As we are traveling further southward, the weather is definitely changing. Yesterday we crossed the Antarctic Convergence Zone - the area where the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific meet the colder waters of the Southern Ocean. The air temperature has dropped below freezing and snow flurries are
The Crary Science Lab is the heart of Antarctic research. The building has 3 "Phases" or levels; each level houses different disciplines of science. Our office is in Phase 2 which is the Earth/Space sciences. Those scientists who need access to labs to conduct experiments have equipment, materials
Well, it's been a great visit, but it's time to go. With tears in my eyes I bid farewell to the South Pole. It has been a wonderful, curious, exciting, and rewarding time. I have enjoyed everything from the constant daylight to the cold, cold ice tunnels. I adored the friends I've made at the pole
The team in the lab gave me a nice tour of the IceCube Lab. This is the location of all the IceCube and IceTop computers, and where more than 5,000 DOMs have to link in. The room is heated by the servers and it even has to be cooled so it doesn't overheat--at the South Pole! In the whole project
We boarded the Oden Wednesday morning and I have so much to share with you about this amazing ship. In later posts I will describe our sea ice science project in detail, as well as the other projects also taking place on this cruise. I will also introduce you to the Oden's officers and crew, and
Today we "pulled" our food for the expedition. This is something that I'm somewhat familiar with since I often take multi-day raft trips with groups of people. This was just on a larger scale. The night before we had a menu meeting where we discussed menus and filled out a shopping list. There are
Today was an incredibly busy day spent gathering materials for the field. We split the majority of our time between Cargo and the Berg Field Center. Cargo is where each research team has a "cage". These are partitioned rooms created from chain link fencing with shelves for storage and room in the
Well, I survived the night and it was really quite cozy and comfortable. Actually, at one point I got so hot, I had to unzip my sleeping bag. We were up by 6:30 the next morning and had to have eaten breakfast and have camp broken down by 8:30 when the instructors were scheduled to show up. They
This lesson came out of a desire to connect the plankton research that I did during the 0902 Healy cruise with my young "researchers" back in Washington, DC. I wanted them to understand that plankton not only feed the Arctic but that much of the world relies on these little critters that come to life for us when we look
Monday morning found me up after about 3 hours of sleep to meet Blake, Brent, and David for breakfast in our hotel before we walked to the USAP (United States Antarctic Program) warehouse to check out our extreme weather clothing (EWC's.) Punta Arenas is a small,quaint town on the water of the
