It was cold this morning! We all headed to the dive hole at about 9:30 this morning. There was no sun and a slight snow was falling. Everything was freezing that we needed to use: regulators, batteries, Hal's motor parts, etc. We went through some hot thermos water today! We poured the hot water on the frozen parts to thaw things out. The most difficult part is being outside in our dry suits standing on the lake ice. The suits are warm enough, but standing on the ice in thin rubber boots is quite cold on the feet. Once our feet get cold, everything starts to cool down. I had a good case of the shivers - I think we all did! Of course, we ran into minor glitches along the way with the parts to things freezing. This just prolonged our time on the ice.After a very cold start, Ian dove to re-launch Hal. He seems to be doing great! Everyone is very excited! Yesterday, I posted a picture of some Hal data - I'll repeat it here:
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Yesterdays data picture
Could you figure out what it was showing with the clues I gave? It's measuring Oxygen levels, but where? Of what? Let me give you another clue with some more information and see what you can come up with:
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Graph with the axis labeled (that helps doesn't it?) What can you figure out?
Ok - that's your challenge - what's going on in this graph?
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Hilke hands Ian the PAM; it's a comparative profiler. The researches can compare the data received from this instrument to Hal's data and check for reliability.
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Aslan chats with Ian during the dive!
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Hilke sends Hal the commands via the computer.
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Hilke records the data that Hal is sending back!
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After the diving is finished, before we can head back to camp, everything must be securely tied down in case the Antarctic winds begin to blow! Aslan reties the tent lines!
Parting picture:
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The Canada Glacier in full sun.
You can also check out my journals and pictures from previous seasons at: http://www.ryejrhigh.org/ellwood