The Antarctic Sun, February 6, 2005

Home , Farthest South, Ice pier, Leverett Glacier, South Pole Traverse

Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program February 6, 2005 Where art thou, ROMEO? Trailblazers’ long haul to the plateau By Kristan Hutchison Sun staff The team marking a safe haul route to the South Pole pulled onto the polar plateau on Jan. 4. They left four green flags and a bundle of bamboo poles at their farthest south point, 480km from the South Pole and 1,187km from McMurdo. It was farther than they expected to get this season. “We exceeded even our ‘far exceeds expectations.’ We not only got onto the Leverett (Glacier), we went up the d—n thing and camped and left tracks on the polar plateau for the first time in the traverse Photo by Jeff Blair / Special to The Antarctic Sun history,” said project manager John Wright. Divers Dug Coons and Karen Sterling prepare to put an underwater camera, called ROMEO, in place at New Harbor. The camera will stay on the sea floor for the winter “That’s a major achievement.” taking pictures of single-celled creatures called foraminifera. See story on page 3. The goal of the South Pole Proof-of- Concept Traverse project is to test the feasibility of hauling cargo from McMurdo to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, in order to take some of the burden off the limited Urchin larvae make most of a meal flights. The planned route crosses the Ross By Emily Stone better gas mileage than any car out Ice Shelf, climbs the Leverett Glacier through Sun staff there?” asked David Ginsburg, a gradu- the Transantarctic Mountains, then continues The way Donal Manahan and his ate student with the group. across the plateau to the pole. It’s a total of researchers see it, millions of tiny sports The scientists from the University of 1,600km with 3,000m elevation gain. This cars are floating around McMurdo Sound. Southern California spent August season the traverse team made it three-quar- They’re talking about sea urchin lar- through February at McMurdo Station ters of the way. vae, but they use the analogy to explain studying this phenomenon in hopes of The traverse team and planners hadn’t how fast the little creatures are when it understanding how organisms are able to expected to make it so far this year. Last sea- comes to creating protein. And the larvae live in the chilly and nutrient-poor son they faced problems with sleds wallow- aren’t simply speedy. They’re also Antarctic waters. ing in deep, soft snow on the Ross Ice Shelf incredibly fuel-efficient. They use a frac- “What is the special biology that and made it 684km along the route before tion of the food that their larval cousins allows organisms to grow up cold and turning back. This year the traverse team in temperate waters need to make the hungry?” said Manahan, explaining the expected to make it at least that far, and con- same amount of protein. basic question at the root of his Antarctic tinue beyond as far as half the fuel and time “How can you be a Ferrari and get See Traverse on page 16 See Larvae on page 12 Final summer issue INSIDE Quote of the Week This is the last issue of The Antarctic Sun this season. Big bergs in McMurdo burbs “Whoever created sleep didn’t Past issues are available at Page 7 give enough to Antarctica.” the Web site and watch for a Balloons check the weather — A dining attendant on a camping trip, facing special mid-winter edition. four hours of sleep before his next work shift The Sun will resume weekly Page 14 publication in October. www.polar.org/antsun 2 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005

Ross Island Chronicles By Chico Friends, the summer season is over. When your name shows up on the manifest, you’re on the next wave outta here. Cold, hard facts Helicopter operations Average number of trips per season: 1,800 Average amount of cargo moved per season: My name is on the manifest. I I know this must be hard to 725,000kg can’t leave! I still have too much believe, but there’s a possibility this place won’t fall apart Average number of passengers flown per to do!!! season: 6,500 without you. Number of helo pilots: 8 Total years of pilot experience: 175 Number of helo techs: 6 Types of helos: 3 Huey 212s, 2 A-Stars, 2 Dolphins Helos with most range: A-Star/212 at 555km Fastest Helo: A-Star w/o basket, 225kph Average flight time per trip: 35 min You don’t understand I’m the only Am I just Average distance flown: 90km one who can do my job. imagining it, Farthest point flown in 2005 season: or does it Cape Kerr at 278 km from McMurdo already Most exotic flight in 2005 season: seem less Battleship Promontory in the Dry Valleys, hectic since which features sandstone spires he left Note: Numbers include Antarctica New Zealand 5 minutes and USCG helicopters when applicable. ago. Source: Monika Gablowski, helicopter operations

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the National It’s a Harsh Cartoon Matt Davidson Science Foundation as part of the United States Antarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its primary audience is U.S. Antarctic Program participants, their fami- lies, and their friends. NSF reviews and approves material before publication, but opinions and conclusions expressed in The Sun are not necessarily those of the Foundation. Use: Reproduction and distribution are encouraged with acknowledgment of source and author. Senior Editor: Kristan Hutchison Editors: Brien Barnett, Emily Stone Copy Editors: Karl Horeis, Amanda Barnett, Kai Lindemulder Publisher: Valerie Carroll, Communications manager, RPSC Contributions are welcome. Contact The Sun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visit our office in Building 155 or dial 2407. Web address: www.polar.org/antsun February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 3 Camera keeps winter watch on voracious “forams” By Emily Stone Sun staff When Sam Bowser’s science group returned home last week, they left one member of their team behind – an underwater camera named ROMEO that will be clicking away on the McMurdo Sound seafloor all winter. Bowser has studied a group of single- celled organisms called foraminifera, or forams for short, since 1984. This is the first time he’ll get to glimpse what they’re up to while he’s gone. Even when he’s at his field camp at New Harbor, there’s only so much he and his divers can see, he said. The camera solves that problem. “We’ll get a time-lapse movie of things you won’t see in a 30-minute dive,” said Bowser, a cell biologist with the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center in Albany. He’s particularly interested in the forams’ place in the underwater food web. Photo by Emily Stone / The Antarctic Sun Antarctic forams are enormous and Dug Coons lowers a laundry basket into a dive hole at New Harbor so he can later pull up voracious by single-celled standards. specimens collected for Sam Bowser, who is studying a single-celled organism called Certain species are larger than one mil- foraminifera. The group put a camera in this dive hole, where it will stay for the winter. limeter and visible to the naked eye, and feed on animals much larger than them, lop’s shell and slowly suck the nutrients Bowser thinks was attracted to the light, such as shrimp-like creatures called from the animal. The camera will let got quite friendly with the camera, living amphipods and juvenile starfish. Bowser Bowser see how exactly they feed on the on top of it for some time and ruining pic- estimates that 200 different species of much larger species. tures. It then proceeded to eat the scallop forams live in New Harbor. “The idea is to be able to do tele- the camera was watching. To avoid this Bowser hopes the camera captures science,” said Jeff Blair, an engineer with over the winter, the group’s divers placed a forams feeding on a scallop that the group Magee Scientific of Berkeley, Calif., fence around the camera, and, “put a placed in the camera’s view. The scallop is which designed the camera. ROMEO bunch of sacrificial scallops around it,” to tied down so it can’t wander away. The stands for Remotely Operable Micro- distract the starfish, Blair said. tiny creatures will drill through the scal- Environmental Observatory. Blair will work back home on a micro- This is the second year of the three-year scope that will be integrated into the cam- project. Last year, the group used a proto- era next year. Bowser is hoping to use it to type camera to learn what they could see catch a second type of foram feeding on underwater and what the light was like, microscopic organisms. Blair explained. ROMEO is programmed this winter to Blair made some adjustments to the wake up every eight hours and take seven camera, which came back this year for pictures, Blair said. It has a range of shots more testing and preparations for its win- it takes of the scallop using different ter home, 24m below the surface of angles and levels of zoom. The pictures McMurdo Sound. The group also laid are stored on a 1-gigabyte memory card down 150m of fiber optic cable through a that the group will retrieve in October. 2.5cm steel pipe under the water and ice Next year they plan to use a 4-gigabyte and up the shore to a large rock. card. The camera will conserve batteries Their goal next year is to have an anten- by going to sleep, so to speak, in between na on that rock transmitting pictures to its photography duties. Bowser in Albany at regular intervals. The The group needs to work out security information would travel by radio to and bandwidth issues before knowing if McMurdo, where it would be transmitted Bowser will be able to talk to ROMEO via satellite to Albany. next year and move its lens around Bowser hopes the cable will also allow remotely via the Internet. Bowser said he’s him to move the camera lens remotely hopeful it will work and figures if we can from his office. talk to rovers on Mars, then it should be “Let’s say a whole herd of starfish wan- easy to talk to a camera in Antarctica. Photo by Emily Stone / The Antarctic Sun ders into our point of view,” Bowser said. “It ought to be possible,” he said. Engineer Jeff Blair puts the final touches on “That’s kind of boring for us. We’ll want an underwater camera in the Jamesway at to turn it and look at forams.” NSF-funded science in this story: Sam Bowser, the New Harbor field camp. The camera The starfish can cause more than just a New York Department of Health, will sit on the seafloor over the winter. distraction. This year a starfish, which www.bowserlab.org 4 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005 Whales put on show for researchers

Photo above by Don LeRoi, at left by Wayne Perryman / Special to The Antarctic Sun Left, a killer whale plays with a piece of ice in McMurdo Sound. Above, a pack of whales swim by researchers photographing them.

By Robert L. Pitman tors were land animals. If you don’t around a couple times and then started Special to The Antarctic Sun believe in evolution, you are not paying nosing a piece of ice that was about half a McMurdo has its own version of attention. meter across. At one point she lifted it up Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls - the When we get to the lead, the water is and it broke in two. Stampeding of the Orcas. Each year the glassy calm. Brother whale has disap- She disappeared for about a minute, whales make their way up the ice channel peared. The overcast sky blends seamless- and then a piece of ice about the size of a that’s opened in McMurdo Sound. ly with the frozen sea. The only sound basketball started moving toward us. From our helicopter, we spot the puffy now is our breathing and the occasional When our girl surfaced behind it, she blows of at least 30 killer whales, working squeak of rubber bunny boots in dry snow. arched her head forward, then snapped it along the edge of a long crack in the ice. Suddenly we are startled by a quick back flipping the ice chunk out of the The McMurdo killer whales have distinct series of explosive breaths from the far water and ahead of her. For the next five color patterns and habitat preferences. end of the lead. A pack of killer whales minutes she continued to make free throws My colleagues, Wayne Perryman and has surfaced from under the ice and is as she motored around the small pond in Don LeRoi, and I think they may be charging in our direction. They are front of us. Then she lost interest and went a separate species. To make our advancing along the edge of the on her way. Maybe she thought we were case, we hope to collect biopsy fast ice where it is about a talent scouts from SeaWorld. samples for genetic analysis, meter thick, so we can walk Today, though, the whales are not take aerial photographs to speaking right up to the edge of dallying. Wayne hops onto an ice floe to photograph the passage head-on. The adult precisely measure body of their world. The water is length and proportions, science... clear and their large white males look like they are about to slice his perhaps make some feeding eye patches are easy to fol- platform with their immense dorsal fins. observations, and just get to low as they glide under the Instead, they arch adroitly at the last sec- know them a little better in their water. ond, dive under the floe and pop up on the natural environment. An adult male, maybe 6m long, other side. The floe rocks in the water as The helicopter lands and our pilot, surfaces a meter away. His breath tons of black and white flesh go hurtling Wendy, signals us to get out while the forms a steam cloud in the air and he is so by, and the air is filled with the spray and rotor is still whop-whopping. We grab our close that tiny droplets coat my glasses as roar of killer whales huffing and puffing. cameras and crossbow, and head across I instinctively jump back from the ice The thundering herd takes about five the frozen ocean toward the open lead. edge. Then a cow with her new calf blast minutes to blow by us. I frantically alter- Before we see water, a giant, black letter through like another car on the bullet train. nate between camera and crossbow as opener slices across our view, 200m The calf is young enough that it still whales surface within a meter of me. The ahead. The dorsal fin of this adult male swims with jerky motions, like a child that crossbow bolts bounce off the whales and killer whale is probably 1.5m tall and sin- only recently learned to walk. It lifts its land on the ice, practically at my feet. The ister looking. head clear of the water and appears to be bolts take a tiny bit of skin and blubber, We see a small cloud form over its trying to get a better look at the novel crea- and the donors continue on, as if nothing head. A full second later the explosive tures on the ice edge. The adults seem to happened. We get our samples and photos. sound arrives: the unmistakable gasp of an have urgent business elsewhere and they And then silence, once again, drops air-breathing mammal. Despite being pass swiftly through. around us like a curtain. supremely adapted to a life in the ocean, On the previous day, we observed a killer whales retain one of the most useless group of whales in less of a hurry. One of Robert Pitman is a whale researcher with features an aquatic animal could own - a the whales, probably a female, was lolling NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science pair of lungs. It’s an indication their ances- in front of us, a meter away. She circled Center February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 5 around the continent

SOUTH POLE

IceCube’s first hole The first string of digital optical mod- Compiled from reports by Katie Hess ules descends into and other sources the 2,450m hole at the South Pole. The This week begins the final crunch stage IceCube project will at the South Pole before the summer winds have about 80 such down. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station holes. The detectors plans to begin its winter season after the are used to track last flight on Feb. 15. neutrinos, or sub- The most exciting event last week was atomic particles, at IceCube, a new neutrino detector pro- from deep space. ject. A string of 60 digital optical modules Photo courtesy IceCube / was extended to a depth of 2,450m below Special to The Antarctic Sun the surface of the polar plateau. IceCube used hot water drilling to create a hole cryogenics facility should retain more heli- arrives this week, signifying the end of the reaching a maximum depth of 2,517m on um through the winter than ever before. Long Term Ecological Research cruise. Jan. 27. Positioning the cable with the 60 This will be “the largest cryo year in the Some grantees and staff will depart and DOMs began Friday morning as anxious history of the program with almost double some will return to station after the cruise. hands tied the DOMs one by one onto the the usage of previous years,” said cryogen- Palmer has a longer summer season than cable and lowered it down the hole. The ics technician Christina Hammock. McMurdo and South Pole, so summer activ- hole was full of melted water up to a depth On Sunday, much of the station ities and science will continue into March of 50m below the surface. It takes about enjoyed a couple special premieres of Tom when the winter crew begins to arrive. five days to refreeze the water and solidify Piwowarski’s “South Pole Summer 2004- Tad Day, principal investigator from the modules into position. This was the 2005” documentary film. Arizona State University, presented “Global first of 80 such strings that eventually will — Jerry Marty, Albrect Karle, Chris- Warming and Antarctic Plants” as our be in a grid within a cubic kilometer of ice. tina Hammock and Al Baker contributed Wednesday night science lecture. His South Pole NSF Representative Jerry to this story. research team this year includes Chris Marty activated the first DOM at 8:40 p.m. Ruhland, David Bryant, Sarah Strauss and on Jan. 29 from a computer at the surface. PALMER Michell Thomey. Day began with an intro- Conditional occupancy permits were duction to the greenhouse effect: green- granted for two wings of the new station. Tracking global warming house gasses absorb the outgoing long wave Wings B1, emergency power and dorms, radiation and warm the lower atmosphere of and B2, which houses science, were for- By Kerry Kells the Earth. Evidence for changes in tempera- mally approved Jan. 30. Another mile- Palmer correspondent ture included weather station measure- stone completed. Open water and good weather have ments, historical records and tree rings. A new cryogenics facility used to cool Evidence linking carbon dioxide to global telescopes will be finished in the next sev- offered long days the past week for research and sampling at Palmer Station. warming is found in ice cores and revealed eral weeks and one last large container of by general circulation models, which are liquid helium will be flown to Pole on or Bird researchers report south polar skua chicks hatched on Shortcut Island. The computer models built to mimic the cli- around Feb. 11. The new facility will house mates of the Earth. The predicted warming the station’s transport dewars, hoses and Ocean Search and Rescue Team got out for training exercises. Humpback and minke over the 21st Century will be 1.4C to 4.5C. valves to protect it from the South Pole’s More warming has been seen here on the ambient -60C to -80C winter temperatures, whales visited frequently. Both the private yacht Sarah W. Vorwerk and the Endeavour western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula which congeal lubricant and jeopardize the than globally. Temperature records from o-rings that seal the vacuum space of the cruise ship returned to station. The Akademik Ioffe, a Russian icebreaker turned neighboring stations show air temperature dewar. Starting this winter, a helium lique- increases. Sea ice durations, ice core data fier also will be used to capture the helium cruise ship also visited. The Crystal Symphony, a new cruise ship with 716 pas- and sediment cores show more evidence of gas that is continuously boiling off at just global warming. over -269C. Redundant computerized sengers and 500 crew, arrived for an off- tracking systems will monitor any unex- shore lecture by station personnel. The U.S. pected loss of helium more closely. The Antarctic Program’s Laurence M. Gould See Continent on page 6 the week in weather McMurdo Station Palmer Station South Pole Station High: 18F / 1C High: 42F / 5C High: -14F / -25C Low: 34F / -8C Low: 28F / -2C Low: -35F / -37C Max. sustained wind: 25mph / 40kph Max. sustained wind: 37mph / 59kph Peak wind: 20mph / 32kph Windchill: 15F / -26C Precipitation: 21mm Max. Physio-altitude: 3243m 6 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005 Laurence M. Gould Continent From page 5 Day is interested in what effect this has Jan. 24-30 on Antarctic tundra. Day’s group studies Compiled from reports by Andrew Nunn the two higher order vascular (water trans- In search of krill, the Laurence M. porting) plants native to Antarctica: Gould followed the transmitters on feed- Antarctic pearlwort or Colobanthus ing penguins to a site near Avian Island quitensis and Antarctic hairgrass, south of Palmer Station on Jan. 25. The Deschampsia antarctica. Both plants are researchers found no krill there, and had perennial and flowering and are recent to conclude that the penguins were feed- introductions to the area, having arrived ing poorly on small fish. Reports from the from Tierra del Fuego in the last 10,000 bird researchers on Avian Island seemed years. to confirm this from the bird’s stomach Some of their field research on the local samples. Farther offshore the Gould crew islands was begun in 1999 when Day found a new site where there was krill and placed small greenhouses over the plants completed the sampling there. on Stepping Stone Island to check for per- The Gould returned to Avian Island formance in warmer conditions. The two overnight to retrieve the field team it had temperature treatments included small left there. The weather was poor, but it was greenhouses — some that were open at the sheltered enough in the lee of the island for bottom and some that were entirely the Zodiac to bring the field team and closed. On the open greenhouses, the day- equipment to the Gould. time temperature increase from the year By Jan. 30 the Long Term Ecological 1999 was 0.2C. On the closed greenhous- Research cruise scientists aboard the es, the daily increase was 2.2C. Gould had completed most of the sampling except at sites blocked by heavy ice. After Production increased for both plants and Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun they experienced accelerated reproductive another stop at Palmer Station, the Gould A container is unloaded Feb. 3 from the headed north for Punta Arenas, where it development and greater seed production. annual resupply ship the American Tern, Part of the population studies include which is docked at McMurdo Station. was scheduled to arrive Feb. 6. new research begun on Point 8, an area off Bonaparte Point where the glacier has melt- cores. Tad’s group will return to Palmer Polar Star ed recently. In 1999 the area had 94 Station, Sundevil Estates and the local Deschampsia plants and 23 Colobanthus islands next year. Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 Those of us who return next summer plants. The survey in 2004 showed an Compiled by Lt. Cmdr. Don Peltonen increase: 5,129 Deschampsia and 294 will have another season to witness the snow melt, glacier calving, Antarctic plant Ship Operations Colobanthus plants. Separate research at a The tanker Paul Buck finished different site, Biscoe Point, where perma- production, seabird chicks and whales that are all part of our local area. For now, we offloading fuel to McMurdo Station nent snowbanks melted and Colobanthus Jan. 28 and then proceeded to ballast with had come in and colonized, showed that the wish McMurdo and South Pole stations, our local neighboring stations of Rothera sea water to bring the ship down to its ice plants died out in 2004. This reduced sur- draft. vival is due to more winter precipitation and Vernadsky, and all Antarctic research stations a wonderful winter season! The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker and later snowmelt. Polar Star transfered oily waste to Paul Behind our station is the Sun Devil SHIPS Buck Jan. 29 and departed the morning of Estates (named for the Arizona State mas- Jan. 30. Then the Russian icebreaker cot) which is an area of 20 plots, each with Nathaniel B. Palmer Krasin moored alongside Paul Buck 12 patches of ground they transplanted Sunday morning to take on water provid- there. Part of this project was to improve Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 ed by McMurdo Station and the Paul the realism in simulating climate-change Compiled from reports by Herb Baker Buck. The Krasin’s crew enjoyed its first scenarios. The plots are warmed day and After a brief portcall, the research vessel visit to McMurdo Station. night, which more closely follows the Nathaniel B. Palmer left McMurdo Station On Jan. 31 the Krasin departed and greenhouse effect. Infrared heaters as well Jan. 28 and began drawing samples and passed a tow line to Paul Buck to assist as dummy heaters are used. They are heat- recovering moored instruments for Walker her off the pier. Paul Buck departed the ed according to the temperature and carbon Smith’s group from the Virginia Institute of ice pier and proceeded out the inner chan- dioxide-increase trends. Air and soil tem- Marine Sciences. The Interannual nel escorted by Krasin and Polar Star. peratures increased about 1 to 2 degrees After parking in the ice 27km from Celsius under the heated plots. Another set Variability of the Antarctic-Ross Sea, or IVARS, is attempting to quantify the McMurdo to perform maintenance, the of plots receives increased precipitation; Paul Buck was escorted to the fast ice one plot has higher precipitation with changes in the nutrients and concentration of phytoplankton in the Ross Sea from year edge on Wednesday by the Krasin. active warming and one plot has higher Then, the Krasin and Polar Star precipitation without warming. The to year. “We had some deck freezing problems, escorted the American Tern down the researchers then measure the carbon diox- inner channel to the ice pier early but overall the recovery went smoothly,” ide gas flux (respiration and photosynthe- Thursday morning and cargo offload sis) for both day and night. Growth and wrote Herb Baker, the marine projects coor- began. Current plans have Krasin and production is clearly affected, as the plants dinator. Polar Star departing McMurdo with in the warming process are two weeks All the moored instruments were collect- American Tern. Ship operations for the ahead of the unheated plants. At the end of ed by Feb. 1. The NBP is scheduled to arrive season should be wrapped up within the the season, they will harvest some of the in Lyttelton, New Zealand Feb. 16. next several days. February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 7 Big iceberg B15a chills out

By Kristan Hutchison “We don’t really know. These are really, Sun staff in a relative sense, very thin wafers of ice,” ike an 800-pound gorilla, giant ice- Drygalski Ice Tongue Bindschadler said. The 100km long iceberg bergs in the Ross Sea seem to be is only about 300m thick, a ratio similar to a B15a Ldoing whatever they want. sheet of linoleum 10m long. “But it’s still a After sitting with one end bumping huge piece of ice and it has a lot of mass and against Ross Island for several years, the B15k even a minor collision involves enormous largest remaining remnant of what was forces.” once the largest iceberg on record has Beaufort Island B15j B15a is still the big berg, but B15-K, a C16 drifted northwest. B15a’s ponderous pace more slender sliver of the original berg, has made world headlines: “Get Ready for the almost as much effect on the sea ice. B15a Largest Demolition Derby on the Ross Island and B15-K used to be side by side, but since Planet”...“Monster iceberg wreaks havoc.” McMurdo Station B15a slid northward they are lined up like In mid-December B15a seemed to be on Satellite image courtesy of NASA MODIS sliding doors closed most of the way across a collision course with the tip of the The iceberg positions as of January 30. the entrance to McMurdo Sound. Drygalski Ice Tongue. It came within 4.5km going to do next,” Bindschadler said. “I’m “The only hole is at the northern end, the of the Drygalski on Jan. 10 and iceberg hoping whatever it does, it does before the 5.5km or 6.5km gap between the watchers were poised on the edges of their sun sets.” Drygalski,” Brunt said. seats. Then it stopped. Jiggled around. He has two reasons for that wish. One is B15-K is pinned in place by the clock- Backed up a bit. to be able to watch the icebergs better, wise current which presses it against “It’s scary to try to predict what will hap- because after the sun sets for the winter the Beaufort Island and a seamount. The cur- pen next. It’s just as risky as predicting the icebergs will be visible only with infrared. rent’s constant pressure on B15-K’s stock market,” said Kelly Brunt, who has The other reason is that if the bergs don’t exposed center could cause cracks and been following the iceberg’s movements move soon, they will likely freeze in place. eventually a break, which would allow the since the original B15 broke off the Ross Ice “If it is still grounded by the time the pieces of the berg to move, Brunt said. Shelf in 2000. She started as the geographic summer is over, then the water starts to The icebergs have corralled the sea ice in information specialist at McMurdo Station cool down and melting starts to decrease, McMurdo Sound. The ice in the sound and is now a graduate student working with it’s less likely to become ungrounded,” would normally blow away at this time of iceberg researcher Doug MacAyeal at the Bindschadler said. year. Because it’s stuck in place, the salt will University of Chicago. In that time the ice- If it is freed to float again, B15a would drain out of the ice, then snow will fall, melt berg B15 has broken into a family of small- probably continue drifting north with the into the ice and refreeze, creating a stronger er bergs, alphabetically named. current, Bindschadler said. It could bump second- year ice more like freshwater ice, Where iceberg B15a goes now depends the end of the Drygalski Ice Tongue, or it said John Dempsey, a professor of civil and on a number of factors, including tides, cur- could squeak by. The question is what will environmental engineering at Clarkson rents, winds, how far the ice extends below happen if it does hit. See Bergs on page 8 the surface and where the seafloor rises to meet it. For the moment, the last of those factors is the most important, as B15a seems to have one side lodged on a sub- merged volcano in the Ross Sea, Brunt said. The volcano’s pinnacle hits the long iceberg about halfway down the western edge. Satellite images and GPS instruments on the iceberg show it pivoting around that point, lining up with the northbound current like a weathervane. “One little part of it dragged on this seamount and stopped the whole iceberg, just as it was on the doorstep of the ice tongue,” said NASA glaciologist Robert Bindschadler. In one image, Bindschadler could see that the grounded portion of the iceberg is higher than the rest of the iceberg, indicat- ing that the iceberg is bending on that point as the tides raise and lower the ends. This fluxing could cause the iceberg to break into pieces, he said. Chunks of ice are calving off in the area where B15a is grounded. If enough break off, the iceberg could be Photo by Viola Toniolo / Special to The Antarctic Sun freed. Adélie penguins access open water at Cape Crozier. Icebergs have blocked some of their “Our attention is riveted to what it’s feeding grounds. 8 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005

Bergs From page 7 University, who is studying the McMurdo sea ice. The sea ice will thicken as water freezes to the bottom. More sea ice could be a problem for the penguins at Cape Royds and Cape Bird, where the extensive sea ice has forced the penguins to walk farther and farther in search of access to the water and their feeding grounds. The number of chicks at both colonies has decreased. Unlike last year, when open water drew many penguins from other colonies to Cape Royds, this year there were no immigrants. Instead, a quarter of the usual Cape Royds birds went to

Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun other colonies, particularly Cape Bird. The Russian icebreaker Krasin leads the resupply vessel American Tern through the channel to McMurdo Station on Feb. 3. The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star cut the channel in the sea ice, “If these conditions continue, which extended farther than ever at about 150km. Icebergs at the entrance to the sound have corralled Royds would eventually empty out the sea ice inside. to Cape Bird,” said Dave Ainley, a penguin biologist studying the Snow and ice (answer on page 17) By John Deaton colonies around McMurdo Sound. Across The penguins are following the food. “They need to work, so they 1. Largest ice sheet in the go to where the work is.” world; the _____ Antarctic On the other hand, the number of Ice Sheet. chicks at Cape Crozier is higher 2. A Russian word for wind- than ever, Ainley said. That’s not blown formations on the necessarily good news. Though snow surface. B15a moved, B15j has continued 3. Occurs when a seismo- to occupy the ocean adjacent to the graph registers an iceberg Ross Sea Polyna, an area of open rubbing against the sea water that used to be a plentiful floor. source of food for the penguins. 4. A thick, broad ice sheet The areas the penguins can still that forms on land and reach are much less productive, flows out to float on the sea. with few krill or small fish, Ainley said. 5. A condition when blow- With icebergs still in the way ing snow restricts visiblity. and more mouths to feed, the chicks 6. The first stage in the are small and many will likely die. transformation of snow The movement of B15a gives some crystals by compaction and hope because it was the outer block compression into glacial ice. in a wall of bergs beside the colony. 7. The loss of glacial mater- Now that B15a has moved, the oth- ial by melting, evaporation, ers have more chance to move away calving or sublimation. as well. B15j rotated counter- clockwise and moved eastward, 8. Ice comprised of loose, along the Ross Ice Shelf. drifting chunks; habitat of Despite worries about the ice- leopard seals. Down bergs and the sea ice this year, the 9. A river or sheet of com- 1. A long, narrow flow of glacial ice that extends into the sea. icebreakers and supply ships were pressed snow and ice that 2. Ice that forms and gathers on the underside of the sea ice. able to approach McMurdo Station forms when snow accumu- 3. Ice that forms on the sea floor. between Cape Bird and Beaufort lates over a long period. 4. Thick, slushy sea ice formed by ice crystals that are disturbed Island. As long as the icebergs stay 10. Ice attached to land; by ocean turbulence. in place, the breakers will be able to preferred home of Weddell 5. Dynamic, fast moving parts of a glacier ice sheet. follow the same channel next year, seals. 6. An opening in the icepack. said Lt. Cmdr. Don Peltonen, ship 7. Circular, flat plates of sea ice. operations officer for McMurdo 11. The action of a new ice- Station. berg breaking off. 8. Where the Polar Star is. “We’d like B15a to just sort of 12. Deep cracks forming in 9. Ice that forms in open water and has a glossy sheen. drift off and go away, but it’s not ice sheets and glaciers. 10. The reflective quality of the snow. cooperating,” Peltonen said. February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 9 A hands-off effort to find life

By Emily Stone Sun staff Pamela Conrad wants to find signs of life in outer space. “I guess it comes from watching a lot of Star Trek as a kid,” said Conrad of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. Before getting to space, she’s using the McMurdo Dry Valleys as a stand-in for Mars to test machines that look for signs of life inside rocks. She and seven other scientists spent three weeks testing the machines. She hopes the machines will go to Mars. “We’re interested in how you find evidence of the clues of life on other planets,” she said. “I would like to be able to do that without even touching the potential tar- gets.” Conrad tested four machines. Another scientist from NASA, Robert Carlson, is Photo by Heather Smith / Special to The Antarctic Sun the principal investigator on a similar pro- Scientists at the Battleship Promontory field camp look at the rocks they will use to test their ject that was folded into Conrad’s. His machines. The machines look for clues of life inside rocks, and the scientists hope the instru- group tested a fifth machine. Together, the ments eventually get sent to Mars. instruments look at many components of the rocks —how they absorb light, what are home to living things. They will then is hitting. molecules they hold, whether they are compare their results from the machines in The third machine uses a laser as well. emitting volatile organic molecules, and the field with their lab tests to see how The laser subtly changes color depending what types of minerals they’re made of. accurate the instruments were. Their goal on what minerals it hits. These factors indicate tiny organisms liv- is to say that if all the machines show sub- The fourth machine “is basically a snif- ing inside. stantial signs of life within a rock, then fer,” Conrad said. It has a needle that mea- Conrad’s group took a small number of there will be life within that rock. sures volatile organic molecules in the air rocks home to study in the lab, where they Despite the popular notion, NASA isn’t around the rock. These are molecules that will state conclusively whether the rocks truly looking for life on Mars, Conrad might be given off by organisms in the explained. Instead, scientists are looking rock as they go through their normal life for signs that the planet was ever or cur- cycle. rently is habitable. This can be done by Carlson tested a fifth machine. It uses looking for evidence of substances, like an infrared spectrometer to identify the water, which we believe are necessary to molecules in the rock. He and his team are sustain life. Or it can be done by looking interested in particular in how iron is dis- for clues that life existed or still exists, tributed through the different layers in the which is what the machines do. rock. Conrad’s four machines, which never Desert rocks have iron spread across touch the rocks, are run remotely from lap- their surface, he said. His team’s theory is tops. that organisms in the rock, like lichen, dis- The first measures how much light is solve a small amount of the iron on the absorbed or reflected off a rock. The group surface. They do this to get enough sun- wants to understand this because they light to photosynthesize, but not too much believe there are subtle visual clues that so that they are vulnerable to ultraviolet the rocks have which suggest life inside. rays. The dissolved iron accumulates Conrad said scientists who study rocks can lower down in the rock. His machine will tell if a certain rock is likely to be inhabit- look specifically at the factors involved in ed, and are often right, but they can’t artic- this process, like organic acids used to dis- ulate what it is they’re looking for. This solve iron. instrument might be able to help hone in It is hard to imagine how rocks end up on that by picking up on visual markers like this — with the heavier layers of iron Photo by Cindy Dean / Special to The Antarctic Sun that humans notice but can’t specify. sitting on top of the lighter ones — with- Pamela Conrad of NASA's Jet Propulsion The second machine sends out a laser out help from life inside the rocks, Lab inspects the rocks at Battleship that causes the rock to become fluores- explained Henry Sun of the Desert Promontory, where she will test several cent. The color of the rock’s fluorescence instruments meant to detect signs of life within the rocks. indicates what type of molecules the laser See Hands-off on page 10 10 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005 Covering the ionosphere from Pole By Brien Barnett nal at South Pole to make sure it didn’t Sun staff interfere with other projects at the station. An international network of radar sta- Many of the astrophysical instruments are tions that keeps tabs on what’s happening in radio telescopes or rely on sensitive elec- the magnetosphere above Earth is coming to tronics. SuperDARN must operate at its South Pole. designated band, between 8-20 Mhz, with- SuperDARN, or the Super Dual Auroral out interfering with any other instrument or Radars Network, was started nearly 20 station communications. Once the tests are years ago when the first transmitter was complete, radar towers and transmitters can placed at Goose Bay, Labrador. Today, sta- be brought to the station and set up, proba- tions cover both the northern and southern bly in the next year or two. hemispheres at points where charged parti- The station is at the geographic South cles, or plasma, re-enter the Earth’s atmos- Pole, but not at the magnetic South Pole, phere as a result of the interaction between which slowly moves and is presently over the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic Dome C. Bristow said that’s because the field extended into space. experiment needs to cover the auroral oval, “When the plasma in the ionosphere is the place where incoming particles are the moving … plasma instabilities happen,” greatest. South Pole Station is at the pole- said Bill Bristow, of the University of Photo by Danny Ratcliffe / Courtesy of SuperDARN ward boundary of the southern auroral zone. Alaska. “It’s a lumpy fluid and when you A SuperDARN installation in Tasmania. This The particles precipitating into the ionos- transmit a radio signal into that some is one covers the southern ocean and the phere create fantastic visual auroras that reflected back.” northern part of Wilkes Land in Antarctica. hang over Antarctica’s winter residents. In rough terms it’s like tracking a group “We can observe over a range of about of airplanes. The lumpy fluids show up in atmosphere.” Bristow said. 2,500km … and possibly farther.” Bristow the radar data and reveal characteristics Many experiments look at the Earth’s said. “In the northern hemisphere we can such as velocity and location. The data magnetic field structure, but SuperDARN see out to 3,000km.” SuperDARN collects are important, has mapped the field on a global scale. The South Pole Radar will fill an existing Bristow said, because solar storms and other To accomplish this, the radars must be gap not covered by Southern SuperDARN space weather effects can severely affect spread strategically around both the north radars located at the British Station Halley human activity in space and on the ground and south poles. The installations are fairly Bay and a new radar, which is under con- at such places as communication satellites large because they operate using the HF, or struction at the southern tip of New Zealand. or power lines and plants. high frequency, band. That’s similar to what The project is an international collabora- “As man becomes more dependent on Antarctic field parties use to communicate tion with scientists from nearly a dozen technology — GPS satellites, global com- with the stations. countries. By agreement each country munication, et cetera — they all are sitting The arrays, which cost about $300,000 to builds its own facility but uses a common in space.” Bristow said. “We want to under- $400,000 each, consist of 16 T-shaped tow- data format and software so researchers can stand that environment.” ers in one line, set 15m apart. About 100m have immediate access to the data. Besides practical reasons, the scientists away and parallel to that line of towers are are personally curious. another four towers, again set about 15m NSF-funded research in this story: Bill Bristow, “We want to understand the process of apart from one another. University of Alaska-Fairbanks, http://super- energy transfer from the Sun into upper In January, Bristow’s team tested the sig- darn.jhuapl.edu/ Hands-off From page 9 Research Institute in Las Vegas, who is with good results in Death Valley and in Managed Area plan, adopted last year. working with Carlson. the Arctic. This means increased restrictions in terms The eight scientists spent three weeks Carlson, who is in the first year of his of the work that can be done there in hopes in the field so they could test the instru- two-year project, joked about the extent of of limiting the human impact on the area. ments under different environmental con- his field testing. Conrad said this makes it an even more ditions to see if temperature or sunlight “We’ve gone as far as the JPL parking appropriate place to test machines that affect the results. lot,” he said, and has pictures to prove that aren’t invasive and won’t disturb the They chose their location at Battleship the group tested the machine on a large rocks. Promontory because a large amount of rock in the driveway of the Jet Propulsion “If you could point to a rock and say organisms live in the rocks there. Conrad Lab. there’s life in that rock, that would be awe- said that if the machines don’t work in a Both groups applied to get their instru- some because you wouldn’t have to break place where they have a high chance of ments on a 2009 expedition to Mars, but open that rock,” she said. “The longer you finding something, then they certainly they weren’t accepted. The scientists plan can sustain it without doing something to won’t work somewhere where the odds to keep trying to get them to Mars. In the it, the longer it will be there for someone are slimmer. meantime, the group will continue testing else to study.” The trip to the Dry Valleys is the cul- and perfecting the machines. The project is funded by NASA with sup- mination of Conrad’s three-year project. Battleship Promontory was included in port from the NSF: Pamela Conrad, NASA Her group has tested its machines already the new Dry Valleys Antarctic Specially Jet Propulsion Lab. February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun •11 New telescope looks at early universe By Brien Barnett said. to design a mount, or struc- Sun staff Among the question ture, to hold the new receiv- A new telescope at South Pole Station is are differences in theoreti- er. In a conversation with just weeks away from probing the universe. cal models that can only be the DASI team at the DASI made headlines when it became answered with more data. QUaD will Courtesy Universityof QUaD of Chicago, they dis- the first to detect temperature differences look at a small piece of the sky and ana- covered the telescopes were using simi- and later polarization in the cosmic lyze the data in detail to learn more lar mounts and so began collaborating. microwave background, radiation left over about the polarization of the cosmic “That enabled us to get on the air a from the Big Bang. The Big Bang theory microwave background signal. year earlier than planned,” she said. states that the universe began with a period “There’s a smaller signal we Rendition of The project is funded by the of rapid expansion called inflation, and that want to take a look at,” Church QUEST telescope. United States and the United the universe still is expanding today some- said. Kingdom. Church said both nations what like a balloon with galaxies and matter QUaD will be pointed at a small patch of are interested in the same science goals. No on the surface of the balloon. DASI detect- sky for the Antarctic winter. QUaD has 62 other experiment covers the same goals and ed remnant fluctuations in the Cosmic detectors that must be super-cooled to tem- the data are of value to theorists whose Microwave Background radiation from that peratures a fraction of a degree above models can be tested by cosmological event. absolute zero. That sensitivity will allow it observations, she said. DASI answered a fundamental question to “see” patterns in the polarization of the NSF-funded research in this story: Dr. Sarah E. about whether there was evidence for the patch of sky. Church, Cavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics inflationary theory, said Sarah Church, Church said it’s hoped that QUaD may and Cosmology at Stanford University, assistant professor of physics at Stanford also help shed light on the existence of the http://www.stanford.edu/group/quest_telescope/ University and member of the Kavli mysterious dark energy that fills most of the Institute for Particle Astrophysics and universe. Cosmology. QUaD was built to follow up “It’s possible that if we can understand on DASI’s work, Church said. how inflation happened we can learn more “A lot of things seemed to turn out as about dark energy,” she said. expected but there are some questions,” she Like DASI, the new telescope was placed at South Pole because it offers opti- QUaD is an acronym of an acronym. The pre- mal observing conditions: long periods of vious telescope where QUaD will be located was observing in dark, cold conditions. It paid called DASI, or the Degree Angular Scale off that the DASI mount works well for the Interferometer. QUaD stands for QUEST at QUEST telescope. DASI. In turn, QUEST stands for “Q and U Extra- The DASI experiment was wrapping up Courtesy of QuaD / Special to The Antarctic Sun Galactic Sub-mm Telescope.” and had achieved all its science goals. The QUEST telescope will be placed inside Meanwhile, the QUEST team was planning the shield to the left in the Dark Sector. RICE works with IceCube to find neutrino source By Brien Barnett The collision of a neutrino with an ice mol- seems to make more sense. Sun staff ecule creates both visible light and radio RICE and other experiments would An experiment at South Pole is offering waves. serve two purposes in helping IceCube, a different view of neutrinos, the mysterious The first RICE array was installed in the Besson said. The first is to gather its own space particles that may hold information 1997-1998 season and monitored through data, but then secondly to confirm any neu- about the physical universe. 2000. It consisted of radio receivers and was trinos detected in the system. If the visible Dave Besson, professor of physics at the intended to demonstrate the feasibility of light detectors see something, then the radio University of Kansas, is developing the the technique. However, without a known and acoustic detectors may as well. $400,000 Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment source of neutrinos, the project hasn’t found RICE isn’t the only project searching for at South Pole Station. RICE is a set of detec- any of the specific neutrinos his team is neutrino-based radio waves, but Besson said tors designed to pick up radio waves given seeking, Besson said. Co-deploying with it’s the first to incorporate the ice. off by the collision of high-energy subatom- IceCube will extend the array and make “There was a group based at Berkeley ic particles called neutrinos with the dense, detecting one more likely, he said. that went to Antarctica and took (radio) clear ice below the station. “We realized that the first generation measurements, but we were first to take “In principle a neutrino telescope is giv- experiment was going to be a prototype data,” Besson said. ing us a new way of looking at the universe. experiment,” Besson said. “The second gen- A long-duration balloon test project that It’s a new map,” Besson said. eration experiment should actually see neu- was flown last season, Anita-lite, used the The kind of neutrinos sought by RICE trinos from active galactic nuclei, but if after same concept as RICE. The key difference and the $270 million IceCube project, also this we didn’t see anything then that would between the two was Anita-lite used the at South Pole, come from far outside our present a problem with our model.” entire Antarctic ice sheet as its filter. No data solar system and may help space physicists Besson said the RICE team has been a has yet been released from the balloon pro- learn more about the formation of the uni- “nominal” participant in IceCube to this ject. verse. As complementary projects, IceCube point, but is becoming more involved as the uses optical detectors to gather visible light benefits of incorporating multiple technolo- NSF-funded research in this story: David in the ice while RICE seeks radio waves. gies, including radio and acoustic detectors, Besson, University of Kansas 12 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005

Photos by Emily Stone / The Antarctic Sun David Ginsburg, a graduate student at the University of Southern California, carries a cooler across the ice at New Harbor toward his dive hole to collect sea star larvae he found during a dive. Below, Ginsburg chips ice away from the dive hole. He’s part of a group of scientists studying sea star and sea urchin larvae.

Larvae From page 1 research since 1983. atures similar to your refrigerator, The scientists know the larvae use Manahan said. Yet little is known about about 25 times less energy to create rough- the organisms that live there. It is impor- ly the same amount of protein as temper- tant to understand these species in order to ate species. And Antarctic larvae eat with make any generalizations about life on an efficiency that is nearly off the charts. Earth, he said. About 95 percent of the protein the larvae The larvae are also easy to get. Scuba consume turns into body mass. Most diving in Antarctica is simple compared to organisms, including warm-water sea taking a submarine to the bottom of the urchins and humans, hover around 40 per- ocean. And the animals release huge cent. amounts of eggs at once, so researchers “I liken them to little body builders,” can easily collect eggs to bring to the lab said Allison Green, a graduate student to monitor as they grow. focusing on the larvae’s eating patterns. “It’s not that we’re deeply in love with The Antarctic larvae need to be such sea urchins or sea stars,” Manahan said. efficient eaters because they don’t always “These are model organisms because they get a lot of food. So when they do eat, they give us hundreds of thousands of babies.” want to use the food as best they can. They The research focuses on proteins because are so efficient, Green said, that the larvae they are crucial building blocks for any can live a full year off the nutrients given organism. All organisms must constantly to them in their mother’s eggs without make new protein as older protein degrades. anything new to eat. “Even if we just sit here and do nothing “They can say, ‘You know it’s not look- all day, 30 to 50 percent of our energy would go to resynthesizing protein,” said ing good this year, I think I’ll hang around patterns of the sea urchin hold true with and see if more food comes along next Douglas Pace, a post-doctoral researcher similar animals. He focused primarily on with the group. year,’” she said. Temperate species would sea stars, and dove for samples around last about a month without new food. Pace is focusing on the larvae’s protein- McMurdo Sound. So far, the research making machines. The machines, as Pace Green can tell how efficiently the lar- shows that the sea stars and sea urchins dubs them, are ribosomes inside cells. He vae are using protein by measuring how have similar protein synthesis rates, mean- takes the cells apart to study the number of much protein they amass while eating ing they make protein at roughly the same ribosomes per cell and the rate at which they algae in the lab. This year she’s started speed, Ginsburg said. make protein. The Antarctic larvae have far looking at how the larvae use fat, which The scientists focus on these Antarctic more ribosomes per cell than temperate she thinks they are burning as energy. animals for several reasons. species do, Pace said. Ginsburg’s research this year looked at About 80 percent of the habitable space other echinoderms to see if the biological on Earth is cold ocean water with temper- See Larvae on page 13 February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 13

Larvae From page 12 One theory for why Marshians back again the Antarctic larvae make so much protein After first year, study of cold invertebrates leads to several papers has to do with the way proteins fold in order to By Brien Barnett become useful, Pace Sun staff said. Proteins are like The Marshians returned to Crary sticky strings, and if Lab this year seeking clues to how they fold wrong they sea urchins and starfish have adapted become, “a hopeless to the cold environment of McMurdo mess,” he said. Sound. Temperate species Principal investigator Adam have little protein Marsh of the University of Delaware and his team of graduate students chaperones that guide Courtesy of Lindsay Kendall / Special to The Antarctic Sun dove at various places near the proteins into the A larvae under the microscope. right formation. This McMurdo Station to gather speci- expends a lot of energy. mens. The sperm and eggs from the test for respiration, or how fast oxy- Pace said the Antarctic specimens were used to create gen is being consumed by each sea urchins might sim- embryos that were analyzed to deter- embryo. Other respiration tech- mine the growth rates of the ply make a lot of pro- Photo by Rob Robbins / Special to The Antarctic Sun niques are more precise, but require embryos. This will give the tein and assume the David Ginsburg collects sea much more time to process.The new odds are that eventually stars from McMurdo Sound. researchers much-needed clues technique lets the scientists know some proteins will fold about the development of the sea where they should focus their correctly. creatures and the genetic switches research, said Paul Ulrich, a graduate The group’s research could have practical uses in that control their growth. student at the University of helping doctors understand human ailments, such as Last year’s work resulted in two Delaware who was working with weight gain and obesity, which are often related to papers. One has been published and Marsh’s group to develop other metabolism. Manahan said understanding highly effi- one is in review. Marsh and post- analysis methods. cient metabolisms could also help in agriculture doctoral candidate Kevin Fielman The lead graduate student this because it’s beneficial for livestock to use their food co-authored a paper titled, year, Lindsay Kendall, was back for efficiently so they can grow quickly and produce a lot “Molecular Development and her second season. Kendall has been of meat. Evolution,” which will appear in the trying to find the specific points at The scientists are also hoping to expand biologists’ Journal of Experimental Zoology. which the genes in the embryos understanding of Earth’s organisms. Most of what scien- Their paper examines some basic switch on and off. Those points are tists know about metabolism or other basic biological conclusions about the genetic related to temperature, which relates functions is based on the study of warm weather animals, switches that lead to development in to the question of how the organisms particularly mammals. With so many of the planet’s the creatures. Former graduate stu- live where they do. creatures living in the cold, perhaps heat-loving animals dent Tracy Szela and Marsh have The team returns next year for are the exception and species like those in Antarctica are written a paper that is being one more season. After that, the the rule. Maybe life in Antarctica isn’t so harsh after all. reviewed by the journal Marine group hopes to test samples from “It’s only extreme because we’re cold when we’re Ecology Progress Series. That paper warmer climates and compare them down here,” Pace said. discusses a new technique developed with the Antarctic research. as a result of the work in the NSF-funded research in this story: NSF-funded science in this story: Donal Manahan, the Antarctic. The technique, involving a Adam Marsh, University of Delaware, University of Southern California. plate with 384 individual wells, is a http://marsh.cms.udel.edu/~amarsh

Besides packing, what do you plan to do on your last day in Antarctica? “I’m going to take “Try to stop seeing “There is no last one last hike up insect larvae every day in Antarctica. Ob Hill, look in time I close my I’m always coming every direction, eyes.” back.” then eat all the chocolate I’ve been hoarding.”

Bill Jirsa, Luke Sandro, Robert Schwarz, McMurdo Palmer Station South Pole IT trainer research assistant QUaD scientist from Denver,Colo., from Dayton, Ohio, from Germany, first season first season fifth season 14• The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005 Up, up & away Balloons keep tabs on weather

ohn Gallagher is on a schedule. JTwice a day, he or one of several other meteorologists at South Pole Station report to the Balloon Inflation Facility to launch the day’s weather balloons.

Above left, a radiosonde is prepared for flight. The small packge weighs less than 500 grams. Above right, John Gallagher ties off the weather balloon as it lifts a weight off the table. At right, Gallagher rolls up the computer calibration tape that came with the radiosonde.

Story and photos by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun staff

In the winter, it’s just done in the morn- Launching the balloon is a process ing. All launch times are coordinated so that starts with organizing and prepar- data from around the world are ready at ing various pieces of equipment and the same time. Many of the bases in ends with confirmation that the data is Antarctica, including McMurdo being captured as the balloon rises. Station, also have weather balloon On this day, Gallagher, who is in his launches. fourth season at Pole, removed the Researchers across the world have sonde from its packaging and prepped access to the data gathered by the the battery by activating it in water. instruments, called radiosondes, at- Once the battery was working, he tached to the balloons. The sondes placed the sonde outside to adapt to the track temperature, pressure, altitude, temperature so it would take accurate wind direction and speed, and relative readings. While the sonde was outside, humidity. Sometimes special sondes Gallagher turned on a receiver. He took are sent up to search for such things as a strip of punched paper that came with ozone, which is a key part of Earth’s the sonde and ran it through the receiv- protective atmosphere. The data are er. This calibrated the receiver to that used to form models for both that week’s weather and climate history. See Balloons on page 15 February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 15

Above, John Gallagher leaves the Balloon Inflation Facility. At right, Gallagher, a meteorologist checks the data stream as it comes in after the launch. Far right, the balloon rises above South Pole Station.

Balloons From page 14 specific sonde. Once it was running, he called Comms to make sure no air traffic incoming data. After a few moments, data checked to see that it was recording was planned for the next 15 minutes. He started rolling in every few seconds. incoming data from the sonde sitting out- opened the large double doors and The flight terminated at about side. If the sonde wasn’t working he walked outside. There, he took a moment 35,000m when the balloon burst because could get a new one from the supply of to check the wind, then released the bal- the pressure of the expanding helium 600 sent down each season. loon. As the balloon rose it pulled the became too great. The sonde started The mylar balloon is about a meter in sonde with it. It went up quickly at first, descending until it was lost. The U.S. diameter. It is filled with helium inside a then it hit a small pocket of quiet air and Antarctic Program has a permit that large room in the building until the bal- rose slowly, only to catch a little wind allows it to launch the balloons and son- loon lifts a 500g weight that is tied to it. and rise quickly again, nearly out of des, which are nearly impossible to The weight is approximately the same as sight. recover. But the data the sonde captured the sonde. Once the balloon was filled, Gallagher returned to the facility, that day will go into the permanent record the sonde was attached and Gallagher closed the doors and went to check the of Antarctic weather for future research. 16 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005

Legend South Actual 2004-05 route Pole Proposed route

Southernmost point of 2004-05 traverse

Photo by John Penney / Special to The Antarctic Sun Southernmost point Above, the South Pole Traverse camps on the Antarctic plateau, after having climbed the of 2003-04 traverse Leverret Glacier. This photo was taken using a remote-controlled airplane John Penney brought along. The map at left shows the route followed by the traverse, which covered ter- rain nobody has crossed before and had to adjust the planned route to avoid crevasse fields. Map by Jessica Walker / The Antarctic Sun Traverse From page 1 allowed before returning to McMurdo. “Driving across the Ross Ice Shelf — the Reflection Radiometer). The satellite cov- Before this season, the sleds were mod- size of Texas — at 5 MPH is one long, slow, erage only extends to 84 degrees south lat- ified based on the collective ideas of the grind,” said Richard “Stretch” Vaitonis, one itude, but that was just far enough to show traverse crew. The crew consisted of a of the heavy equipment operators. “Books the area the traverse was trying to cross. team of Raytheon Polar Service Co. on tape kept me awake.” Bindschadler and Vornberger used the equipment operators, mechanics and Three days up the planned route, imagery to trace what they thought would mountaineers, along with engineers from approaching the base of the Transantarctic be a safe route across the crevasse field. the U.S. Cold Regions Research and Mountains, the traverse team found Blaisdell and GIS specialist Jessica Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). The crevasses. The crevasses were invisible at Walker refined the route. With the help of curve of the ski tips was changed and the surface, which was a flat plain of those “eyes in the sky,” the traverse team some of the skis were widened and length- snow, broken by white waves of sastrugi. tried the new “ASTER route” and the ened. On some sleds the skis were also But ground penetrating radar suspended ground penetrating radar confirmed it was moved farther apart, to run to the outside out in front of the lead vehicle revealed indeed crevasse-free. of the tractor tracks. patterns below the surface, warning of “They gave selflessly of their time in “The improvements all worked as well crevasses. This was used to search system- the holiday season and in between travel- as we hoped, except one set of improve- atically for a safe way through the ing to conferences in their schedule, and ments that worked much better than we crevasse maze, but at every turn it showed helped us solve our problem,” Wright said hoped,” said Jim Lever, a mechanical more crevasses. of the work done by Bindschadler, engineer from CRREL, who has been “We would see 10 in a mile at times,” Vornberger, Blaisdell and Walker. “We involved with the traverse for three years. said Susan Detweiler, a Field Safety probably would have found this eventual- The improvements that worked better Training Program mountaineer, who read ly, but we would have wasted a lot of time than expected were the wider and longer the radar screen. in doing it.” skis with elliptical-shaped noses under the Crevasses were expected in that area, By Christmas Day the traverse had tank sleds. These were initially configured but not in the quantity that were found — crossed the crevasse fields and was within for two sleds to ride side-by-side, so the hundreds ranging in size from 10cm 30km of the base of the Leverett Glacier. skis ran outside the tractor tracks. But the cracks to 40m caverns. From there they continued up, three times skis glided so well the sleds were able to “At some point we made the determi- finding their way around smaller crevasse run in line with the tractor ruts without nation this is no place for the traverse to fields. The last was a heart-shaped section plowing into them. go,” Wright said. of crevasses at the headwall of the glacier. “That was unexpected,” Lever said. As the traverse team scouted for safe They arrived at 1 p.m. Jan. 4 and parked “Those new skis worked so well they ways around the crevassed barrier, for lunch, sending a four-person prospect- seemed to not have this problem of run- National Science Foundation operations ing team ahead up the steep grade. At ning into chewed up snow and in the ruts. manager George Blaisdell contacted two 6 p.m. the scouting party returned to the They just happily pulled along.” NASA glaciologists, Robert Bindschadler rest of the traverse team and Wright said With the improved skis and a fifth trac- and Patricia Vornberger, for assistance. “Break camp...we’re going to the top.” tor helping to pull the 13 sleds of fuel, They were able to request more detailed By 8:30 p.m. all the tractors had cargo and living modules, the traverse images from a new satellite instrument climbed the last rise and were on the polar team reached its farthest-south point from that hadn’t been available during the pre- plateau, in time for mechanic Russell last year in 17 days and kept going across planning, called ASTER (Advanced Magsig to celebrate his Jan. 5 birthday. the Ross Ice Shelf. Spaceborne Thermal Emission and See Traverse on page 17 February 6, 2005 The Antarctic Sun • 17

The South Pole Traverse team poses at their farthest-south point. They left four green flags Photo courtesy of John Wright / Special to The Antarctic Sun and the bundle of bamboo poles behind, awaiting their return next year. Kneeling from left to right: Judy Goldsberry, John Penney, Jim Lever, and Russell Magsig. Standing from left South Pole Traverse team 2004-2005 to right: Brad Johnson, John Wright, Richard “Stretch” Vaitonis and Allen O’Bannon. “This year, among the field crew, there’s not one person to single out,” said team leader John Wright. “Rather, the com- Traverse From page 16 bination of all people, the team itself, was the hero, better than ever before.” The team celebrated both the ascent and bad weather that was halting flights at a the birthday with balloons, ice cream and very busy time of year. The weather put Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab: Jim Lever, Jason Weale and Russ chocolate cake topped with bulldozer- the U.S. Antarctic Program 40 flights Alger shaped candles. behind to the South Pole, and it wasn’t Heavy equipment operators: Richard “It would have been nice to go farther,” prudent to add two more fuel flights to the Vaitonis, Judy Goldsberry and Brad said Magsig. backup, Blaisdell said. Every plane would Johnson Parked on the flat plateau, Magsig be needed when the weather cleared to Vehicle maintenance mechanics: wasn’t the only one to feel the pull of the catch up with the critical supplies for Russell Magsig, John Penney and Project Pole. Though the traverse team already Pole’s eight-month winter isolation. The Manager John Wright made it much farther than expected for traverse team was instructed to turn Field Safety Training Program moun- this season, the overall purpose of the tra- around and return to McMurdo. taineers: Mike Roberts, Susan Detweiler, verse is to determine whether it is feasible The situation underscored the purpose Allen O’Bannon to drive the route on a regular basis as a of the traverse. During the 10 days that way to deliver supplies to the South Pole. planes couldn’t fly, the traverse tractors While they had enough fuel left to reach still were able to drive. They made the trip Answer to puzzle the Pole, the traverse would need an addi- back in 12 days. on page 8 tional 11,300 liters to complete a round- “What we have established from trip back to McMurdo. McMurdo to a point 738 miles (1,187km) “We and everybody else associated away from McMurdo is a crevasse hazard- with the traverse were surprised with this free route that is marked by green flags success, but we stood on the polar plateau, every quarter of a mile,” Wright said. and we were ready to spring the question,” Next year the traverse team will follow Wright said. “We called in and said, ‘We the route again and continue on to the are here on the polar plateau. We have the Pole, Blaisdell said. They will likely carry will, we have the time, we need addition- cargo, possibly including a trailer needed al support, but we believe we can go all to move snow at the South Pole. Based on the way to South Pole this year and return the success so far, a 10-tractor traverse to McMurdo if support is available.’” could run two round-trips to the Pole each When the request came through, season, replacing 30 to 60 LC-130 cargo McMurdo Station was caught in a spate of flights, Blaisdell said. Got photos? www.photolibrary.usap.gov 18 • The Antarctic Sun February 6, 2005 Profile Teacher eyes Mars from McMurdo By Bill Jirsa on an elevated platform), she’s used to Special to The Antarctic Sun being in a classroom turning things dif- ani DiPietro didn’t find her ferent colors or blowing stuff up to first stay in Antarctica last teach some science. As with everything, summer season tough she looks to arrive at an “ah-ha” enough. moment through humor and exploit. D Spend some time with DiPietro and “The whole reason I went to Pole was because I wanted a bigger chal- you’re bound to experience her infec- lenge. I thought (McMurdo) was way tious laugh. too cush. It really bugged me.” Does that mean she is attracted to DiPietro complained that her extremes? habits from the U.S. were largely “I’m the kid that likes all the roller unaltered because there wasn’t a lack coasters at the amusement park,” she of anything at McMurdo Station like beamed. showers, laundry, communications, Her favorite volunteer work in or even warm weather. (“It’s not Antarctica was the time she served as cold,” she said flatly.) guest blaster, helping a team prepare the “…So then I went to the Pole, and way for construction. In other words, now that I’ve been there, I’m not sure she got to blow stuff up. it was hard enough.” Her sense of adventure extends to Where do you go next if the aus- her volunteer gig playing music on terity of the Amundson-Scott South McMurdo’s radio station, where her Pole Station seems a bit soft? Space, approach to programming is sponta- of course. neous. “I will have no problem going to “Sometimes I also do the old look Mars,” she confided. Her aim is to through the book, see the name of make it to space as part of NASA’s somebody I’ve never listened to in my Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun life, and play that,” she said. “Just astronaut-educator program. Dozens Dani DiPietro takes a break and reads the newspa- of participants train to be among the per in the new South Pole Station dining hall. because that way you get to know more few selected for shuttle missions. She music.” was among the top 500 selected in Her pluck has also lead her to teach previous years, and once she returns to teaching, she intends to abroad. DiPietro spent a year in apply again. Ecuador teaching science, where she learned to handle threats For DiPietro, part of the draw of going to places like from natural disasters to taxi strikes, as well as the valuable les- Antarctica, or even leaving the planet, is bringing it all back to the son that she could survive in a country where the language and classroom. the culture are completely new. “I get to come back and I get to teach kids about it,” DiPietro It was in Quito, Ecuador that she ran into a former student and said, smiling. Originally from Pennsylvania, she’s been living and had one of those moments that every teacher lives for. Turning at teaching in Seattle for seven years, at all levels between first the familiar sound of her teaching name in a foreign capital, she grade and high school. She has also worked at places like the found one of her first eighth-graders standing there, now a college Seattle Science Center where student on a college-exchange year. she ran the planetarium. She During their subsequent looks forward to making topics “The whole reason I went to Pole was conversation, the former stu- personal to her students via her because I wanted a bigger challenge. dent revealed that DiPietro’s Antarctic experience when she I thought (McMurdo) was way too cush.” teaching had influenced her eventually returns to teaching. choice of study. “I actually think that’s what — Dani DiPietro, about her summer at South Pole “‘My second major is biolo- kids remember the most,” she gy because of you.’” DiPietro says. “They don’t really care said the student told her. how fast the speed of light is… That’s not what makes a class “Being a teacher, that’s probably the greatest compliment any- experience stick out... I think if you can personalize something body could ever give.” and actually give it more ownership and make it more relevant, I DiPietro hopes to teach next in Thailand or Tunisia. That think that’s the way that you actually get things across.” would further her goal of living on all seven continents. With DiPietro will work this winter in McMurdo as a labor alloca- Antarctica under her belt, and counting her year in Ecuador, she’s tor with Facilities Engineering Maintenance and Construction. visited five, and she’s lived on three. Before her job in McMurdo this winter, she spent the summer at Throughout her travels, DiPietro stays connected to her fami- the South Pole, where her avid correspondence with classrooms ly, friends, and former students via her bi-weekly e-mail newslet- in the U.S. usually revolved around a lively approach to questions ter. It now goes to over 400 people, and she is gathering more of science. readers all the time. She just learned that reading her newsletter is “I’m a goof-ball about that,” she said. “I think science is a lot extra-credit for a group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders in Maryland. of fun.” She seems to make friends just as easily as she gains new read- If she’s not at the South Pole telling 3rd graders whether spit ers. “I try to make the most of where I am,” she said, as she actually freezes before it hits the ground (it doesn’t, unless you’re looked forward to a winter in McMurdo.