tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63838953140702309602007-12-12T11:00:46.567-08:00Project S.C.I.N.I.bnewboldBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-18159902386422803272007-12-11T18:30:00.000-08:002007-12-12T11:00:46.851-08:00Farewell!Last Sunday we said our farewell and thank you to the community. Many people have volunteered to help us, taking time off work to come drill holes and haul heavy gear around. Even more have helped us as part of their jobs, but have done much more than that, making themselves available after hours and for inconvenient requests. We very much appreciate all that everyone has done to make things stacytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-22109892923753277122007-12-10T13:08:00.000-08:002007-12-12T01:23:08.225-08:00Ridges, Open HouseLast friday I got to tour the pressure ridges near Scott Base with a small group. Our leader was Ann Bancroft, a member of the American Women's Antarctic Expedition to the south pole back in 1992, who now works as the site manager for the long duration balloon project.
Also, yesturday was the last time SCINI went in the water this season, we hosted an open house for the McMurdo community down atbnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-76174744414167204712007-12-09T20:09:00.000-08:002007-12-08T00:35:43.498-08:00Tales for the Spicy PenguinPenguino, Penguino,
He's Nice-O!, Not Mean-O!,
Penguino!
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Shortly before my son Jack was born my wife and I watched March of the Penguins and something from it stuck in our subconcious... Not long after he entered the world he became El Penguino.
When he was just a few days old and I was doing the midnight feedings I would sing the above rhyme to him. Over the last 2 years he hasBLee Williamstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-50123157599172605742007-12-08T20:34:00.000-08:002007-12-08T00:35:35.463-08:00Art at McMurdoEven in the land of ice and snow, human natures primordial need for self expression burns hot. Long winters and brief interludes from work allow time for minds to wander and creativity to flow. Below are examples of the art forms that one finds when in and around town. Take a self guided stroll through the interesting and sometimes weird art of McMurdo Station.
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In the stairwell Rustytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-29642619390875881422007-12-07T23:55:00.000-08:002007-12-08T00:05:33.709-08:00No Words, Only Pictures(continued...)
Nicholastag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-86428031652258961652007-12-06T02:30:00.000-08:002007-12-06T11:21:33.234-08:00Antarctic HitchikersToday we made the long trip out to Cape Royds one more time, to take advantage of a hole that David Ainley, Adelie penguin researcher extraordinaire, had for a current meter. My interest in sampling in this location is based on the penguins, but not just because they are oh-so-cute…
An Adelie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, poses for the camera.
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But because there are lots of them,stacytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-46063675157955398632007-12-05T23:58:00.000-08:002007-12-04T23:52:17.717-08:00BLee just put up an old post that won't show up on this front page, check it out here!bnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-76918321376299402682007-12-05T12:23:00.000-08:002007-12-08T00:34:09.829-08:00Pretty PicturesBob and I spent the last couple days down at the jetty doing some lighting and v
ehicle dynamics testing and we've got hours of video to pick through as an indir
ect result. Here are a few choice frames to peruse, plus a couple LIVE ACTION
video clips at the end.
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Some of these are reasonably high resolution and you can make out more details if you click on them for the bnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-80491515105646548082007-12-04T02:18:00.000-08:002007-12-03T10:52:29.620-08:00Bring a HankieI'm sure everyone is going to post about the Grand Day Out to Cape Evans. So I'll just cut to the heart of the matter.
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I'm sure everyone is going to post about the Grand Day Out to Cape Evans. So I'll just cut to the heart of the matter and sum up why you should turn off your computer, get up off the couch and do whatever it takes to get out in the world right up past your ears.BLee Williamstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-58123001961621997142007-12-03T01:46:00.000-08:002007-12-04T01:57:50.406-08:00Details of an Ice DiveWe have given several glimpses into diving beneath the ice but looking back through the earlier posts I see we haven’t given a good description of all the effort it takes to actually do a dive here. We have been doing sampling dives about every other day so I’d like to give a start to finish description of the effort involved with making those dives.
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Yesterday’s dive at Cape Rustytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-9086864303233744912007-12-02T21:13:00.000-08:002007-12-04T21:17:05.279-08:00Weeks of testing finally pay offToday was one of the most eventful SCINI days we have had in a long time. BLee, Bryan, Bob and myself planned on launching SCINI so that we could evaluate her performance over several engineering test that BLee had established. These tests were going to help determine if SCINI was ready to take on science missions. In the past I felt we have really rushed into getting SCINI in the water for Nicholastag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-27250809785377539682007-12-01T18:35:00.000-08:002007-12-02T00:05:59.868-08:00A shorter listWith SCINI almost completely rebuilt and tested, and only 2 weeks left, it’s time to reevaluate what we can achieve in the remaining time, without making ourselves too crazy. We have been remarkably successful so far, and we’d like to keep that high note.
SCINI beginning underwater explorations, with the hole in the ice visible in the background.
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Our engineering goal for the stacytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-74022215082173631622007-11-30T01:27:00.000-08:002007-12-02T21:27:29.183-08:00SCIENCE!One of the best parts about working in the Crary lab is meeting all the other grantees and seeing their projects unfold, and today i've got a sampling of groups i've met over the past two months around station. By next year, the NSF should have updates it's US Antarctic Program website with a list of active science groups, but for now i'm all you've got...
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A nudibranch bnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-1067839593124112892007-11-29T12:22:00.000-08:002007-12-06T11:08:04.106-08:00Because it's there...What do you do when you come across an iceberg frozen in the sea ice? On our trip to Cape Evans Bryan and I had the opportunity to find out!
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What do you do when you come across an iceberg frozen in the sea ice? The Big Ice... its lure is irresistable.
Well, you walk up close and then you test the boundary between the sea ice and the berg with the best tools you can find. BLee Williamstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-85945525327980495412007-11-28T01:37:00.000-08:002007-12-06T11:03:11.081-08:00Trip to Cape EvansBlee mentioned that we had a day off on Monday and the highlights of the day for him were having seal snot blown in his face and licking an iceberg. Now I don’t want everyone thinking we all are as easy to please as Blee. Some of us prefer the more civilized side of vacationing in Antarctica.
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Evan’s Wall is a shear volcanic wall that rises about 200 feet above the sea ice. Glacier Rustytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-74222391392419184032007-11-27T10:46:00.000-08:002007-12-01T11:45:43.714-08:00Turtle Rock scuba dive, Video Ray mission and octopiWell today was an eventful one. As the title implies the schedule called for a scuba dive and a Video Ray mission held at Turtle Rock which is north of McMurdo. Stacy and Rusty were the divers who collected our normal suite of experiments while BLee and myself focused on carry out the Video Ray mission. We were joined by the dive tender William Tinus who works as the local machinist at the Nicholastag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-25700299968027753192007-11-26T01:21:00.000-08:002007-11-30T02:02:12.864-08:00A day in the sunshineToday we are working on access to two sites that are several kms away from McMurdo, Turtle Rock and Cinder Cones. We have been laying the groundwork by helping the Field Safety folks survey the area to be sure there is a safe way around the cracks for the large vehicles to travel, and flagging those routes. Today we accompanied Tom the driller out to put in the holes, and put a hut, kindly stacytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-60503932236018830952007-11-25T18:51:00.000-08:002007-11-26T20:16:02.300-08:00Werner Herzog ReviewSunday night at the end of Thanksgiving weekend McMurdo station got a screening of Werner Herzog's new documentary Encounters at the End of the World, which he shot last year in Antarctica as part of the NSF's writers and artists program. Many of the individuals interview in the film were present, and it was interesting to get an outsider's (warped?) perspective on life on the ice.
(continued...bnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-20667477925203543992007-11-24T11:59:00.000-08:002007-11-25T12:33:04.873-08:00Steady as we go...We have been making steady progress at improving our operation.
Of course, there are still better things to do...
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Congratulations are in order for the whole team as we have accomplished the goal for this season here in Antarctica: We can navigate under the ice. We have used Project Scini's nav equipment on the Video Ray and succesfully made maps of in-place science BLee Williamstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-39547434684710291602007-11-23T00:32:00.000-08:002007-11-26T20:12:30.583-08:00Critters and SCINIFor those of you waiting for news on the latest progress with SCINI, you'll have to be patient because this update will discuss the other major component of the project. Dr’ Kim’s past research in Antarctica has focused on benthic community changes (critters living in and on the seafloor) resulting from human activities in the Antarctic. Detecting benthic community change requires years of Rustytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-28088927771052212952007-11-22T19:20:00.000-08:002007-11-22T20:01:15.668-08:00Happy Turkeylurky Day and don't forget to ask me who turned 50!Happy Thanksgiving!!!
So Thanksgiving crept up on me this year and for some reason I thought it was on the 25th. In the light of this holiday I thought I would write a little about what I am thankful for this year. I would have to say I am thankful for all of my family and friends that miss me so during my time here in Antarctica. I really enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas because it is a time Nicholastag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-2818444158856248212007-11-21T17:59:00.000-08:002007-11-26T20:30:59.833-08:00The SOS and FALA experimentAfter 2 days of surface supply diving, I was very happy to have a little less physically strenuous day in the lab. I worked with the experiments that Charmaine Ryan’s SOS class in Watsonville, CA and Mindy Bell’s biology and chemistry classes in Flagstaff, AZ built for the ROV to perform down here. So even though the students can’t be here, a bit of each of their spirits, captured in film, is stacytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-17839963904121943162007-11-20T13:41:00.001-08:002007-11-23T15:19:39.057-08:00Electromechanic Wonderland MiscellanyThis week will be a lot of bench time for me as I debug some thruster power issues, recalibrate sensors, clean up our controls software, and add some inertial measurement features. So while everybody else is out breaking their backs in beautiful high twenties weather I'm getting fat eating cookies, electrocuting myself, and putting the Mr. Coffee through a stress test.
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Being a bnewboldtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-53473693314278829252007-11-19T13:59:00.000-08:002007-12-04T23:47:41.055-08:00Some Lessons LearnedI have been in Antartica for coming on 18 days, and we have had VideoRay in the water 10 of them. Including the last 6 days in a row. I call that reliable.
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I have been in Antartica for coming on 18 days, and we have had VideoRay in the water 10 of them. Including the last 6 days in a row. I call that reliable. Since as ussual I am behind on my blog, I thought it would be a good BLee Williamstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383895314070230960.post-81044556328618530532007-11-18T19:58:00.000-08:002007-11-23T15:17:00.356-08:00Traveling on snow and iceSafely and efficiently traveling around McMurdo requires functionality and reliability of equipment that is suited for extreme cold conditions. This update takes a quick look at the strange names and configurations of vehicles used to meet the various needs of the community. Think of it as a car show- McMurdo style.
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After stepping off the airplane, new arrivals are hurried Rusty