Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 12/16/2012 - 12:58

Hi. My name is Parker and our Honors Earth Science class is studying the PolarTREC Expeditions along with our regular studies. We got to choose which expedition we would like to follow and I chose yours because it sounded really interesting just from the title, and I think I chose well. Besides learning about the AGOs and the project that you guys are trying to accomplish, I have been able to learn a lot about Antarctica as well which is exciting. I would like to ask you guys a few questions about stuff as well.

-What exactly are some of the instruments in the AGOs? -Is the information the instruments gather collected every year at one time or is it sent using the Internet? -Are the AGOs positioned in five exact spots in Antarctica for a reason or are they just placed randomly in five differents spots? -What is some of the information the instruments gather from the atmosphere? -How big are the AGOs?

I hope to hear back from you and that you are enjoying your time in Antarctica. Thanks for all the great jounal entries.

Parker C. - Twin Falls High School, Twin Falls, Idaho

Tim Spuck

Parker,Here is the link to one of my latest journal entries and I think it answers most of your questions. The only one I don't think I have addressed yet is the one about the logic behind the distribution of the AGO sites. The sites are located at particular distances from the Magnetic South Pole allowing scientists look at how activity changes with distance from the Pole. There are also some corresponding, but opposite sites in the north polar region so that we can look at similarities and differences during a single event.
Link to the journal - http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/space-weather-monitoring-on-the-ant...
Let me know if you have more questions.
Thanks, Tim