Sunday, April 27, 2014

Night Falls

The water is still open around McMurdo, so we get all kinds of steam rising off the water as is cools.
We said goodbye to the sun this week here in McMurdo. We won’t see it again until August. Still, it’s not completely dark. We’ve got a couple of weeks of twilight to look forward to before that, and even then, between the moon and the lights in town, it won’t ever get really dark unless I’m up at Arrival Heights during a new moon. With the sunset and failing light, I’ve gotten some pretty cool pictures of town, though. The last couple of weeks have probably been the prettiest, even in crappy weather.
Low sun at Arrival Heights on a windy day

Sun behind the ridge

David saying goodbye to the sun at Arrival Heights
Night outside Crary

Ob Hill at night

 In celebration of sunset, about 30 of us took a field trip out to the plane crash site near Pegasus. The trip out and bad was about an hour each way and we spent about an hour hanging out by the crash. The plane crashed back around 1970 and the military never cleaned it up. So now the plane is mostly buried in the snow and makes for a good little jungle gym, and a good place to take photos from and on. The weather was beautiful, clear and calm and only a little chilly (chilly being about 0F, with not much of a wind chill).

Sunset through Ivan the Terrabus' window


David escaping from the wreckage

August and Ildi on the plane tail

Carolyn in the sunset

David devouring the sun for the winter

Jared modeling
 The field trip actually happened the day before final sunset, but SAR headed out for a training day during sunset. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the peninsula to see it, although we did get some good colors. It was probably one of our longer days outside, and one of our colder ones, too. We were out for about four hours (either actually outside or in the vehicles for a break between “rescues”), and it was about -20F, with about a -40F windchill. We recovered Mandy (our wooden dummy) twice, putting in main and belay line ice anchors to raise and lower the litter over the pressure ridges between her and the Hagglund.

We ran onto some mechanical difficulties and Luke from the VMF got us fixed up quick

Carolyn all bundled up

Brian (Kiwi), Rebekah, and Gavin marking the route and hauling our dummy out to be rescued

Sunset on the ice

Rebekah ready to go out. This one, and the rest of the pictures are from our previous SAR excursion. The temps were warmer and I was able to get more pictures.

Jonathan and Gavin

"Let's move"
Work has been variable lately. Some weeks it is very quiet, other weeks it seems like there is something going wrong with every project. So far this winter I’ve learned to do some linux programming, set up a new computer and weather station, started up the all-sky IR camera for the winter, set up a computer to talk to a new server State-side, and started getting ready to take down three of the UV sensors for the winter, along with my more regular duties. Outside of work, things have settled into a bit of a routine. Mondays evenings are photo club or barista-ing at Southern Exposure, which serving as the lounge/coffee house for the winter, and then music over at the firehouse with Patrick. Tuesdays are SAR classroom training and two-step. Wednesdays are trivia at Gallagher’s or just hanging out. Thursdays are soccer and Fridays are guitar lessons with Patrick again. Saturday night is Game of Thrones and the bar, sometime with a dance party, since it is our one weekend night a week. And Sunday is usually just a chill night in.
The all-sky IR camera is  up and running for the winter

Two of the three UV sensors that will be put to bed for the winter in the next couple of weeks.

Fireman Todd doing a fire inspection up at Arrival Heights

Rebekah helping with instrument inspections up at Arrival Heights

Arrival Heights at night
With the sunset, the temperatures have definitely turned. The last few days have been about the coldest so far this season. I've started wearing two jackets, rather than just my Carhartt jacket. Haven't broken out Big Red yet, but like full darkness, I'm sure it's coming.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Science Post: CTBT and AFTAC

Time for another science installment. This time I’ll be talking a little bit about CTBT and AFTAC. Both projects have the goal of detecting nuclear detonations around the world. The CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) project is funded by an international organization, and is part of a network of hundreds of stations comprised of seismic, hydrophonic, and infrasound detectors. They are used to look for detonations on the ground, in the water, and in the atmosphere, respectively. The project here is an infrasound system maintained by the University of Alaska - Fairbanks. It is located about 20 miles off station in an area know as Windless Bight because while it isn’t actually windless, it is much less windy than places closer to town.
The grantees for CTBT were in town in November and December and I was able to get out to Windless Bight twice in that time. The first time was as part of a fuel delivery for BOB (Big Orange Box), the orange building that houses the generator and computer systems for the infrasound array. The second time I came out was to learn about the generators and to learn how the onsite system works, just in case I have to go out there in the middle of the winter to troubleshoot. We’ll see if BOB behaves itself this winter.

Flag lines marking the route out to one of the sensors


A sensor vault in the distance

An ice fall in the distance.
AFTAC is the US Air Force’s version of CTBT and uses seismic monitors out in the Dry Valleys. I wrote earlier about my visit out to Mt. Newell and Bull Pass to help them work on their generators.