Antarctica 2022

I've been fortunate to enjoy many unique opportunities as a result of being involved in Antarctic research. But the chance to give New Zealand's Prime Minister a hands-on experience of science at my containerised field camp is a pretty remarkable stand-out. Our PM was 'treated' to the full Antarctic experience… her initial attempt to fly south on the NZDF C-130 Herc got part-way here but had to return to Christchurch on account of the conditions of weather and visibility here at Phoenix airfield – an Antarctic 'boomerang' flight. On the same day, the USAF C-17 had been able to land with a combination of cargo and personnel on board – including our very own Vanessa and Adam, as well as a couple of the PM's entourage. So, after waiting for the night in Christchurch, Ms Adern did make it down the following day on the USAF C-17 with the remainder of her crew, including her partner Clarke Gayford and some of the AntNZ board members. She was then taken on a wh...

Updated 8-11-2022 with photos during a short visit back to Scott Base Happy days! A major and ambitious milestone has been achieved! Last season, when we were here to test the platelet coring system, we deployed a brand-new type of oceanographic mooring with an experimental design. A 'mooring' just means a string of instruments suspended through the water column and programmed to keep collecting data for as long as possible. This is standard operating procedure for ship-based oceanography but is rather a different prospect in our situation, primarily because we have non-permanent sea ice cover to contend with. It is usual for us to deploy a mooring, but to only leave it in the water for the period that we're actually in Antarctica conducting the science. We'll drill a hole in the sea ice, mount a tripod over it, then suspend a weighted line with instruments attached down into the water column. When we've completed the rest of the work, we return to the mooring sit...

So, what are we actually doing out here? Even by Antarctic standards, McMurdo Sound is in a very special location – it's the most southern point on the planet where there is open water. In summer, that is. Come winter, McMurdo Sound is filled with sea ice that is locked to the land on both coasts and pressed up against the 'ice shelf' to the south. Stretching away from here, nearly 1,000 km to the south and about 1,000 km to the East, lies the great Ross Ice Shelf – a floating extension of Antarctica's land-based glaciers. On meeting the coastline, these ice streams continue flowing out over the ocean, melding together to form massive flat slabs of ice that float out over the ocean. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest of these, covering an area of ocean around twice the size of New Zealand. And it is typically between 500 and 700 m thick at the point that it leaves the land. The ice gets thinner as it stretches northwards, partly because it's being melted away from...

This year's local sea ice coverage is a bit different from 'usual'. Sea ice is the ice that forms when the air temperatures get so cold that the surface of the ocean freezes. This happens at both ends of the earth. But in the Southern Ocean, such a large area freezes that it effectively doubles the size of Antarctica each winter. This is huge, especially when one realises that Antarctica is already 50x the size of New Zealand! You can think of sea ice like a great big flat, white ship that is currently securely moored to the land. But as summer comes on, that 'ship' will break up and sail away, allowing us only a fixed window of time in which it is safe to do our science. Actually, we're using this to our advantage – before we head home, we'll be placing instruments out on the ice that will float north with it and transmit their position daily as they drift away from the land to circle around Antarctica. This will give us real-time information about how t...

On one previous occasion, I have arrived in Antarctica ahead of my cargo. However, this is the first time that I've headed out to the field camp while the bulk of our scientific cargo is still sitting in Christchurch. Moving large volumes of cargo south depends on flights of the US Air Force's C-17s between Christchurch and Phoenix Airfield (~30 mins drive across the ice shelf from McMurdo Station). These military aircraft are capable of shifting people (accommodated with sling seats or palleted airline seats) and/or large items of equipment (I've seen helicopters and D8 bulldozers rolled out of them previously). But they can only do so early or late in the summer season, when the weather is sufficiently cold that the packed snow runway can land them safely. So, the C-17 flights are the main 'airbridge' through September and October. However, this year only one C-17 was made available for Antarctic service, and it has had a few mechanical issues. So here we ar...

Scott Base's latitude officially make the transition to 24-hour sunlight today. We're familiar, of course, with our NZ summer days enjoying a lot more sunlight than in the depth of winter. As one heads further south towards Antarctica (and equivalently, northward into the Arctic) this difference between summer and winter daylight hours becomes more and more pronounced. Eventually one crosses the imaginary line beyond which there is at least one day of 24-hour sunlight in summer, and one night of 24-hr darkness in winter, known as the 'Antarctic Circle' (or 'Arctic Circle' in the north). This is possible because the angle of the Earth's axis, relative to our plane of orbit around the sun, means that locations near the poles do not fall into the Earth's shadow within a >24-hr period in summer. Equivalently, they do not emerge from the Earth's shadow within a >24-hr period in winter. Scott Base is so far south (latitude 77.85 S) that it gets ~4 m...

Apologies for the delay between posts. There's been a bit going on! Tuesday 18th October was the day we left Scott Base and headed out to join Brett and Neill at the field camp. It's rather unusual for me to sail into the camp after it's already been put in and the set-up well underway, but this was greatly appreciated this year: while most of us were delayed in Christchurch waiting on a flight south, Brett and Neill – who had managed to get away on the one flight prior – had been busy getting the containers ready to head out. Our camp – originally developed by Tim Haskell of IRL/Callaghan Innovation – is made up of a series of converted shipping containers that live most of the year at Scott Base. They can then be dragged out in a train pulled by a bulldozer or Piston Bully to our field location on the ice. One container houses a generator, allowing electrification of the others, including a kitchen, dry working laboratory spaces, and sleeping accommodation. A very speci...

Tough choice for a Sunday morning - whether to stay at Scott Base for a leisurely cooked breakfast, or to join the trip heading out to Cape Evans to see Scott's hut. Luckily, there was space on the sightseeing trip for five of our team to join, while the other three of us remained at Scott Base to get a few jobs done. The advantage of staying behind was being able to enjoy the famous Scott Base Sunday brunch! With the very unusual sea ice conditions this year, it was not certain that any trips out to see the hut at Cape Evans would even be possible. But Ollie, Svenja, Jacqui, Nina, and Craig had a real treat in store for them... The weather was absolutely beautiful - a gorgeous day to be out travelling on the sea ice. The group needed to stop and profile every sizeable crack in the sea ice to assess whether crossing it and continuing on would be safe. In a couple of places, 'bridging timbers' were required to help. Eventually, though, the team made it out to Cape Evans and ...

A pretty full-on first full day. Quite the introduction for the four team members who haven't been to Antarctica before! First up at 8.15 am, health check #1... In an effort to control and manage covid at Scott Base, not only has everyone been required to pass a PCR 72 hours prior to flying south, and a RAT on the morning of departure, we are all required to undergo a series of checks and tests over the first week. We'll have check-ins with the base medic on days 1, 3, 5, and 7; we'll have to complete a RAT on day 3; and test negative on a PCR before heading out to the field. Attempting to manage and isolate a covid case while at Scott Base will be hard enough as it is... It would have to be nigh on impossible in the isolation of a field camp. Then it was time for our 'In Brief'. This is where we catch up with key representative members of the Scott Base team to go through our plans, changes to plans (already quite significant with the delays so far), resource and t...

Just a quick note to say we have finally arrived at Scott Base. The flight was a little late getting away this morning as there were new rules in place as to what people could include in checked luggage. But otherwise, the flight was completely without incident. It was an absolute treat to be able to enjoy the view all the way in to landing on a beautiful, still, and cloudless day. Absolutely perfect weather to arrive to. Since arriving at Scott Base around 4.00 pm, we've already been busy with an arrival brief and tour (for those who are new). Then time to find our rooms and set up beds before dinner. A meeting with the Scott Base engineering leads to plan tomorrow's deployment of the container camp followed by a team get together and a tour of our extra containers. We'll be getting straight into training tomorrow morning so that we're all set to head out to the camp on Monday.

Another day without arriving in Antarctica. The RNZAF B-757 was fixed on Tuesday and had a successful test flight yesterday (Wednesday). So we were all set to try again today (Thursday). Once again, we all got up early, completed our RATs before 0500, and got out the door at 0615. We arrived at the Antarctic Passenger Terminal (APT) and checked in. All was looking good for an imminent departure. Then the call was made that the flight was cancelled - bad weather at McMurdo has closed Phoenix airfield. Both our B-757 flight and the Italian Herc flight were simultaneously cancelled. In a sense, this is good news: The B-757 has the most conservative weather conditions requirements for landing of all the Antarctic aircraft. So, iffy for the Herc, certainly means no-go for the 757. We didn't even board the plane, and certainly weren't subjected to the hours-long boomerang flight of Monday. Of course, we are all super keen to get to Antarctica. But the time spent here all together has...

We’ve got a team of 12 people heading to the ice this season to complete a wide array of interdisciplinary science, with platelet ice at the heart of all the activity. There’s also another five team members who have completed all of the pre-deployment certification just in case anyone is turned back at the last minute (for example if someone is injured or tests positive for covid). Who are these people? Here’s a wee intro to the main team, in alphabetical order: Adam : I’m a camera operator and film producer, specialising in remote and extreme locations. This year I’ll be working alongside Vanessa, collecting documentary footage for The Climate Canary. In my spare time I’m keen to take the underwater ROV for a spin! Brett : I’m a marine instruments technician, and this will be my 14 th trip to Antarctica. In the field camp I’m primarily responsible for overall running of the camp and recovering the oceanographic mooring we installed last year. I’ll enjoy creating a curling sheet s...

After 6.5 hours in the air we stepped out of the plane and back into Christchurch. Antarctic flights that get turned around are known as a 'Boomerangs'. In a sense, a Boomerang is something of a rite of passage for long-term Antarcticans, but this was my first ever as I head into my eighth season on ice. Usually, the reason for flights to be boomeranged is because the weather at Phoenix Runway (60 mins drive from Scott Base and McMurdo Station) has closed in and is no longer suitable for landing. Less frequently, flights are turned back due to mechanical or technical issues. Such was the case for us yesterday. We understand that the issue is 'minor' and will get fixed today, so that we can be on our way again tomorrow (Wednesday). It'll be exciting to finally get to Scott Base and catch up with Brett and Neill, who have been busy getting the containers ready to go. They've also been able to get out onto the sea ice to take some measurements of sea ice, snow, and...

Quick note from onboard the RNZAF Boeing 757 before take-off: It was an early morning today... we all needed to return our RAT results by 4.30am so that our standbys could be called in if needed. Thankfully everyone has tested negative and we're good to go.  Breakfast and a final bit of (re)packing then out the door at 6.15am. We headed straight to the APT (Antarctic Passenger Terminal) for check-in. A long line formed out the door and around the corner with ~300 passengers all loaded up with Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) clothing,  plus all their luggage. One by one they were allowed to check-in: Identification checked, dangerous goods checked, checked-in luggage weighed, each person weighed with their carry-on gear, and finally exchange of departure cards for 'boarding passes' - a lanyard with a numbered tag. I then had to duck out to return our rental car, but returned to the APT in good time for a team photo and the pre-departure briefing. Then we filed through security sc...

Another technical test... I've tried adding a button to subscribe, but am not confident that the code behind it works... Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

... following on from the previous post, one more test: Can I blog directly from my PC??? Thanks for bearing with me for the set up phases :) Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

We were originally scheduled to fly south from Christchurch last Friday morning, but were delayed over the weekend because the C17 has maintenence issues. But, we've now been shifted to the RNZAF Boeing 757 scheduled to fly tomorrow morning instead. Should be a pretty sweet ride, since everyone gets a comfy seat and a window. There may even be a host/hostess! In the meantime, I've been trying to get things set up to be able to send text out from the field - we used IridiumGo last year, which allowed me to make a few short phone calls. This year, I'm adding the capability to email, and from there, to blog (which you're reading now!) So, this post is really just a test to check that all the necessary connections are in place and working so that I can update properly from the field. Unfortunately I won't be able to send photos or video out - that'll have to wait until I'm back in normal internet coverage. But I'll work on my descriptive language to g...

 As is often the case, our flight south from Christchurch has been delayed. Initially, this was due to a mechanical issue on the C17. But now we are scheduled to fly on the RNZAF Boeing 757 instead - we just have to wait until Monday for that one. So we've spent the past four days getting kitted out with our Antarctic clothing; packing and re-packing all our gear into four types of baggage (bags to stay in Chch, carry on to the plane, return to us if we're delayed further in Chch, and return to us on arrival into Scott Base); getting to know each other as a team; trying out various different cuisines for dinners; talking to a camera crew (we're being filmed for a Climate Change doco - "The Climate Canary") and finding new accommodation - not easy for a team of 10! It's been a real mix of weather - snow, sleet, and hail to start with, and lovely warm sunshine now. A few of the crew got out for a walk up Mt Pleasant yesterday, while I covered several kms on foot...

Every winter, two metre thick ice forms from the ocean surrounding Antarctica to effectively double the size of the continent. I've been studying the layer of ice crystals that accumulate beneath this sea ice, known as the sub-ice platelet layer for the past several years. These disc-shaped crystals of ice are created in ‘supercooled’ water and float upwards to form a layer with an open lattice-like structure that can be several metres thick. Platelet ice performs an important role as a protective environment for ice-associated algae and the developmental stages of Antarctic Silverfish - a keystone species of the Ross Sea. In this new project, we are seeking to understand the distribution of the platelet layer under the ice in the Southwestern Ross Sea, and how this will change as our climate shifts. Our team at NIWA, principally Dr Craig Stewart, have developed a bespoke engineered solution known as the Sympagic Sampler. This is a huge drill that collects large cylinder-shaped sa...