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December 22, 2004 McMurdo is a distant memory now that we have been in the deep field for 11 days. We set up our entire base operations in one day and in the next 5 days we accomplished 12 survey flights with very few problems, making us feel quite optimistic about making up for lost time. Then the weather hit, and we had no flights for 3.5 days. After just three more flights in the past 2 days, we are again being pounded by weather and the plane is parked. On the positive side, data quality has been excellent, and our radar is seeing through the deep, warm ice in this area. The deepest trough on the continent is within our survey area, filled with over 4 km ice. The bottom of the trough is more than 2.5 km below sea level. On the other end of the spectrum we have flown past Mt. Takahe, a 3500m-high volcano rising high above the ice. We paid a visit to the British two days ago when we stopped in at Pine Island camp for fuel. We exchanged tours of our geophysical aircraft which are similarly instrumented.
Dave Morse departed day before yesterday on the same Herc that brought us Tom Richter. Tom will take over operations so I can leave in a week or two. We don't have ping-pong here but one of our crew, Gonzalo Echeverry, has come up with a new sport that instead of requiring good weather (as cross-country skiing does), relies on bad weather. He has a nice kite that when deployed in windy conditions like today, will pull one or two people on a banana sled quite fast down the skiway! The only drawback is the long walk upwind after the ride. And the minimal directional control.... We were treated to an amazing display of sun dogs last night due to an abundance of ice crystals in the atmosphere. Rainbow-colored rings, convex arcs, and a bright white band circling the sky were all seen and photographed.
Antarctic sundogs (photo: Theresa Diehl) Merry Christmas from the gang on the icy continent!! Best, |
