan where we are going and what the conditions on the surface are.
2) Unlike a camera picture, radar images actually see through clouds(*for the most part at most frequencies below 10GHz). This is really handy since the polar regions often have cloud cover.
3) Rapid availability with good resolution and good areal coverage.  Some of the images we get are available to us just a few hours after they have been collected.  The delay is due to the time it takes to get an image downloaded from the satellite to the ground and then for the ground station to process the image.
4) Can actually get useful information from the images such as relative ice thickness, ice age, find areas of rough ice and actually record the values recorded from each pixel to try to relate to other parameters.

You can get free radar images from sites like Polar View (see SAR photo caption for link). Images from optical sensors like MODIS and Landsat are also available for free (i.e. the NASA MODIS Rapid Response System or GLOVIS.

Well that wraps up this blog post.  Another one should come up later this evening after the "kitting out" and with some more details on my trip south tomorrow. As usual if you have any comments or questions just post below and I'll try to answer.

Arrived in Christchurch!

Hello All,

Just a quick note today.  I am safely arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand and am at our host's wonderful house.  Below are some of my first glimpses of New Zealand from the plane.  This is a big trip for me in that it is the first time I am south of the equator, the first time to New Zealand and the first time flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Leaving Edmonton we had just had the first snowfall of the year after a long autumn.  But here in New Zealand, spring is here with summer just around the corner.

My first Glimpse of New Zealand.  Note that the time stamp is still Edmonton time.

I am not too tired, I did not work much on the plane but managed to get 7 hours of sleep, which was really really nice. Feeling quite refreshed and should be able to stay awake until tonight.  It is of course 1pm local time on Monday, Nov. 14th, 2011 but only 5pm Edmonton time on Nov 13, 2011.

Will post soon.

Justin

Trip is a GO!!

With just less than two weeks until I depart for New Zealand, I thought I would take a few minutes of free time and update you all with the trip situation and some more pictures.

In addition to the airborne sea ice thickness measurements, we will be conducting in-situ validation measurements.  In addition to drilling through the ice to measure the thickness, freeboard (height of the ice surface above the water), we will also use a ground-based electomagnetic-induction sensor that operates on the same principle as our airborne sensor. 

Last week the EM bird, nicknamed "Rosie", left Toronto for Christchurch, New Zealand. And this week the equipment that Christian and I are bringing for ground-based measurements has left Edmonton.  The majority of the ground based measurements are supplied by our collaborators at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and University of Otago in Dunedin, both in New Zealand.

While there was some question about the safety of the ice conditions near Scott Base (McMurdo Sound), it seems that the conditions are generally safe enough for extensive snowmobile operations. Below I've attached some images from the Digital Globe image archive (click HERE for the HERE). The images are acquired by very high spatial resolution sensors that acquire photographs in the visible light spectrum (just like a camera).  The satellites I have posted images from are the Worldview 1 and 2 satellites, which have 0.5m spatial resolution.  This means that objects greater than 0.5m apart can be distinguished as apart in the images.

WorldView-2 image showing part of McMurdo Sound from October 4, 2011.  About 2/3 of the way down the image,  you can see the Erebus Ice Tongue, but more on that later. The ice runway is shown in the lower right. One can also make out the American McMurdo Station just up from the runway. Image from Digital Globe Image Browser.

DigitalGlobe WorldView-1 image of the ice runway at McMurdo/Scott Base Station from October 3, 2011.  Image Courtesy of the Digital Globe Image Browser Archive.

Below is another image from the MODIS sensor.  As you can see the spatial resolution is much lower (250m) but covers a much larger region from today, October 30, 2011. 

MODIS image from October 30, 2011.  Image Courtesy of the NASA MODIS Rapid Response System (NASA/GSFC, Rapid Response).

I have just two weeks left until I leave, and still have to sort out some things.  While Antarctica New Zealand provides most of the clothing and boots I'll need, there are certain things I need to bring (underwear, spare socks) and certain things I may decide to bring, such as my Joka Polar insulated water proof gloves, among other items.  While I have complete confidence in the gear the Antarctica New Zealand, having a spare pair of socks, insulated gloves and so forth can never be a bad thing.

That is it for now, will post again soon, hopefully with some information about Scott Base, McMurdo Sound and the study region.

Field Work Time-Lapse Style

Well I have a bit of news regarding the trip, but that will wait for another post, just to get you all in anticipation. Last night before I left, I used my work PC to create two high-resolution videos from time-lapse photos I shot in Alert. 

I've put them on You Tube so I can get the widest audience. The links are below.  My blog seems to be having some issues with posting such high resolution videos.

Video Link 

This first video uses pictures that were taken every 30s.  Personally, I think this is a bit too long of a step.  But I really really enjoy watching the shadow of the pole the camera is mounted on move with the moving sun.

This next video used photos taken every 5 seconds.  I think this is the nicest time step for our work, is relatively often but gives a good sense of motion and work.

Video Link

Video Linke #2

Okay well that is all for today.  Keep watching for my next update with more information regarding my trip.

Poked, Prodded and Prepared

 Location: Edmonton, AB

Well, I have been debating with myself for a little while if I should keep posting about this trip, at least right now.  Currently the trip is a bit uncertain due to some potentially unsafe ice conditions near Scott Base that would affect our sea ice research.  I am not sure what the current status is but have been told by my supervisor to hold off on booking my flights down to Christchurch, New Zealand. I am a bit worried that it will fall through as I have been working hard to get stuff done before I go. Also I am really really looking forward to this trip.

MODIS image from the AQUA satellite acquired on October 14, 201. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC, Rapid Response

At first I thought that I should just stop blogging about the trip until I know more, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that this is an important part of what I do. Logistical and safety considerations play a very important role in our work.  Whether it means staying in the base one day and processing data because the weather is too poor for working outside, flying or collecting data, or whether or not the region you want to visit is even safely accessible.  I am only really used to having down days due to weather and have not had a campaign cancelled on me yet. One can only prepare as much as possible and then if the trip ends up being a no go, just accept it, ship your equipment home and prepare for the next campaign.

Despite the uncertainty in the trip , I have been working diligently on completing my pre-trip paper work for my upcoming work in the Antarctic. Naturally, people who go to the Antarctic require some serious vetting in order minimize the need for evacuations and to ensure any pre-existing medical conditions are caught for diganosis and to inform the base medical personal of your medical history. For me, this has meant:

1) A complete medical/physical with about 6 pages of questions about past and present health.
2) Tuberculosis test
3) Vaccination boosters, particularly polio and tetanus.
5) Complete blood testing and urine analysis.
6) A certificate of dental fitness (after a dental exam, naturally).

Luckily being under 60 meant that I did not need a chest X-ray or to conduct a fitness test.

I am still waiting on one blood test but once that is in I will send off the forms to the Antarctic New Zealand medical assessor for approval.  If the medical assessor has questions or wants additional tests done I will be notified.

This is an interesting process for me because I've never had such a detailed work up before. I have never needed anything of the sort for the Arctic. I am not complaining, it is interesting to see the things they test and nice to get this work up done as I can find out if I am healthy.

Other than medical forms there are the usual emergency notification forms and in this case an equipment requisition form.  The logistics coordinator for Antarctica in New Zealand provides most of the cold weather clothing and gear that a person uses while done there. This is exciting as I won't have to take a giant bag of all my own gear.  On the other hand, I know exactly what gear I have and how well it works. I may take a few items that I really like having with me.  I also need to prepare some equipment to be shipped to New Zealand in the next few week, and maybe learn how to process some ice cores for Ido, the microbiologist I worked with in Alert this past May. Our airborne sensor, the electromagnetic induction sensor "EM Bird" or "HEM", nicknamed "Rosie" has arrived back in Canada for some troubleshooting and maintenance before it will be shipped to New Zealand next week.

Our HEM sensor "Rosie" near the helicopter at CFS Alert in May, 2011.

Today I also finally took the opportunity to fix my blog up a bit with the new dynamic views offered by Google Blogger.  I would love some feedback from you guys, and let me know if you prefer one ofthe other dynamic formats as default or if you just want to go back to a traditional view. I also relinked my blog posts to twitter and to Facebook so that more people will be able to receive my blog updates.

As usual, if you have questions or comments regarding my research or blog feel free to post a comment below.