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John CassanoJohn Cassano is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. John’s research focuses on weather and climate in the polar regions and he uses a combination of observational data and climate models in his research. He has been doing Antarctic fieldwork since 1994. The unmanned aerial vehicles project beginning in September 2009 is his ninth Antarctic trip.

Project Page: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

All Posts By John Cassano


At Home

By John Cassano · October 9, 2009 · comments 4 comments
LAFAYETTE, COLORADO-- I flew home to Colorado on Sunday afternoon, but spent Sunday morning walking around Christchurch enjoying the warm weather and the sight of trees, grass, flowers, birds, and lots of other people. After 5.5 weeks in Antarctica it can be quite a shock to see... {Read More »}


Antarctic Night – Antarctic Light

By John Cassano · October 1, 2009 · comments 4 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- When we arrived in late August the sun was up for just over 5 hours per day, and was barely peeking above the horizon, with pitch black nights. Today, the sun was up for nearly 15 hours, with the night sky not getting completely dark as the sun skims just below the southern horizon... {Read More »}


Wrapping Up

By John Cassano · September 28, 2009 · comments 2 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- Our project is just about over. We flew our last two flights on Sunday and are scheduled to fly back to New… {Read More »}


First Look

By John Cassano · September 21, 2009 · comments No comments yet
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- We’ve completed our second successful science flight to Terra Nova Bay Friday night into Saturday morning. This was a 16.5 hour flight… {Read More »}


Terra Nova Bay or Bust

By John Cassano · September 16, 2009 · comments 9 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- It has been a slow, and sometimes frustrating, effort to get our first successful science flight of the project, but we did succeed last night... {Read More »}


First Flight

By John Cassano · September 8, 2009 · comments 2 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- Our reason for being in Antarctica is to fly small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), known as Aerosondes, to make measurements of the atmosphere and ocean over the Terra Nova Bay polynya. Today we took a major step towards that goal when... {Read More »}


Daily Life in McMurdo

By John Cassano · September 1, 2009 · comments 8 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- We’ve been in Antarctic for just about a week now. Much of our time since we’ve arrived has been spent unpacking, setting… {Read More »}


To Antarctica

By John Cassano · August 27, 2009 · comments 9 comments
MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- I’ve spent the last 4 days in transit from the US to Antarctica. I left home midday on Saturday (22 August), flying from Denver to San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand... {Read More »}