12/28/2010 Day 8: System Tested and Retrieved.

The purpose of the trip to the "PG2" field site is to repair the system that was installed 2 years ago. We replaced a cable that we thought caused the system to fail to operate, which turned out that it wasn't the issue after we talked with Steve Musko at University of Michigan, who is in charge of the hardware construction and maintenance, via Iridium phone. So we decided to retrieve the entire system to bring it back to the States. First, we had to find a couple of sheets of plywood that covers the pit where our battery box and electronics are placed. Unexpectedly and fortunately, it took us only a couple of hours to dig the snow around and get a full access to the system in the pit although it took our hard breaths. The total snow accumulation for 2 years was about 2 ft. We finished all of work by early evening. Our mountaineer, Hanna, wanted to call McMurdo Station to request return flight tomorrow, which is one day earlier than originally scheduled. We wouldn't know whether the plane would come to pick us up until tomorrow but we were excited to come back to South Pole Station soon.

 Joseph shoveling around the plywood that covers the pit.

 

 

I like the pattern on the snow, which is made by the constant wind. 

The kitchen work is pretty simple(?) - our water is made from melting the snow around our camp. We barely washed our utensils and bowls because whatever food on them would never go bad and smelly! 

 

 This picture shows what I brought inside my sleeping bag to keep them warm while I sleep - balaclava, gloves, water bottle, satellite phone battery, sun block lotion, etc... because otherwise they would all get frozen!

12/27/2010 Day 7: The First Day of Field Camp

It's been a week since our team came to the Pole. Fortunately, we are acclimatized to high altitude well so no one has any severe problem. However, today my team will be flying to a remote field ("PG2") whose elevation is about 2000 ft higher than that of the South Pole. I have no idea what it would be like to be there at the higher altitude. Will keep my fingers crossed... My team includes Joseph, a mountaineer, Hanna, and myself only. We will try to repair a system that was installed 2 years ago. If we fail to repair it, then we plan to bring the entire system back to the States. Kshitija and Bob will stay here at the Pole to work on the second system ("System 4"). 

Joseph, Hanna (mountaineer), and me in front of the Twin Otter plane that will take us to the field site. 

 

The cabin of the Twin Otter plane. All of our cargo and the passengers (only three of us) share the same cabin. 

It was an exciting and interesting experience to find our equipment in the middle of the snow white plateau after 2.5 hour flight. The pilots depended only on the geographic coordinate that we provided to find it. 

The Twin Otter's door-to-door service - we landed right in front of the equipment.

We set up three tents - for cooking/eating, sleeping and toilet. Certainly, we feel that the weather condition here is harsher that the Pole. We experience more short breath, which is one of the most bothering things to cope with. 

Hanna is not only a good mountaineer but also an excellent cook! This is the kitchen tent. Although it serves as a "kitchen" and there is a cooking burner, the interior temperature is barely above 20F.
  

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.