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Antarctica from Above

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After finally getting some time to sort through more pictures, I figured a post focused on viewing Antarctica from above (in a Twin Otter to be specific) would be worthwhile. Seeing Antarctica from the ground is certainly an unforgettable experience, but seeing the continent from the air brings about a whole different perspective. Most of what I've experienced and posted on in the past has focused on flights to/from McMurdo and our specific stations (namely Lorne and Tall Tower), but the flights to and from Cape Hallett and the penguin colony allowed me to see a different part of Antarctica. The trip to Cape Hallett meant we got to fly north along the Admiralty Mountain Range. Along the way, we saw all manner of mountains, glaciers, sea ice and ice shelves while being mindful that this is one of the very few places on earth mostly untouched by man or animal.  Glacier and snow covered peaks dominate this landscape. Glaciers could be found everywhere you looked. Occasiona
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Cape Hallett and the Adelie Penguin Colony

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Last week, we were asked by the Antarctic Weather Station (AWS) group if we could potentially assist them in troubleshooting some problems at one of their stations. The AWS at Cape Hallett had stopped transmitting and it was not clear if the problem was related to the modem or to the datalogger. Many of their sensors are similar or identical to the ones used at our precipitation sites so we agreed to help (especially considering how far ahead of schedule we were for our own work). Cape Hallett is about a 3.5 - 4 hour Twin Otter flight north of McMurdo and is also home to tens of thousands of Adelie Penguins. We were initially scheduled to fly there last Thursday but the weather wasn't looking the best so we were delayed until Friday. Friday morning we were off with a stop at Mario Zucchelli station, one of the Italian Antarctic bases, for refueling. Zucchelli station is located in Terra Nova Bay where the South Koreans also have a station and China is building another statio
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Site Removals, Mirages and Lenticulars .. oh my!

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It's been a very busy last week down here on the ice and as a result, we have managed to remove all the sensors from all four sites. The Lorne and Tall Tower sites have been completely removed, to include the towers, anchors and power systems. Phoenix has been completely removed with the exception of the power system and Willie still has the towers, anchors and power systems. We hope to get those removed next week. The Lorne and Tall Tower sites (the two requiring aircraft to reach) were removed on back-to-back days last Friday and Saturday.  Because of the two years of snow accumulation at each site, it meant some of the towers that were originally buried in only three feet of snow were now buried in five to six feet of compacted snow. Lorne before removal. The Lorne Antarctic weather station (which was not removed) can be seen at the far left. Tom Laurie, Tim Klar, and Thomas Nylen work to remove the instrument tower at Lorne. The five-foot hole I dug to remove one
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