Ice Stories: Dispatches From Polar Scientists » video dispatch http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:40:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 South Pole Ozonesonde Launch http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/south-pole-ozonesonde-launch/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/south-pole-ozonesonde-launch/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:12:53 +0000 Nick Morgan http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2385 SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA– Preparation for an ozonesonde launch takes place in the Balloon Inflation Facility (BIF) and begins about 7-10 days prior to launch day. We open up the styrofoam package which contains a pump, some circuitry, and a battery. There is some important information we need to know about the pump such as the sensor’s response time, and how much air it pumps through it. The flow rate through the pump is probably the most important piece of information because we enter that into a program that calculates the ozone. For example, if there is more air flowing through it, then it is going to measure more ozone so that needs to be taken into account. All the sondes have slightly different flow rates so they all have to be checked. There are various other checks that we run though to make sure that the sonde is up to specs as well on the day of the launch. Some tests are just repeated the day of the launch.

Then we head into the “hangar” to prep the balloon (plastic balloon, in warmer months we use rubber). The balloons are filled with helium and are clipped to a set amount of weight so we know that we will get consistent rise speeds and burst altitudes. Since the plastic balloons don’t expand, most of it left empty so when it get’s to high altitude at low pressure, the helium has space to expand into.

Then after some final preparation of the ozonsonde package which may include some heating elements to keep the pump warm and getting the battery ready, we are ready to launch!



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A Midwinter Toast http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-midwinter-toast/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-midwinter-toast/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:46:49 +0000 Nick Morgan http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2355 SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA– Station Manager Mel MacMahon leads the toast before midwinter meal at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. The occasion is in celebration of reaching the half way point of the long six months without seeing the sun.



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The South Pole galley staff puts together great meals for celebrations of various milestones throughout the winter such as sundown, midwinter, and sunrise. Their hard work all winter long is much appreciated by the South Pole winter over crew. The menu was designed by Matthew Lee.
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Tour the JOIDES Resolution http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/tour-the-joides-resolution/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/tour-the-joides-resolution/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:54:18 +0000 Rob Dunbar http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2286 JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– In this video, Christina and I lead you on a brief tour of the JOIDES Resolution...]]> ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– In this video, Christina and I lead you on a brief tour of the JOIDES Resolution. We visit the chemistry lab, the core lab, the micropaleontology lab, the deck, and see the last core of the Wilkes Land Expedition come onto the deck.



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Music by Synthhead. Courtesy of Beatpick.com.

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A Sea of Icebergs http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-sea-of-icebergs/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-sea-of-icebergs/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:59:08 +0000 Rob Dunbar http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2263 JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– We were in a sea of icebergs -- at least 100 icebergs in the vicinity, and the wind started to blow up to 70 knots and waves reached 30 feet...]]> ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– We drilled for about 18 hours at the latest site but ran into stormy weather and had to move far offshore to get away from some huge icebergs coming our way. We were in a sea of icebergs — at least 100 icebergs in the vicinity, and the wind started to blow up to 70 knots and waves reached 30 feet. It’s hard to capture the scale of these things on video, but I hope this video update gives at least a sense of what we’re encountering.



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Flying through the Transantarctic Mountains http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/flying-through-the-trans-antarctic-mountains/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/flying-through-the-trans-antarctic-mountains/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:55:41 +0000 Nick Morgan http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2239 SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA– On my way to McMurdo for some quick dental repair, I was able to capture some spectacular video of the Transantarctic Mountains. Enjoy!



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A Day in the Life of the DISC Drill http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-disc-drill/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-disc-drill/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:41:46 +0000 Heidi Roop http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2219 WAIS DIVIDE, ANTARCTICA– Here is a short video that summarizes all of the steps in collecting an ice core using the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill. Thomas Bauska, of Oregon State University helped me put together this video. Enjoy!



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Detonation http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/detonation/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/detonation/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:13:12 +0000 Lucas Beem http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2352 WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA– This video shows the detonation of our excess explosives, used for seismic surveys of the base of the glacier. Our scientific objectives justify the risks of transporting the explosives to our field site. But the risk is not justified to carry them back. As a result, once our scientific objectives have been completed we dispose of any excess through detonation.


A detonation on the ice sheet



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Inside the Sedimentology Lab http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/inside-the-sedimentology-lab/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/inside-the-sedimentology-lab/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:18:37 +0000 Rob Dunbar http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2218 JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– In this video, see what happens to a sediment core after it comes on deck and gets delivered to the sedimentology lab...]]> ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– In this video, see what happens to a sediment core after it comes on deck and gets delivered to the sedimentology lab.



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The South Pole’s Best View http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/the-south-poles-best-view/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/the-south-poles-best-view/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:55:19 +0000 Nick Morgan http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2216 SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA– Take in the view, see some of the ARO (Atmospheric Research Observatory) meteorological tower instruments, and watch a LC-130 Hercules land from one of the best views at the South Pole.



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Measuring a Glacier’s Motion http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/measuring-a-glaciers-motion/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/measuring-a-glaciers-motion/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:50:32 +0000 Lucas Beem http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2345 WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA– There are two basic projects that we are working on through our field work in Antarctica. One is looking at changes in the ice surface motion through time. To do this we make three types of GPS measurement: 1) continuous stations which measures a position every 10 to 30 seconds; 2) repeated measurements of poles stuck in the ice surface. 3) Kinematic lines (GPS is affixed to a snowmobile and we drive it around). The last technique does not give us velocity information, but the topography of the ice sheet.

See us installing a new GPS station in the video below. We previously assembled the tower, which contains solar panels and wind turbines, to charge the batteries. The batteries and the GPS hardware are in the gray cases. We use towers to keep the solar panels from being buried by accumulation and drifting snow. Note the old station in the foreground and how close it is to the snow surface. This video is played back at 15x speed.



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We always have a handheld GPS on while we’re driving our snowmobiles, just in case we get lost or conditions change and we can’t see. This way we can know where we have gone and were safety lies. I compiled all of our GPS tracks and made this map.


This map our snowmobile tracks.

We have ten GPS station around the ice sheet, plus a few other locations of interest (seismic instrumentation or flag pole to re-measure) which we visited at least once each during our field season. I drove over 400 km during our 4 week field season.


Here we measure a flag pole to see how much it has moved since we measured it last (the year previous, in this case). Some times the flags were frozen into the ice and we couldn’t get them out. As a result we measure a location next to the flag and make careful notes about how far away our antenna is.

A snowmobile outfitted with a kinematic set up: simply a GPS antenna strapped to the side. We’re not moving in this picture, but are we record positions whenever we drive around.

We can use this kinematic set up to measure surface elevation and if we have multiple measurements, as in the image below, we can see changes in the ice surface topography.


In this image four kinematics GPS profiles are shown and the elevation differences between the two time periods are different. We can see that the surface of the glacier is changing rapidly. The reason for these changes are that highly pressurized water is creating a cavity below the glacier which floats the ice up. These cavities can also drain allowing the surface to deflate.
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