Leaving McMurdo
Today I packed up my bags to head to the South Pole, and then on to the AGO site I will be working with. My McMurdo team also packed up their bags, but they are heading back home via New Zealand tomorrow. The lab was packed up too and we are all waiting to leave.
Our research group's number, B518, identifies our giant box of lab equipment that will be shipped back to Texas to be analyzed.
Perhaps the Pole
Although I am listed to fly to the South Pole tomorrow morning, nothing is certain in Antarctica. I have watched many people hope to leave, to find that their plane has been delayed or canceled for days. I am crossing my fingers that I make it to the Pole so that I can work with Bob Melville and Andy Stillinger at an AGO site for 10 days.
Bob Melville and Andy Stillinger greet Michelle as she arrives at McMurdo Station.
New Adventures, New Blog!
I will start posting my daily journals on a new webpage! My new journal page is called: "Space Weather Monitoring on the Antarctic Plateau"! Click here to go to the main page of the site, of here to read the journals. I will not have access to the internet, so I will not be able to post pictures, movies or written messages. However, I will post audio journals, so you can hear what I am up to!
A different world!
I will be going to the South Pole to acclimate to a higher elevation (see my journals on the Space Weather Monitoring page to learn more about that!). If all goes well, I will fly to an Automatic Geophysical Observatory with Bob and Andy to update and reset the instruments there, which are measuring the magnetic field and ionosphere. If my plane is delayed or I do not feel well at the South Pole due to altitude problems, I may not get to go. I'll hope for the best!
An example of an Automatic Geophysical Observatory, which I will hopefully be flying to on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Augest Allen, RPSC