Headed home to D.C.

Hello all,

Thanks for following me. I had a few days on the South Island of New Zealand before traveling back to D.C. I'm about to board my first of many flights to get home, but I wanted to share photos of the first two sunsets I saw after no sunsets for a week in Antarctica: one taken on the jet back to Christchurch from McMurdo, and the second from the West Coast of New Zealand.

I have so many photos and videos and so much information to share with you after I get back. Thanks again for following along, and check back soon!

Last day on the ice: Another trip canceled, a new day begun

Well, weather has yet again changed our plans. By this point, we are used to it! Our trip to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core drilling project was canceled this morning. No worries here ... we got to speak with the head of Antarctic glaciology from the National Science Foundation and learned a lot about ice cores in both Antarctica and Greenland. Very, very important research that gives us insight into Earth's past climate. I'll be writing up a fact sheet on the WAIS Divide drilling project in the near future.

Tomorrow afternoon, we are leaving this great continent. After only one week here, I feel like I have been here for months. It has been a life-changing (and life-enhancing) experience, both professionally and personally. The caliber of the people, the quality of the science and the reality of the landscape are so fascinating, they are almost too much to grasp.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me get here! I look forward to continuing to communicate Antarctic science with you after I return to the States next week.

And now for another attempt at a night's sleep under the Antarctic midnight sun ...

Penguins and Ice Make Everything Nice

Our helicopter tour of the Dry Valleys region, sea ice and the Cape Royds Adelie penguin colony yesterday was simply out of this world ... I don't know how else to describe it.

Polygons of permafrost, liquid lakes that leak from towering glaciers, stark-white ice emerging from rocky Grand Canyon-like landscapes: this is the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica.



After visiting a research camp at Lake Hoarde in Taylor Valley (visible in the lower left center of the image above), where scientists of all disciplines are coming together to study the unique biology, chemistry and geology of the lake area -- and its similarity to the Mars landscape three million years ago! -- we were off to the edge of the sea ice nearby. Our helicopter needed at least 30 inches of solid ice to land safely, so the helo tech got out first every time we landed in order to measure the ice with a huge corkscrew before any of us could set foot on it. The ice we landed on was about six feet deep, so we were ok. The sea ice growth every austral (Southern Hemisphere) winter around Antarctica is one of the biggest seasonal changes on Earth! Every winter, Antarctica's mass nearly doubles in size due to an increase in sea ice (ice floating on top of the surrounding ocean, without being attached to a glacier).



Shortly after we landed on the ice, about 20 Adelie penguins visited us! This was just a hint of the treat to come later in the day, when we toured the Adelie colony at Cape Royds -- so many penguins! Located on the coast of the Ross Sea, it's the southern-most penguin breeding site in the world. After days of gazing out at frigid, icy landscapes and experiencing Antarctic weather, it was really refreshing to meet real, live animals that don't only survive in this environment, they thrive in it and are really quite content here!



Don't forget to read Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal entries about the trip so far, and check out my Earth Gauge and Capital Weather Gang post about South Pole weather.

Click on the pictures to view the larger versions!

"Wicked cold" at the Pole, off to the Dry Valleys

Conveniently, our flight boomeranged again (this time without us on it) and we got to spend the night at the South Pole last night! Landing at the Pole and gazing around at the entirely flat icy landscape around me, then realizing that the Earth was rotating around the exact spot where we were standing -- this brought the most euphoric and surreal feelings I have ever felt in my life. Truly amazing.

Since the South Pole is the coldest region will will be visiting in Antarctica, the results for the "How cold will Ann get in Antarctica?" poll are in:

Not cold at all -- she's prepared

7 (15%)

Really cold

3 (6%)

Wicked cold

15 (32%)

Frozen ... like on a stick

21 (45%)

To the majority of you who voted for "Frozen ... like on a stick," I'm sorry to break the news: I was only "wicked cold" at the Pole!

It was only about -20 Fahrenheit with windchills in the -30 range when I was there. The clothing provided by the U.S. Antarctic Program worked really well (almost too well!). The only parts that were "wicked cold" were my face and fingers because I was outside taking so many pictures and holding a metal camera.

In New England, "wicked" cold is the coldest description of cold -- really cold, very cold, mad cold, extremely cold...none of them top "wicked cold," except "frozen on a stick." I'm glad that I didn't get frozen to the Pole marker!

Because of a packed schedule, travel delays, and internet issues, I have not had a chance to post a lot of photos or content about the actual science we have learned about so far. The South Pole trip was jam-packed with tours of some of the most amazing science research projects in the world -- Clean Air monitoring (including Carbon Dioxide and the Ozone hole), the South Pole Telescope and IceCUBE projects that look down through the ice and ground instead of up into the sky, and meteorology that forecasts weather for travel and station operations at the Pole using very little satellite data or other internet resources and in fast-changing atmospheric conditions.

I have changed the second header on my blog to "Follow me in January 2010 to learn about Antarctic science" because I will be posting more of the science later this week and after my return. So, please keep checking back both during my last few days here and throughout the month.

Today, we are going on a helicopter tour of the Dry Valleys region -- the <2% part of Antarctica that is not covered with ice, and where it hasn't rained in over 2 million years!

South Pole or Bust

I survived survival training yesterday, which is always a good sign. In about 12 hours, I will be on a LC-130 "Hercules" plane to South Pole Station -- yup, the geographic bottom of the Earth. Because the station is located on an ice sheet (which is a large glacier that gradually moves over the land below it toward the sea), the pole marker has to be moved about 30 feet every year to remain accurate. Lucky for us, it was re-adjusted at the beginning of the year.

We have a full day, as we are flying on a three-hour flight there tomorrow early morning and returning late tomorrow night with many tours and scientist interviews in between flights. We'll be learning about the South Pole Telescope, meteorology and ozone research.

Temperatures at the Pole have been around -10 Fahrenheit for the past few days. However, today they dipped down to -20. We each have a full set of Extreme Cold Weather gear, as well as an overnight bag in case we get stuck overnight due to weather. Here's a Webcam so you can keep up with the current conditions. There is a brand new station there that was completed in 2007 and is an engineering marvel.

It was a beautiful, warm (well, relatively) and sunny day at McMurdo today. We saw some Adelie penguins nearby! In addition, we watched the southern-most rugby game in the world, played near New Zealand's Scott Base between the Kiwis and Americans. The Kiwis won, of course. It's funny to learn about the activities people living here do to stay active and combat cold and boredom. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to upload pictures in the next few days.

To the South Pole or bust!

I'm here!

We made it! After a five-hour flight, we landed safely on the Pegasus ice strip and boarded "Ivan the Terra Bus" snow tractor for a one-hour drive over sea ice to McMurdo Station. Weather was "Condition 3" -- winds less than 48 knots (about 55 mph), wind chills warmer than -75 degrees Fahrenheit, and visibility greater than 1/4 mile. It was clear enough to make out four emperor penguins on the sea ice nearby!

Tomorrow morning, we begin our survival training in the field. Internet is slow here, but I will post more about what it takes to prepare for severe weather, in addition to the geography of the McMurdo sound area soon...

Wow, I am at the bottom of the World! The scenery is simply breathtaking. Really, there are no words to describe it.

Another 24-hour delay, but tomorrow's a go!

This morning (January 7, New Zealand time), we received word that we had another 24-hour delay. Yet, we just heard that tomorrow morning's flight is a go. Hopefully, the next post you read from me will be live from the ice!

Boomerang: Antarctica and back in one day

Weather is quite the celebrity around the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch the past two days. To hear more about yesterday's flight delay, check out my Capital Weather Gang post. Also, learn more about preparation for the flight south and see photos at Earth Gauge.

The following is a personalized version of the content that will be posted on Capital Weather Gang and Earth Gauge in the next couple of days. Please visit my traveling partner Dan Satterfield's Wild Wild Weather blog for even more photos, videos and in-depth coverage of our travel experience!

Jan. 6, 2010

3:00 p.m. (New Zealand time)

Boomerang: Return to the initial position from where it came.

I am currently in a U.S. Air National Guard C-17 “Pegasus” cargo jet flying over the South Pacific from Christchurch, New Zealand -- hub of the National Science Foundation’s U.S. Antarctic Program -- to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. I have to laugh. Upon waking up at 5:00 a.m. this morning, I had a gut feeling that today was not the day I would be going to Antarctica. After a 24-hour delay on our flight from New Zealand to Antarctica yesterday morning, I ignored this morning’s intuition, hoped for the best and went through the motions with the expected excitement. And now, after five hours in the air, we are going to boomerang -- that is, turn around and fly back to Christchurch because conditions at McMurdo are too bad to land on an airstrip made of ice. However, as you can see in the photo above, we are lucky enough to fly over the Antarctic continent before doing a u-turn.

The Trans-Antarctic mountains below our jet ... simply breathtaking.

4:30 p.m

By this morning, the skies at McMurdo had cleared from a storm yesterday and visibility had improved. Forecast models suggested that the window would remain open through early afternoon, but hinted that conditions could again deteriorate. A few hours into the flight, the pilots warned us that there was a 50/50 chance we would boomerang.

In the off-chance that weather improved at McMurdo, the pilots waited until the last possible minute to decide whether or not to turn back. Peeking out of the few small porthole windows over the past few hours, we saw amazing landscapes of white sea ice and glaciers under the bluest of skies, until we came within 130 miles of McMurdo. We circled around McMurdo for one hour before the pilots received the report that the weather would not clear any time soon. The cloud ceiling was two low, visibility was too poor, and pilots would not have been able to distinguish the low cloud ceiling from the runway of ice about 2500 feet below.

Since November, the 2009-2010 austral (Southern Hemisphere) summer has had more boomerang flights and no-fly days than the past few years, all due to Antarctic weather. So, we are not the first to boomerang this season.

Antarctic weather has a mind of it’s own, and can get tricky to forecast. Without internet or satellite data, Dan Satterfield, Chief Meteorologist at WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, and I -- both part of the Antarctic reporting team traveling this week -- had fun trying to guess what was happening. Even though travel delays and long flights have resulted, the past two days’ weather-related changes to our itinerary have been rather exciting for weather folk. I wish I knew more about Southern Hemisphere and polar weather!

Even though I have spent a week in transit to this astounding continent and have now seen it with my own eyes, it seems that the atmosphere is not yet ready for our arrival. It is a difficult feeling to fly over the ice without landing. Still, I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to view this amazing scenery from the air!

Our trip will go on, despite the delays. If there’s one thing you can’t blame, it’s the weather.

Inside the C-17 jet.

11:30 p.m.

After a 10-hour flight, we returned safely to Christchurch, but the stratus is still being blown in by easterly winds around McMurdo. We’re going to try again in several hours. Keep your fingers crossed that McMurdo clears by afternoon and we land safely on the ice ...

Update:

January 7, 2010

5:30 a.m.

We have a three-hour delay.

7:30 a.m.

Just kidding ... we have another 24-hour delay.

I really, really love weather. However, right now, our relationship is complicated. :)

Flight Delayed

Our flight was just delayed 24 hours. If you check out the webcam and current conditions at McMurdo Station, you'll understand why! Keep your fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow ...

Off to Antarctica

In just 10 hours, I'll be on a C-17 military jet to McMurdo Station. Today, we were issued our Extreme Cold Weather clothing. I'll write more later, but this photo is a sneak peak to the 24 pounds of wool, polar fleece, polypropylene, leather and plastic items in the two duffel bags that were handed to me ... I'm in there somewhere!

Cross your fingers for good flying weather to McMurdo ... see you on the Ice!

Christchurch: Gateway to the Antarctic

Three days ago, after about 25 hours of travel time, I arrived safely in Christchurch, a quaint and beautiful city of about 350,000. Dan and I have been busy familiarizing ourselves with the equipment we will be using in Antarctica, including three video cameras, four digital cameras and two laptops. Cold temperatures can limit the effectiveness of electronics (especially their batteries), so it is essential to learn the limitations of our equipment and be extra prepared with back-ups. In addition, bright sunlight and reflection from snow and ice will take some getting used to.

Christchurch, also known as 'The Garden City' and 'International Gateway to Antarctica' has played a significant role in the history of Antarctic exploration. In the late 1800's and early 1900's there was a race among nations to be the first to reach the South Pole. Two explorers from the UK -- Captain Robert F. Scott (pictured at right) and Ernest Shackleton -- used the Port of Lyttleton in Christchurch (pictured below) as the base for their expeditions. In 1911, Roald Amundsen from Norway became the first to reach the Pole, beating Scott by only one month. He, his crew, and nearly 100 sled dogs set up a small hut on the coast of Antarctica and journeyed inland to the Pole.

It is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and very much summer here in Christchurch. We have lucked out with sunny to partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid to high 20's C (high 70's to low 80's F) so far. Today, we will meet the National Science Foundation representative and other journalists who will be joining us for the trip, as well as pick up our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) clothing and do a bit of training (more on that in another post later today). Tomorrow morning, we depart Christchurch for McMurdo Station -- our first stop in Antarctica -- and much colder temperatures!