Quick update

I'm just going to give you a quick update of the last couple days.

Sat night - movie night, we watched Wimbledon, very cute movie.

Sun- I had a fabulous day but for reasons of my own, I'm not going to post any pictures. I'll show you when I get home if you are interested because I did get some awesome pictures. It was the one day where I didn't do any work at all, I was in the office briefly but didn't do any work. It was nice to take a whole day of break. Later we went to the Sunday Science lecture. It was given by a cameraman from the BBC on their new production of Frozen Planet which is like Planet Earth. It looks like its going to be a fabulous series and I can't wait to see it.

Mon - Again we couldn't launch, the vortex is not working out for us. So we cleaned up half of our lab since we only have 10 days left. Packed up a bunch of stuff. All our friends left on the flight that went out, now it is just our group left from Winfly. Kind of sad.

Tues - So far the day has sucked. We still can't launch, it's windy, I can't get this ozone data analyzed because I don't know what I'm doing and still missing some sort of program or something. I don't know cuz I don't know what I'm doing. That and I really don't want to write on my thesis. I don't know what I'm doing for that either. So I hit the chocolate early this morning and am now taking a break.

Here are some random photos.
Our victory wine :)
Ready to start the day.
Having myself a blasty blast.
Coming to the end of my journey, 10 days left or less if we can't launch a balloon soon. I'm happy but sad all at once. I really like it here but I think I'm ready to come home.
Cheers!

Little Science

I don't really have anything new to write about. Thursday night we went to the coffee house to meet the seal group but they had some last minute things to take care of so we hung out with a bunch of people from Crary. It was quite entertaining and fun.

Friday, we were supposed to launch another sonde but we are not in the vortex. This means there is no ozone hole above us and we just have to wait. I finished untangling the parachute and we cleaned up some more instruments. Did everyone hear about the balloon boy? This was the big subject of the day because it was so ridiculous. First off that balloon would never carry a small boy, way too small. Second, what the hell is wrong with those parents... I have no words for the stupidity that went on yesterday.

Friday night we met the seal group at the coffee house to claim our reward. It was a very nice night of visiting and drinking wine, well I had hot chocolate with Amaretto but very good. So that was two nights in a row I was out past 9:30 pm. Crazy! I know... Didn't quite make it to 10 either night but give me a break, I'm up at 6:30 am and I'm tired. I like sleeping.

Today we couldn't launch a balloon again, we are still waiting, hopefully soon... I did some random data analysis, little bit of writing, made some batteries, small things.

Since I have nothing new to tell you, I decided to go back to a subject I talked a little bit about at the beginning of the season, the LIDAR. Give you a little science. The Lidar is a laser that shoots a beam of green light into the stratosphere. The laser light gets scattered on the particles within the atmosphere and some of that light is collected by a large telescope then recorded. We are most interested in PSCs or polar stratospheric clouds and the Lidar can tell us if there are any clouds, how big they are and what they are made of. We all learned to run it and it was kinda cool. This is the sign you see as you walk into the lab.
It is my favorite sign in all of McMurdo. Because of the power of the laser, we are required to wear these kick ass goggles. This is me late one night when I was running it by myself, I was staying entertained at least. God I look so cool. ;)
We asked what would happen if we didn't wear the goggles and Jason, who was teaching us to run it, told us our eyeballs would explode like an egg in the microwave. Needless to say, I always wore the goggles.

Here is the actual set up.
The really big cylinder is the telescope and that thing sticking up next to it, is the laser. The box underneath is called a chopper and it "chops" out bad data from other light sources, like the sun. Hence why we had to run it when it was dark and no longer run it because its light all the time. Next pic is a close up of the laser and telescope.
I think I was bored in the next one. I look really dumb but I think we can all have a giggle over it. (Lindsey, this one is mostly for you. Smile! :)
The next photo is one of Leslie's. Here camera has a longer exposure setting. This is what the laser looks like as it shoots into the sky.
It is pretty neat to watch and everyone always tended to notice when we were running it. Someone said we were trying to shoot down airplanes. Another said we were signaling to aliens. Everyone had their own version of what we were doing. I just liked the goggles.

Have a great weekend everyone! Congratulations to Deanna and Ian who are getting married, today for me and tomorrow for all of you. Cheers!

The Beat Goes On

Hello everyone,
I have a bunch of random things to cover in this entry since it has been a couple days since the last. First off, congrats to my parents and happy anniversary! Together 30 years on the 13th :) Sorry I called a day early for you but it was tuesday for me... just not you yet.

Tuesday was a busy day. Leslie and Mahesh went out in the helo to recover the last instrument. I almost was able to go with but they could only take two. Everything went well and they found it with no problem. They had to dig it out of the snow but everything is back safe and sound. Terry left that day for the states so it was busy making sure we had things covered before he left. He taught me to analyze our ozone data and now it's my job to do it. I also have to fill in the flight book with after each flight. After he left and we organized ourselves, we decided to launch a balloon that night. So after dinner, we launched Stanley sonde. I was able to use the helium gun and fill the balloon for the first time. It was kind of fun to blast helium with this huge gun. It was my turn to sit in Building 70 so I spent the next three hours up the hill. I had my own little dance party and called Lindsey. Her buddy was making fun of me because I was calling her at 1 am but it was only 7 pm for me. It was also very odd to walk out of the building at 9:30 pm and have it look like this...
I mean, its beautiful but really bright for 9:30 at night. Here is another view.
Wed. was pretty mellow. I caught up my lab notebook and wrote some more on my thesis chapter. Nothing too major. Took a couple pictures of the chalet now that they put up all the flags.
Later that night, we watched Zodiac at the coffee house. Long but good movie. Kinda creepy. But we walked out of there at 10:15 pm and it was a shock to come out into bright sunshine again. It looked like 3:00 in the afternoon. I don't think I'll ever get used to having it light all the time. I like it when it gets dark at night.

Today we cleaned in the lab, packed up our big instruments and I spent an hour trying to untangle the parachute from the last launch. It is a mess. We are meeting with the seal group tonight to get our reward for the bet we had with them. We were betting who would get all their instruments back first. They had 5 seals worth and we had 3 in the field. They had 4 seals back before we even had one instrument. Then Terry and I caught us up last Friday with the two we recovered. It was quite the race until the end, very completive spirits and lots of jesting. But we won! Leslie and Mahesh brought us the win on Tues. Turns out the seal group got their seal the next day, a close second. Now we get a bottle of wine and we are going to celebrate tonight. Some of their group is leaving tomorrow and we want to say goodbye. The rest leave on Monday with the albedo group and then we are all that is left from Winfly. All are friends are leaving us... oh well, we leave in 2 weeks. We have about 5 balloon flights left and then packing. The adventure is winding down.

That is all for now. Mom and I are planning our vacation in New Zealand and I'm going to keep working on my stuff. Cheers!

Mondays

I have decided that no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, Mondays always drag on forever. I thought I would write a short entry just to waste some time, update on you what I've been doing since my helo flight. I was pretty tired afterwards, all that excitement and outdoorness just wore me out. We had to clean all the snow out of the instruments and dry them out. Then we tore apart the masts and packed away the pieces.

Later we tried to go to the coffee house for a drink but it was packed in there. It was open mike night and it was crazy busy. I ended up staying for a little while but it was getting so hot and loud that I ended up bailing early. I went to bed after that, lame I know. It was like 9:30 on a Friday night and I was in bed. Oh well...

Sat. morning we launched an ozonesonde. It was the one named after me, Stephanie. We decided to try a rubber balloon too since it is warmer in the stratosphere. It was interesting, we suck at rubber balloon because we never use them. We were so awkard, it was terrible. But we got the balloon off the ground. Turns out we under inflated it and then the stupid thing broke early. Bad launch.

It was super windy that day too, we were supposed to get a huge storm. Didn't happen but Leslie and I were prepared with movies and snacks. We watch Phonebooth that night, terrible movie. The only thing that saved that movie was that it was only 81 minutes long.

Sunday, I told you about brunch already and then the rest of the day was boring. Cleaning the lab and packing up the bigger the instruments. There was also a science lecture that night. It was about microbes on the bottom of lakes in the dry valleys here in Antarctica. It was interesting but it got sort of long in the end for me. The lectures are at 8:15 pm and by the time it gets to 9:30, I sort of zone out.

Monday has been boring. It was windy and cold all day. So the second helo flight was cancelled and I've been wasting time. Twins lost, boo. Though I am glad to say, I have officially started my thesis. It's a whole sentence long then I ran into a problem. I have to read a paper and get some shit straight. But it is started... officially. I opened a new document, titled it and wrote a sentence. That is started.

Ok I wasted enough time, I should try to do something productive. Maybe I'll go to the gym, it is not the office. Happy Monday everyone!

Instrument Recovery in the Helo!

First off, we didn't get the crazy storm we were supposed to. It's super windy but not condition 1. I'm kind of disappointed. On the other hand, we had a fantastic brunch today. There was so much fresh fruit, it was great. All I had was a waffle and fruit, fabulous. Now I'm craving a large glass of real milk. We have milk but it is made from powder and it not the same as good ol' cow milk. Yum!

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Part 2 of my fantastic couple days was on Friday morning when I was able to go in the helicopter to recover two of our instruments we had flown. Super cool! I love flying and it was exciting to be in a helo. Our flight was to leave at 8:15 am, Terry and I were ready at 7:30 waiting in Pax Helo terminal. We were briefed, weighed and introduced to our pilot, Marko. I sat in the back on the way out to our first instrument which was about 75 miles to the east of McMurdo. Here is a couple pictures from the flight out, starting with a picture of myself taken by myself. :)
Terry
Terry and Marko
Take off!
Mount ErebusLooking down
Mount Terror
Then it was time to start searching for our instrument. Attached to the mast is an Argos unit which sends out a signal to a receiver so we can track the instrument. This is the receiver I used to pick up the signal or I called them chirps.
Woo we found one! It's that tiny little orange dot at the front of the helo shadow. Luckily our pilot has great eyes cuz it's a small instrument in a vast sheet of ice.
We landed close to it, Marko shut down the helo and we went out to collect all the pieces.
Here is how we found the instrument and mast, the parachute was flapping in the wind a little ways off.
Marko and Terry with the helo.
Me!
It was pretty cold, -35F with a couple knots of wind. I was glad I was bundled up. Then it was back up in the air to find the second instrument. We found the next one fairly easily, of course Marko was the one to spot it. Me again with the second instrument.
We were able to pack up everything and head back to McMurdo. Terry let me ride in the front on the way back. I should totally be a helicopter pilot, look how awesome I look in the helmet.
Hot!
The real pilot, Marko.
Terry looking cool in his helmet.
Out the front of the helo.
Marko and Mount Erebus
Getting close to home. Ob hill and Scott base in the middle right.
And finally, McMurdo from the air.
It was one of the coolest things I have ever done, too much fun.
I'm ready for the next adventure. Leslie and Mahesh are going out to find the last instrument. If I fit, I get to go along. So far I'm on the schedule (fingers crossed). Hopefully tomorrow is nice weather!

Only 3 weeks left on the ice and I've still got a couple things I need to see yet before I go. It's been great so far and I'm excited for the rest. It has been going really fast but I'm excited to go home too. Enjoy the pics and I'll try to take some more to show you. Cheers!

Tent Island

I have had a fantastic last couple of days. I think I wrote an entry on Thursday morning and was just going to have a pretty boring day. Nothing exciting when da da da daaa.... opportunity arrived! In the form of an invite to ride out to tent island with the albedo science group to help them collect their instruments and basically get out of town for an afternoon. It was fantastic! I took so many pictures that there is no way they are all going up here. I'll give you an overview of the afternoon.

At 1:00 pm, Mahesh and I met Rich, Regina and another Rich to head out to their tent island instrument site. We rode in a Piston Bully, I got to ride in the front. :) This is a really fun little machine and I would have loved to take it offroading but they didn't let me.
The site was a ways out of town but it was a fun and beautiful drive. Here is our destination, Tent Island.
When we got to the site, Regina and I drilled an ice core. An ice core is a sampling of the ice and the drill cores out a cylinder shaped chunk as deep as we want to go. Here I am going to town! Beast!
This is Regina taking temperature measurements from the ice core.
Rich and Mahesh went out to collect all the flags that were put out for location markers. Here is one of the many nice shots of them and Mount Erebus.
This is Mahesh, Rich and Rich, he let us come out with them.
We finished early with all of us working at gathering the samples and instruments so we had some time to play and take pictures. The next couple of pictures are of me being silly. I was excited. This one is titled "Antarctica!"
Then I rolled on the ice.
And of course the shot of myself taken by myself.
Mahesh and the piston bully. Rich is on top and Regina is loading gear.
When we were driving out to the island, we saw some seals by the shore. Rich drove us closer to see them when we finished. Seals!
They look like big slugs.
We walked around a bit, looking at the seals, checking out some cracks and just enjoying the day.
Rich then took us around around the island the other way to see some new scenery on the way back.
Mount Erebus.
It was awesome. We had a great day too, the weather was beautiful, wind wasn't strong and it was just fantastic. Like I said I took tons of pictures and this is just a fraction but I'll show everyone more when I get home.

Dinner that night was super good too. They had lettuce!! and broccoli! and corned beef! and purple cabbage! and best of all, strawberries!! Even chocolate covered strawberries!! It was so yummy! Love it! When I get home, I'm eating a bunch of bananas and a box of strawberries.

Friday was just as awesome as Thursday but I'm going to save that for an entry tomorrow. Keep you all in suspense of the awesomeness that Friday was. Weather update - super windy and getting windier. It's -4F and there is supposed to be a beast of a storm coming this way. I'm really hoping for a Condition 1 since there hasn't been one since I've gotten here. Woo big storms!! We are supposed to get gusts of 70 knots too. That's tropical storm speeds! :)

Another tidbit before I leave... it is light out most of the day now. I think there is still some dark at 1 to 3 am but even then there is some light on the horizon. The sun just moves in a circle above the horizon. Oct. 22 is the last sun set until autumn. We are going to watch it if the weather is nice.

Enjoy the pictures and come back tomorrow for another exciting adventure! Cheers!