Feliz Navidad Jeff! I am thinking of you and all onboard this Christmas :) It was nice seeing Tish and Kevin on your video. And I totally understand the battle between exhilaration with all that surrounds you, and the heart tug of missing family at Christmas. Reminds you how special it is!

So, could you please relay these questions/comments to the following:

Tish: Have you identified any gases from the gas chambers you are using? How long do you keep the sample ice core in? How many chambers do you have all together?

Kevin: I understand you're heading up the ice research- I am so proud of you!!How many seasons back do the deepest cores date? Do they layer? Does anyone have a light meter to take a reading on the reflectivity of the ice during a station? We are studying ice albedo and it would be awesome to have a true reading from the ice!

Agneta and Melissa: I don't think I got a response to the question of the identity of the "egg"- still not named? Are you doing any plankton tows? How does the gas chamber Tish is using compare to the apparatus you used last year to measure gases in the seawater? SKOL!

All for now Jeff- take care :) Lollie

Jeff Peneston

Lollie!
First, I hope you and your family is having a great Christmas and I am sure everyone is happy that you are near this year.
I have made the rounds and everyone misses you and sends their affection.  I was also able to get answers to your questions.
Tish said that the ice is yielding all the gases that she anticipated.  They are measuring CO2 as well as 20 organohalogens.  She brought 6 glass ice chambers and 5 still work.  The ice is left in the chambers for about 24 hours and gas samples are removed on a regular basis.  After 24 hours the ice is mostly melted and the algae and bacterial communities are substantially altered.   Last year the gas measurements were based on water from the water column and from the Oden’s underway water intake.  This year she is measuring the gas flux directly from the ice cores.  Some of the samples are brought into the lab and the Swedes have chambers that go out onto the ice and collect in-sitsu samples for 24 hours.  Tish is pleased with the data that has been collected so far but it is too early for much analysis.
Kevin is glad that you are proud of him.  He is also still trying to convince me that you did his laundry last year and that laundry should be the responsibility of each PolarTREC teacher.  I didn’t buy any of it.  He feels that all the ice we have cored in the Amundsen is first year ice.  There are definite layers of frozen snow on the top and sometimes layers of frozen seawater on the bottom.  Most of the cores also reflect that the sea ice has been repeatedly broken, jumbled and refrozen through the year.  We are often able to find that cores that are only a few meters apart can be over a meter different in thickness.  In many locations we will core down to seawater at 1-2 meters and then find that a free floating raft of ice is beneath the core hole.  Imagine 1 meter thick sea ice that is wind broken and storm-tossed. Then this jumbled junkyard of ice is refrozen and covered with a meter of snow.  That is what we have been coring.  Some of the cores look like the cross-bedding you can sometimes find in sedimentary rock.
Kevin uses a light meter at every ice station to measure the sunlight falling above and reaching below the sea ice.  We don’t have any specific tools or techniques for measuring albedo.  However, I would be happy to use the light meter at our next station to get a measurement of the reflected light.  I can give you the light meter reading as it lies on the snow facing the sky and then the same meter when it is facing directly down at the snow.  I will also record the sky condition.  Perhaps the comparison of meter reading will be useful to you.  
I had a personal encounter with albedo and the power of UV light in Antarctica.  While shooting the video of the seal research team in action.  I had to repeatedly remove my polar sunglasses.  After about 45 minutes of accumulated exposure, my eyes were in pain.  Fortunately, it went away after a day but it was an impressive demonstration of the effects of lowered ozone protection and the reflectivity of snow.
Melissa told me that the “egg” you photographed last year appears to be a larval form of a terepod called a veliger.  
I am glad you like my journals.There are new videos coming!
Take care,
Jeff

Lollie Garay

Hi Jeff! Thanks for getting my questions answered! Of course, the replies just raised new questions .
Tish: So do you expect the same types/amounts of gases from the ice as was found in sea water, or should there be a difference?
Melissa: Great, finally a name for the egg! Are veligers common in all oceans, or are they specific to  polar regions ( I found an article that mentions them in Arctic waters as well)
Jeff: Yes please take a reading on the ice! I am very interested and did not think to do this last year! Also, if possible, can you get a picture of an ice core with some layering/banding in it?
Please give my best to Daniel Barrdahl (he took some awesome pictures last year!) and 1st Officer Thomas ( a gentleman and a scholar:).
As for Kevin, watch out for that boy!I confess, I did do some of his laundry-he reminded me a lot of my own son and I became his Polar mom.
HA! he's on his own this go 'round!
Enjoy the day, the ice, and everything around you!
Lollie