Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 12/22/2007 - 16:55
Forums
Antarctic Ice Sheet Studies

Brandon,

 

Thank you so much, your journal entries are a blast and they make me wish I could be there with you!  

 

I have followed the journals of all of the Antarctic PolarTREC teachers over the last 2 years and it sounds like you have hit the maximum for adversity and adventure.  In Upstate NY we know all about being “snowed in” but your experience through the storms at the WAIS divide sound epic.

 

My question is about wind chill.  Do the folks at the WAIS drill site estimate wind chill and consider it when they are working outside?  

 

Have fun, keep warm and make memories!

 

Jeff Peneston

Liverpool High School

Liverpool,  NY

Sun, 12/23/2007 - 18:08

Brandon Gillette

Hello Jeff!  Thank you for you question.  It is definitely something to be considered.  In my time at WAIS we obviously had a few storms.  Believe it or not, wind chill was not mentioned.  Whether or not we go outside was more dependent on visitiblities rather than wind chill.  You can always cover exposed skin, but if you can't see, you're not going to get much done!I have put a link to a wind chill diagram, and yes, we could estimate using this chart and current observations.  We'll do a quick practice problem.  During the second of the two storms we had maximum winds clocked at 51 knots, or nearly 59 mph.  Considering the conditions, outside temperatures were relatvitly warm at about -10 C, or about 11 F.  This put our wind chill somewhere close to -20 F.  The problem was we couldn't see more than 4-5 feet so no one was outside in the first place.
http://www.weather.gov/os/windchill/images/windchill.gif
Cheers,~Brandon