Trip Announcement

Well now, it has been a really long time since I have posted anything on here.  This summer has been busy with writing my thesis and, well, that is about it. I had a small vacation with family but mostly thesis work. It is not done yet but there is a faint light at the end of the tunnel.

However, I wanted to start up with blogging again, at least semi regularly. I am really hoping to incorporate more science into my blog, but don't worry I hope to keep it simple and most of all entertaining and interesting.

But today's post is just short and simple.  I am participating in some more fieldwork, this time in Antarctica!!!! YES!!!!!! Finally!!

I am really excited for this campaign and the opportunity. I will be joining Christian and a group of researchers from New Zealand for a trip to the McMurdo Sound area of Antarctica and will stay at Scott Base, the Antarctic research base operated by New Zealand.


We will be performing airborne sea ice thickness surveys with our airborne electromagnetic (AEM)device as well as in-situ measurements for validating the airborne measurements.  Because of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, a unique type of ice called platelet ice forms in the water.

In 2009, Christian operated one of the AEM systems in the region and discovered that our instrument appears to be sensitive to the presence of this platelet ice. This year with our new AEM system we hope to prove this and to improve our surveys of ice thickness and platelet ice in McMurdo sound.

I am also hoping to perform at least one flight along the same path as the Cryosat-2 satellite.  Cryosat-2 aims to improve our understanding of changes in the thickness of the marine and land ice.  Cryosat uses radar waves to measure the distance between itself and the surface.  Using the difference between the height of the water surface measured in cracks between the ice, and the height of the ice surface you can then estimate the thickness of the sea ice using Archimedes buoyancy principle. However, there are some uncertainties, such as the weight of the snow on the ice pushing it lower into the water, or that the radar signal may not reflect from the ice surface but from somewhere in the snow. When this happens you get incorrect values for the height above the water and thus the thickness estimated by Cryosat-2.
 

Anyways, many of you are probably not sure where McMurdo Sound is, so below is a map you can view. I am not sure that my placemark will work but if it does show up if you follow the link just below the map.


View Scott Base in a larger map
  


I've also included some satellite photos of the region.  ANYONE can go get free near real time satellite images from the MODIS sensor aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. A pixel covers 250m so the resolution is not very high but it has good spatial coverage.

MODIS image of the McMurdo Sound region in Antarctica. Image credit: NASA/GSFC, Rapid Response.

Hopefully you can orient yourself with the google map above.

Well that is all for now, just wanted to let you know how excited I am and will provide more updates soon.  I have medicals, dental exams to do and then of course the travel, and the work.