28 June 2017 A Chance to Meet Family

It was December when I found out that, as an applicant to the PolarTREC program, I was selected by a polar researcher for an expedition to Antarctica in the 2017 – 2018 season. I would be working with Carol Costanza and the group at the University of Wisconsin at Madison including Dr. Matthew Lazzara, Lee Welhouse, and David Mikolajczyk, on Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) or self-contained units equipped with specialized sensors mounted at various locations about Antarctica to measure weather variables such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed among others. Although as a physics teacher the various quantities being measured by an Automatic Weather Station were familiar to me, I still was confronted with a rather steep learning curve in learning about the collected data within the context of the Antarctica landscape, environment and topographical constraints. As a result, I transformed into student mode, conducting a widespread search for all relevant information, documents, and research papers on AWS and Antarctica weather in general that would provide me with a basic understanding and working knowledge. As I pored over these documents, questions began to evolve which I began to compile on a pad of paper. These questions then were posed to Carol and Matthew, who provided me with detailed responses. These responses then led to another series of questions and eventually the science involved in the upcoming expedition was taking shape. Through the course of our back and forth correspondence, Matthew had informed me of an annual conference on Antarctica Meteorology to be held in Boulder, Colorado during the last week in June. He thought this would be an ideal opportunity for me to hear presentations regarding all of the current research on Antarctica meteorology. I agreed. I thought that this would be a great chance to meet the leading experts in Antarctica meteorology research and learn from them as well.

The Automatic Weather Stations research team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Following an inquiry to ARCUS about the possibility of attending, plans were made to begin travel arrangements. I would attend the conference (WAMC) at NCAR from Sunday, June 25 to Wednesday, June 28, giving me an opportunity to meet and hear from the leading experts in the field. Of course, if you are a little confused by the acronyms – no worries. I am in the same boat as you are. Acronyms represented the first challenge in becoming learning about the research. As I listened to the presentations and took notes throughout the conference, I compiled a list of 29 acronyms, many that I was able to define either from the presentations themselves or with the help of Matthew and Carol. By the way, in case you are interested, WAMC represents the conference title (Workshop on Antarctic Meteorology and Climate) and NCAR was the location of the conference (National Center for Atmospheric Research). What I found most interesting about the conference was the wide spectrum and applicability of weather and climate models used to evaluate the state of weather and climate in Antarctica. Although these models are different in many respects, they collectively are used to advance the current knowledge of Antarctica meteorology and continue to serve a unique purpose in the scientific community. The conference exceeded my loftiest expectations and provided me with a basic overview and solid understanding of the challenges that await my expedition in November. During one of our several commutes between the hotel and the conference location, the conversation centered around the tight-knit collaborative partnerships and relationships that exist among the scientists that were in attendance. In fact, Matthew made the very profound comment that the conference attendees were more like a family rather than an assembly of professional colleagues. As I thought about the comment, I realized that he was correct…this conference was more than a chance to meet experts in the field – it was a chance to meet family! And to prove it, here is a family portrait of the University of Wisconsin at Madison research group.

Mark your calendars...the expedition begins on November 1!