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.