12/26/2010 Day 6: Completing System 3

We were very close to finishing one of the two systems at the Pole ("System 3") today. In the picture below, we were installing the HF antenna (a dipole antenna) that will serve inter-station communication.

As mentioned previously, we spent lots of time making pits and trenches for the equipments and cables. All the cables that are connected between the main electronics and the sensors are placed in the trenches to keep them from being damaged. 

We use snowmobiles very often to commute back and forth between the station and the work site and to transport our cargo. A light-weight sled is very useful for carrying heavy loads.

 

A photo shoot with the Virginia Tech team members after finishing the System 3. 

 

 

This tracked tractor with a big container is used to serve as trans-antarctic transportation ("Antarctic Traverse") to transport retrograde cargo, fuel, supplies, etc. between the South Pole and McMurdo Station. I heard it usually takes about a month to make the trans-antarctic journey. What an adventure!

 

I met a German expedition team who traveled all the way from an Antarctic station near the Antarctic coast to the South Pole by four pickup trucks.

 At the Pole, I took some pictures with Kshitija holding a Virginia Tech banner and a Korean flag.

12/25/2010 Day 5: Around the World

Even on Christmas day, we had to push forward to finish our work on schedule. Our team could finally locate our equipment inside the pit that we dug yesterday and install all the batteries. We wanted to finish work by 3:00 pm so we could enjoy the Christmas dinner at South Pole Station.

 There are monitors at the station here and there showing weather information, flight information, announcement, etc. Today, there is some kind of a joke in celebration of Christmas. Usually, there are flights between McMurdo Station and South Pole Station but today, the monitor says "A flight from North Pole to South Pole" operated by reindeers...

On Christmas day every year, people at the Pole enjoy a race called "Race around the World". They claim they go around the world after they run a couple of miles around the station. 

12/24/2010 Day 4: Dig, Dig, Dig...

After spending a couple of days sorting out and moving our cargo, today we eventually made a remarkable progress - raising the tower and solar panels and making a pit for the electronics and battery box. Like many other ground instrument installations, digging snow or ground to make a pit is one of the most time-consuming and physically tiring jobs to do. To our surprise, it took only (?) about 4 hours to make a pit to fit our boxes, which is partly because the snow at the Pole is loose enough to shovel relatively easily although this job comes with our hard breathing due to the high altitude environment.

 

 After work, going back to the station by our snowmobile while lying on the sled is quite fun.

At our dinner table in the dining hall, we found someone riding a bike on the snow right next to the geographic south pole sign and national flag. Riding a bike on a loose snow seems pretty challenging.

12/23/2010 Day 3: Preparing Our Site

 After sorting out our cargo and moving them to our site (for System 3), we set up a scott tent so we can take a rest because the station building is too far to go back while we work here.

 

It took almost one entire day just to sort out our cargo and move them to a place where our system will be installed. Certainly the cold weather and the high altitude make things that would be very trivial otherwise very hard.

 Joseph has an icicle (?) on his balaclava after spending some time outside.

Me standing in front of the geomagnetic south pole. No one would recognize me whose face is completely covered, though...maybe my nose can be recognizable?

12/22/2010 Day 2 at the Pole: Preparing to Work on Our Project at the Pole

I am actually writing this blog after coming back from the South Pole on Jan. 3 because we were very busy with our project and the internet access is generally very limited at the Pole. I will try to cover our daily activity from now on.

The NSF Science Representative, Vladmir Papitashivili, our point of contact for science support, Nick, and my team visited a candidate location for our first system ("System 3") to see if the place would be good for the system's operation. This site is about 1.5 miles away from South Pole Station.

As this location is too far away (?) from where we stay (well, walking on the snow in the cold and at a high altitude is not very easy), we decided to use snowmobile, which required us to take a training for its operation. The training took about 30 min, giving me an idea that starting the engine is much harder than driving it...

 We used a sled to transport our cargo (including us!!) to the site.

The South Pole Station dining hall is quite nice - delicious foods and friendly people - especially characterized by such an extraordinary direct view to the South Pole through the windows.

This is one of my favorite things to see in Antarctica - a pattern on the snow made by the wind. If you click on the image, you can see more detailed patterns, which are quite artistic.

12/21/2010 To the South Pole

After spending almost 10 days in McMurdo Station for the preparation of our project at the South Pole and field camp, we finally headed to the farthest south - South Pole. This is my third visit to the Pole and the rest of our members, Bob Clauer, Kshitija, and Joseph were very excited about their first visit. We took off from McMurdo at 9:30am taking about 2.5 hours to arrive at the Pole by U.S. Air Force LC-130 plane.
 

 

 LC-130 passengers and cargo to the South Pole

 

As usual, the Air Force crews kindly allowed us to look around the cockpit during the flight. 

 

We finally landed at the South Pole! It is always interesting to experience quite a big temperature difference between pre-flight at McMurdo (approx. 32 deg F or 0 deg C) and post-flight at the South Pole (approx. -10 deg F or -25 deg C) and very significant difference in barometric pressure (sea level vs 10000 ft or 3000 m) for such a short time.

Soon after we arrived and had lunch, Bob, I (Hyomin), and Father Devlin (from left) went to the geographic south pole located in front of the newly built U.S Amunsen-Scott South Pole Station. Surprisingly and thankfully, I felt pretty well this time whereas I was very sick about almost one day as soon as I arrived at the Pole 2 years ago because of high altitude sickness. Father Devlin flew with us today for his mass at the Pole and will get back to McMurdo tomorrow. This would certainly be the most expensive mass in the world!
 

 

 Getting the Antarctic stamps (both McMurdo and South Pole) on my passport is one of the things that I like to do as soon as I arrive. No visa or entry process is required to enter Antarctica, though. This is just for fun!

This is my dorm room at the Pole. Unlike at McMurdo, everyone at the South Pole lives in a single dorm. Especially, almost half of the South Pole station population stays in the very nice brand-new building as seen in the picture. The current total population here at the Pole is about 245.

12/19/2010 Hiking and Discovery Hut

    McMurdo Station and Observation Hill

The two small black spots are seals!

Look! Seals!

 A sleeping seal behind the sign. "Whatever..." the seal says.

 

Discovery Hut and McMurdo Station. The Discovery Hut was built by the Discovery Expedition led by Robert Scott in 1902. After the Ross Sea Party led by Shackelton left the hut in 1917, it has been preserved as it was until now. So what we see inside shows items that the expedition brought including food, clothes, kitchen utensils, and even seals and penguins that they hunted.

 

Being preserved by the temperature which seldom rises above freezing for nearly 100 years, seals and penguins still hangs inside the hut. However, slow bacterial decay still occurs, which makes the hut filled with rancid smell.

Even just before the expedition left the hut, they were cooking some kind of meat on a pan. Seal blubber still remains on the surface of the ax. 
 

Food cans and partly bitten biscuits arranged on the shelf. This seems to me that they were trying to save food eating only a small bite of biscuit. 
 

Mittens and clothes