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McMurdo
January 17th 1996, 9pm
From
Michael Burton.....
This
is year 3 now of our South Pole reports, with this years players
being myself (Michael Burton) and Craig Smith, but I'm sure
by the end of this diary many others will have made guest
appearances. The JACARA South Pole site testing campaign is
still growing, and this year our plan is for a refurbishment
to the faithful IRPS so it can survive a third year wintering
on the Ice. Michael Ashley's enhancements should now allow
the IRPS to now dance a jig (or at least continually replenish
the liquid nitrogen supply without external assistance (it
can now monitor the amount of LN2 in the storage dewar, and
pressurise the dewar if necessary)).
Craig
Smith (from the ADFA) is also taking his pet mid-infrared
spectrometer (MIRAS) down to measure the day time mid-IR sky,
and help us quantify how much better this form of astronomy
will be from Antarctica than elsewhere.
As
usual, our expeditions South seem to start in chaos. First
over uncertainty as to when and who might actually be able
to go, with ever changing population caps at the Pole flowing
back to alter travel dates and the number of us who might
go. Craig ended up leaving Sydney on Jan 8, with myself following
on Jan 14. As I write this I am in McMurdo a few hours away
from catching my flight to the Pole, where Craig has been
for two days now.
Such
travails are a part of polar life, with detailed planning
next to impossible as schedules are reorganised to cope with
changing weather conditions and other logistic constraints.
For instance, on arrival in Christchurch on Sunday I was told
I might get off on Wed, but most likely Thursday. Then by
Monday morning it had become Tuesday night and by that afternoon
it was 5am Tuesday morning! Eventually, after being woken
up at 2am to be informed there would be a delay, we left CHC
at 1pm, to touch down on the Pegasus ice runway 7.5 hours
later (a `quick' flight we were told due to tailwind). The
flight down is the worst part of Antarctica - Hercules aircraft
do a great job, but they are noisy and vibrate terribly.
 
We
arrived to a heat wave, about 3 degrees above zero. I saw
Mt. Erebus (the 3700-m local volcano) for the first time as
it was beautifully clear on landing, with the 40km hike to
it looking like an afternoon stroll. Many of the locals were
strolling around in T-shirts, and we felt definitely over-dressed
in all our cold weather gear (which you need to wear in flight
for safety reasons). I even saw a couple of streams flowing!
(But no penguins I'm afraid.)
McMurdo
Sound, the southern most point you can reach by boat in the
entire world, is still covered in ice, but any decent ice
breaker can pierce it, as evidence by a US Coast Guard vessel
off shore, and the Nathaniel B. Palmer, the US NSF's luxury
ocean studies vessel docked at the port.
By
early afternoon I learnt that I was to be off tomorrow morn,
so my time for sight seeing was limited. I tried to check
out the souvenir shop (`ships stores') but, of course, it
closes all day Wednesdays. The shop at NZ's Scott Base (`best
souvenir shop in Antarctica' it proudly advertises) was only
open when I had to `bag drop', and the barber was fully booked
out! So much for my attempt to go on a shopping spree. The
Pole shop better have a few trinkets left when I get there!
One
interesting piece of trivia. I checked out Hillary's hut at
Scott Base, which is now a museum to NZ's first Antarctic
outpost, and one end of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic expedition
of Hillary and Fuchs in the IGY of 1957. (My father actually
went down to Antarctica along with that expedition, though
he stayed at Halley Bay to do science as opposed to the adventure
to cross the continent!) From the visitor book I discovered
that Edmund Hillary himself, as well as several of the Fuchs
clan, had visited the hut just 4 days after my visit in Feb
94! And that someone has obviously dropped the book in a puddle
of water since then!
Following
John Storey's experiences I found the exercise room, and checked
out the Marvin-like (as in hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy)
exercise machines. Having managed to program the machine to
test the fitness test of a 10 year old child, it complained
mine was immeasurable! So I went of for a run, my first in
Antarctica (those who know my habits in this regard and might
wonder why I didn't manage any on my last visit - well I was
fighting against the flu that time). Actually I must have
seen at least a dozen runners around McMurdo, which surprised
me somewhat, until I saw the signs up for the `Scott's Hut
Footrace', which turns out to be next Sunday! I tried to buy
the race T-Shirt from the organiser, but they wouldn't accept
my pleading I'd be stranded at the Pole by then. There are
only 2 foot races in Antarctica, the South Pole Round the
World Race, and this one, and so far I have managed to miss
both. I will have to talk to my sponsors before my next visit
and see if I can manage one some day!
Craig
has reached the Pole, though we have had little communication
as yet, other than to discover that apparently the crew weren't
expecting the 300kg of gear he was carrying with him for his
experiment!! A great start that, and I wonder what I will
find waiting there for me when I arrive about lunch time tomorrow.........
Michael
Burton
 South
Pole January 19th 1996
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
I've been at the Pole for a day and a half and its time to
report in. Actually I first have more to report from McMurdo
following my last report. Rather than to attempt to get any
sleep before my 5am assembly time, I decided to chance my
luck and see if I could get a tour of the Nathaniel B Palmer,
the cruise ship the NSF runs for ocean scientists (this is
at midnight, but I'm not going to let that put me off!). The
crew member on duty lets me on, and I had free rein to tour
a deserted ship. Its certainly an impressive facility; internet
connections to all cabins, well-equipped labs and computing
systems, games rooms and even a sauna. Makes you think about
taking up oceanography instead of astronomy!
I
got back to my room to find I now had a room mate, except
he wasn't there. However the baggage labels revealed him to
be none other than Jack Doolittle, AGO-builder extraordinaire,
whom I'd heard was out on the Plateau installing the 5th of
the Automated Geophysical Observatories. About an hour later
Jack appeared, and I had a briefing, in the wee small hours,
on the latest in AGOs. Jack in fact is due to head out again
in a few days to install the 6th and last of the AGO's, before
installing a couple of experiments in the CARA complex! Apparently
AGO6 was waiting at the end of the loading line at the airfield,
so Jack gave me the code number to get in and wished me luck
to find a spare minute to visit before heading off to the
Pole. And that was just about all the time I got, between
being dropped off at the airfield and being taken to the plane!
But I made the most use I could and clicked away furiously
with my camera.
 Handy
Hint to all Antarctic Explorers: if you just happen to be
lost on the Antarctic Plateau and stumble across an AGO they
all have the same pass code, which telephone callers and colleagues
of Jack Doolittle will be familiar with!
Our
Pole flight carried two DV's (distinguished visitors), one
being none other than Neil Sullivan, director of NSF's Polar
Programs section, and the other Joe Kull, the chief financial
officer of NSF. I took advantage later on at the Pole to acquaint
them with all we in Oz want to do in Antarctica! Having 2
DV's on board we had a spectacular arrival at Pole, doing
2 loops of the station at low altitude.
My
first impression on disembarking was how much things have
grown. There were several new buildings in evidence compared
to my visit two years ago - the CARA site had grown, a new
Clean Building was present and even the Met Tower (scene of
our original microthermal experiments) had been moved. I had
a new luxury accommodation module - a `hypertat' - with windows
in it! The trouble with this is, however, that you cant get
the place dark enough when you want to sleep!
Tourism
to the South Pole seems to be hitting the big time. Several
parties have skied in, and for a mere US$26,000 you can hire
the `Adventure Network', a Canadian outfit to fly you to the
Pole. They seem to be making regular flights too! Rules are
that all visitors are allowed one meal in the Galley.
Handy
tip to anyone who just happens to find themselves skiing to
the South Pole: if you offer to give a talk you can have multiple
meals in the Galley!
I've
taken my first day here fairly easily, giving myself time
to acclimatise, but the IRPS is now unpacked and on the vacuum,
and I am puzzling over the tasks in front of me. Craig has
efficiently put MIRAS, his mid-IR spectrometer, together and
is now taking data! First impressions are that the sky is
very stable!!
So
its now time for me to get down to some serious work at the
Pole.....
Michael
Burton
 South
Pole Diary January 21st 1996
From
Michael Burton.....
Time
marches on and begins to have no meaning as I enter my 4th
day here. Progress has been made on the IRPS, and problems
uncovered, which may, or may not, be resolved. Craig has MIRAS
running smoothly and taking beautiful data. Its been virtually
cloudless since I arrived, and a few degrees below -30. I
expect the temperature to start dropping soon!
Actually
there was some very unusual weather at McMurdo the other day
- it rained! Only for 3 minutes, mind you, but rain hasn't
been reported there for over 20 years - only snow. It is a
mild summer we're having in Antarctica.
The
day started in unusual fashion. For some reason, as the season
nears close, it was decided to upgrade the furniture in the
luxury `hypertats' where I'm staying. I'd no problem with
that - our filing cabinet was to be replaced by wooden cabinets!
However the time assigned for the job was 7:30am, which I
thought a little uncivilised given that I'm sinking into my
night schedule.
No
tourists today, but more DV's arrived for a quick tour. Several
heavies from Washington have been here now - and the reason
has to do with the imminent plans to rebuild the Pole station
for a cost of some hundreds of millions of dollars. Interested
parties to the budget process in Washington are in need of
fact finding missions! There is no doubt that if we astronomers
are going to continue our work here we need improved facilities.
They are being stretched to the limit right now. Every conceivable
corner in the MAPO building is filled with equipment and people,
and every other science activity here is growing. The CARA
contingent only make up half of the astronomical crowd anyway,
the rest being particle physicists. Just behind our laboratory
the PICO ice drillers are boring 2km holes into the ice to
contain the Amanda neutrino project. Boring continuously with
compressed steam, there is a cloud above the site!
 I
tried skiing today, for the first time here. Having lugged
my skis out I discovered that NSF had decided to provide skis
this year for recreational use! Skiing is indeed the most
sensible way to get around if you're on foot, though the little
extra windchill from moving faster is quite noticeable. It
makes one appreciate how remarkable are the adventurers who
now ski into Pole from the coast these days. A ski trail has
apparently been laid to a disused site a few miles away, so
maybe if I finish my job here early I'll get to try it. My
technique is certainly rusty. I haven't managed to ski into
the Dome yet, which has a steep slope leading down to it,
without falling over!
Chris
Bero, the winter-overer for the ATP (the part of CARA we are
working in) and the person responsible for looking after IRPS
over the winter took off today for McMurdo and R&R. Its
questionable whether spending a week at McMurdo is a holiday,
but perhaps its good for making you want to come back to the
Pole! Anyway Chris has orders to visit Scott Base and stock
up on Kiwi Beer. Its generally acknowledged that its the best
on offer around these parts, and indeed its speculated that
Scott Base actually fund themselves by keeping the Yanks supplied
with the stuff! Chris is due back in a week when, hopefully,
we will have the IRPS ready to show him.
Michael
Burton
South
Pole Diary January 24th, 4am
From
Michael Burton.....
Its
a few days since my last report, though its with the greatest
difficulty that I remember its 3 days ago, and that I've been
here 5. The `days' have merged into a blur. However progress
has been made!
I
tried calling my parents on Sunday night - there are 4 hours
each week when we are allowed to use the satellite to make
private calls. However the satellite refused to cooperate
with me, and though I once managed to reach the operator in
Florida I never got any further. In fact communication seems
to have been harder this time than 2 years ago - I have also
been having trouble getting email out for a variety of unrelated
reasons which seem to indicate that gremlins may indeed inhabit
the Pole!
Craig
must have set new records in Polar efficiency. His experiment
was up and running within a day of my getting here, and is
getting glorious data. The mid-IR sky is simply fantastic
when its clear - and certainly far more stable than we were
anticipating. Craig, of course, will be patient while he analyses
the results before reporting them, but my gut feeling is that
mid-IR work in the summer months is a real possibility for
future science experiments.
The
IRPS, on the other hand, has been causing us no end of trouble.
Fixing it is a job well beyond my meagre electronic capabilities,
but fortunately both Craig and Jamie (last year's SPIREX winterover,
and of course our IRPS honours student of 93!) were up to
the task. Having untangled the seemingly countless cables
connecting the multitudinous parts of the experiment that
Michael Ashley has now created and fitting them all together,
I managed to cool the dewar down and start testing it out.
First the motors worked, but no signal could be seen. After
tracing this to a blown fuse, we then found we could see signal
but no longer move the motors. Another blown fuse! Then the
motors worked but the signal failed, and back and forth a
couple more times. The trouble was that various connectors
at the back of the computer had suffered in transporting the
computer to Australia and back after the last season, and
every time one was fixed another would be knocked out of place.
The final fix came after use of the infamous LeCroy 9314L
oscilloscope, star of an entire issue of Michael Ashley's
diary of last year. Howling, the IRPS finally revealed all
of its hidden secrets - I think we had been measuring the
signal from the slow discharge of a capacitor!!
However
the IRPS appears to be working now, as long as we all try
not to breath on it, and I have pumped it down to its operating
temperature and am getting ready for some calibration measurements,
before trying out the Mark II automatic liquid nitrogen filling
system, which Jack Cochrane laboured so tremendously over
Christmas to have ready for me. But first I have had to clear
up my 2 square metres of space as the adjoining 1.5 square
metres are due to be occupied tomorrow by another experimenter!
 After
4 days of pure sunshine the weather changed, and the past
24 hours we have been covered in low cloud, with limited visibility.
Craig didn't think too much of my suggestion that this would
make for perfect calibration by just assuming an optically
thick black body at the ambient temperature! Actually attentitive
readers may have noticed that I've failed to inform of the
local temperatures. The main reason is because the base computer,
which is supposed to continually log such information for
public dissemination, seems to think every weather statistic
is zero this year! However its been pretty warm so far, with
the temperature hovering around the -30 mark. We really need
it a little colder for Craig's experiment to reach its best!
My
skiing has picked up, and I only fell over once yesterday
entering the dome down the ice-covered ramp to its entrance.
However I've also chickened out a couple of times and taken
SPART, the South Pole Area Rapid Transport (a name not too
dissimilar to the public transportation system in the Bay
Area of California, and probably just as rapid!), to the CARA
site instead.
And
finally I think I am becoming accustomed to the altitude as
I slept for 10 hours last night and woke up feeling great.
However the end result is that I am now well and truly on
a night schedule, and will be heading over to breakfast soon
before retiring to bed!
Michael
Burton
South
Pole Diary January 26th, Australia Day 5am
From
Michael Burton.....
 Its
now Australia Day, and Craig and I were probably the first
Australians to celebrate it. At midnight (of the 25th) we
both headed over to the flags around the Pole and started
a picture session with all our cameras, posing in front of
the various tourist sites - the ceremonial pole with all the
flags of the original Antarctic treaty nations, the signpost
indicating the way to various locations around the globe (though
none in Oz I'm afraid) and the Pole itself. We probably committed
a federal felony by removing the US flag from the Pole and
replacing it with the Oz flag for the photo session! And we
remembered our masters back home by taking a few pics with
the UNSW banner prominently displayed. Actually I'm hoping
to get to see our AASTO at McMurdo on the way back and have
come armed with both UNSW and ANU banners for a suitable photo
op! Sigh, how image drives science these days!
Its
started to get cooler - the temp gauge dropped to -35 today,
but the wind seems to have stopped making it actually feel
quite warm out here! We've been having a mix of bright blue
sky, to be rapidly followed by extensive cloud cover, and
reverting back to clear skies. Craig keeps oscillating between
thinking this is a good site for 10 micron work and a lousy
one, with each weather change! Just like any mainland observatory!
While
we've at last seen the temperature drop as we head towards
the end of the summer season, on the other hand the temperature
in the MAPO building is heading towards the roof! We must
have close on 50 terminals in operation and my thermometer
is reading 27 deg. Given that we all have our thermals on
it can get a little uncomfortable at times. Not to mention
the 60 degree temperature difference when you head outside!
The temperature has had an unexpected affect on the experiment.
I've been trying to do a number of calibrations before taking
the IRPS onto the roof, and have been thrashing the filter
and aperture wheels around. Until I discovered that the filter
wheel wasn't behaving properly and not ending up in the right
place. I noticed its temperature was over 50 degrees, and
have directed a fan onto it, whereby it nows works perfectly.
I guess Michael Ashley just neglected to design the experiment
for both equatorial and Antarctic conditions - though I'm
sure he'll come up with a modification for next time!
A
major discussion point of late has been toilets! Or `Heads'
as they are called around here (a US navy term, for some reason).
Out in the astro sector we've been blessed with a solar toilet,
a wooden building just heated by the warmth of the Sun. Actually
it quite pleasant inside, though I'll spare you the graphic
details of how the plumbing works. However in winter this
naturally cant be used (no Sun!) and the administrative services
around here seem somewhat reluctant to provide anything more
than a barrel for the winter-overers to use. (its a kilometre
back to the main base - not a journey you can do in two minutes
when the temperature is 60 degrees below!). Meetings have
been arranged between the astronomers and admin (ASA - Antarctic
Support Associates) - to which all that has been achieved
so far is to arrange additional meetings. Yes, bureaucracy
strikes at the South Pole too! If you ever chance on Jamie
in a quite moment and ask him about the situation you will
hear a few choice expletives! Jamie is not proving to be a
good committee man in this instance!!
My
experiment has improved no end since my last report and indeed
I am close to taking the IRPS up on to the roof and installing
the wonderous automatic liquid nitrogen system. I've been
puzzling over all the bits I've been given for it over the
last week - its a bit like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle
- and I think I have it sorted out now. Though heaven knows
how it will actually work when its all assembled - that's
another piece of Michael A's magic software I have to see
in action!
Jack
Doolittle, Mr. AGO, arrived at Pole last night. We've only
had a brief chat so far, but Jack never expected to be at
Pole right now - rather he thought he'd be in the field installing
AGO number 6 (the last one). However it turns out that the
pilot of the LC130 seemed to get cold feet about landing at
the site, and aborted the mission after having made an initial
drop off of advance equipment. A couple of guys who had been
sent in to clear a runway with bulldozers had to spend 10
days waiting for someone to pull them out!
Michael
Burton
South
Pole Diary January 27th
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
the past who knows how many hours have been dominated for
me by calibration measurements. The IRPS is sitting out on
the bench in the lab, just longing to be placed outside in
the pristine air, yet there are all these boring calibrations
measurements to make. To find what position corresponds to
what wavelength, how much signal at each wavelength and aperture
corresponds to how much flux, how linear is the detector,
etc etc. Not exciting stuff, but essential to doing good science.
I devised a substantial series of tests to do, and then Michael
Ashley came up with a whole lot more! The jobs taking much
longer than I would like but I hope to be finishing in the
near future! The most important thing to do is find a tub
of water and keep it at a constant temperature while the IRPS
does its stuff and measures the IR flux coming from it. I
tried to make the process more interesting by specifying the
need for 12 year old malt whisky for the job, being particularly
suitable as the calibrating agent on account of its constitution,
but somehow I couldn't persuade the station staff to make
such a source available!
My
body clock is really working strangely now; I seem to be getting
about 3 hours later each day as far as my body rhythms go.
For instance I got up at 6pm yesterday, had breakfast at dinner,
lunch at `midrats' and dinner at brekky! Since it was Australia
day, Craig and I paid a visit to the South Pole store to collect
a few crates of beer to share around. Shopping at the store
is like going back in a time warp, or visiting a shop in India.
The store only opens for an hour 3 times a week. Four people
are there to serve you, but they can only deal with one person
at a time. You have to place your order with one, have it
written on a chitty by another, who gives it to a third to
use a PC to enter it into an inventory catalogue, scanning
each postcard and stamp individually! If you are purchasing
beverages the chitty comes back, and you wait around for the
`all clear' announcement when you then can visit the `fridge'
where the alcohol is stored and pick up you order. With waiting
in line, the whole process can take an hour!
So
the evening was passed guzzling cans, and telling all who
passed about Governor Philip and the convicts, but at midnight
I had to stop to head out to work, where I now am some 10
hours later. I have just completed another major accomplishment,
photographing a `shadow circle', showing the circle a shadow
makes over the 24 hours of daylight at the Pole. The whole
process has taken several days to complete, with my having
to contend with weather and unsocial hours. My last picture,
of a series of 8 taken at 3 hour intervals, was for 9am in
the morning, a difficult time for me as I always seem to find
myself in bed then!
 Craig
continues to gather data at a great rate with MIRAS. In fact
a group of three scientists from NASA Goddard contemplated
defecting to Craig's experiment today! They have been charged
with the task of getting both a mid-infrared telescope and
camera ready for wintering over (which they call SPIRAC, not
to be confused with SPIREX, the near-infrared telescope that's
here), and are still waiting for some of their team to arrive
with vital bits (such as the mid-IR camera!). Since they have
just got their telescope working, and Craig has a working
mid-infrared camera, there are some interesting possibilities.....
My
skiing continues to improve - I didn't fall over at all going
down the ramp to the dome yesterday, and I even managed to
skate out to the MAPO building to go to work. Give me a few
months here and I might make the Oz cross-country ski team!
Finally
I have learnt that Jack Doolittle is expecting to share the
same desk that I have all the parts of the IRPS covering...........
Michael
Burton
South
Pole Diary January 29th, 6am
From
Michael Burton.....
We've
been through a bit of a blow during the night, nothing normally
to write home about, but about as windy as I've felt it at
South Pole - around 15 knots (though Jamie keeps on insisting
that it reaches about 40 knots in winter, despite Met data
to the contrary!) - and at these temps (-35 now) that makes
it feel cold! Actually the weather has been much more changeable
than my previous trip; while it has been mostly beautiful
sunshine, low cloud can suddenly shoot in and the scene changes
completely inside an hour. Then an hour later we are back
to sunshine. The other day there were some spectacular visual
affects with sun dogs, and a light beam which circled all
the way around the the from the Sun - some kind of bizarre
refraction affect. However I missed it, alas, as I was sleeping
- the penalty of working nights!
The
IRPS is now on the roof and still appears to be working! I
spent several hours re-cabling to do the job, clambering over
all sorts of obstacles in the lab, trying to make our cables
relatively neat - it would be a real knot otherwise. I also
wanted to make sure I could get my cables out on the roof
before the access hole got clogged up with someone elses experiment
- a case of first in, best dressed! Now all that remains is
to get the nitrogen filling system up and going and I'm done.
Though I'm not sure whether I will now get to see Chris Bero,
our winter-over scientist. While on R&R in McMurdo he
had to visit the Navy dentist for the pre-winter check out
- and the dentist decided he should have his wisdom teeth
out! This means a trip back to Christchurch to visit a real
dentist (who almost certainly will think the teeth are OK!).
I guess this is one of the penalties of have the military
runs operations - everything goes by the book. Though NSF
are trying to cut back on their Navy reliance - next year
the McMurdo helicopter fleet will be run by a private contractor,
for instance.
Craig
has been messed up today - the SPIRAC boys (his competitors!)
have decided they need to run all their cables up where Craig
is, resulting in his having to dismantle his experiment for
their convenience. Then the tower that MIRAS is sitting on
rattles and shakes rather a lot as people run up and down
the stairs - in fact Craig has now posted some data on the
outside door showing what can happen to his readings when
someone slams the door too hard! I guess this is the penalty
for working in a lab where there about about 7 experiments
in progress.
I
gave the weekly science lecture tonight - held every Sunday
night. I decided to try and explain why all these crazy astronomers
keep coming to the Pole and what we really want to do. I had
lined up a nice collection of slides to accompany the talk,
to be told, 10 minutes before I was due to begin, that `technical
difficulties' would prevent me from showing any slides!
Jack
Doolittle, Mr. AGO, has been giving me all kinds of wise advice
about running AGOs (our AASTOs in our instance). Our AASTO
is indeed due to arrive in McMurdo any instance now, and I
am trying to make arrangements to get to see it. Jack tells
me they very carefully wrapped the AASTO in plastic to protect
it during its journey, and in particular to prevent the shipping
company from defacing it by putting their logos all over it.
Since AGO6 is still in Mactown (having not been deployed)
I will thus have two to see. And they both have the same access
code number!
Michael
Burton
South Pole
Diary January 31th, 7:30am
From
Michael Burton.....
 Its
getting towards end of season now at Pole, and people are
starting to pull out. Not that it hasn't stopped some more
astronomers arriving to finish setting up SPIRAC, but slowly,
gradually, there seems to be more space in the MAPO building.
Though no word from our winter-overer, Chris Bero, in CHC
to see the dentist. This is starting to become a real worry
because a lot of us need to see him before we depart to tell
him how to run our experiments!
I'm
nearly done, and only really have a few small things to do,
as well as watching the experiment run itself for a few days
and see it can do so without intervention. This means I cant
really head out today, and the downside of this is it looks
like I'll be stranded in MacTown for about a week!
I'm
not looking forward to that, but it has to do with the boat
coming in, and all other work stopping. Not that I really
understand why - there is none of this manual unloading anymore,
just a few navy guys running around in trucks and forklifts.
I guess its another of these Antarctic `traditions' which
the navy brought in. In fact I'll probably hang around Pole
an extra couple of days as that is preferable to enduring
McMurdo food.
I
managed my radio interview with ABC Canberra yesterday. After
numerous email correspondence with Jeremy Lee, the programme
producer, regarding possible times and dates, we finally managed
the link up. To my surprise the reception was pretty good
- when I called my parents in the UK a few days ago I could
barely hear them. I expect the reception sounded suitably
distant, hopefully reflecting where I was for the listeners!
I'm
now back on a day schedule! Just like that. I was getting
so tired that I didn't manage to keep awake all last night
yesterday, but just had to go to bed. Only got about 4 hours
sleep, but it put me on a day schedule. Maybe I'll try and
stick to it now - it felt rather unusual having brekky at
breakfast time!
I
took yesterday morning off and went skiing. I did a grand
tour of the runway, which must be about 10 km in total. When
you reach the end of the runway, and the base is a small blur
seen through the murk of the surface inversion layer, and
you realise there is no sign of human presence for over 1000
km in front of you, you start to feel something of the immensity
of Antarctica. While it was pleasant skiing out with the breeze
at my back, coming back I started to get cold, and it certainly
makes you appreciate what the adventurers who ski here have
to endure when warmth isn't just a half hour ski ride away.
It also drives home the importance of wearing exactly the
right gear for the occasion - I was only slightly inadequately
dressed yet, and the cold inexorably crept up on me! For reasons
I couldn't fathom I'd run into odd flags and markers at various
places on my tour. Presumably the remains of some scientific
experiment in years past, but now just presenting an archaeological
mystery to the modern explorer!
I
now have the IRPS up on the roof and running apparently quite
happily. I constructed a giant container, which I call the
`Biggest Blue Board Box' (BBBB) to house the storage dewar
for the liquid nitrogen. The dewar doesn't like getting too
cold on the outside (despite holding liquid that is -200 on
the inside!) and likes to be pampered and kept warm. So we
have wrapped heating tape around it, and I constructed a box
our of blue Styrofoam (`blue-board' - hence the name), which
is nearly as tall as me. The BBBB is very much a heath-robinson-ish
kind of construction - all these pieces of Styrofoam glued
to together with silicon paste and bound with aluminium tape
and holes cut out for cable to pass through. I'm thinking
of offering it to the winter- overs as a `head' - certainly
better than the toilet facilities that ASA are deigning to
supply them!
I
managed to break the very last of the cables I had to connect
up to IRPS in the installation process! I guess I got pretty
cold on the roof yesterday - I had to spend a fair amount
of time up there dragging things around and connecting things
together, much of it in only light gloves, and needed to run
indoors frequently to thaw out. The IRPS is now rather a confusing
looking beast sitting on top of the MAPO building, and cables
hanging out of every orifice you can see. It had better work,
as there is no way Chris Bero is going to be able to work
out what's wrong if anything breaks!
Craig
has now taken his experiment down. Just 10 minutes after doing
so we had some `diamond dust', a phenomenon whereby tiny ice
crystals fill the air, reflecting sunlight off them as they
spin. Craig actually very much wanted to measure this phenomenon
as it's one of the negatives that hearsay says will affect
mid-infrared astronomy, but which no-one really knows for
sure. Unfortunately we missed it! Craig takes off on todays
flight and has been promised fast passage through McMurdo!
Me, I'm marooned for another week or so.
Michael
Burton
South Pole
Diary February 2nd, 7pm
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
Craig has now departed leaving me on my own to fend with the
IRPS. Craig's departure was in fact a long drawn out affair.
We had a spell of bad weather; the winds changed (a rare event)
and brought in `warm' moist coastal air from the west (that's
grid west!), raising the temperature to a toasty -25 degrees
and bringing in thick, low lying cloud. All flights were cancelled
for 36 hours, and Craig's departure was put off twice, much
to his frustration. The question he now faces is how many
days does he have to spend at McMurdo? Already he has logged
into the Pole once from McMurdo....
 As
soon as Craig departed I started having some troubles with
the IRPS. I thought all was in hand until I started assembling
the parts for the automatic nitrogen filling system on the
roof, when nothing seemed to work. A string of faults have
been diagnosed, nothing actually to do with the IRPS itself,
but all to do with the bits that are supposed to make things
easier for the winter-overer! At the moment I can't really
say whether they all can be fixed up before I go. My main
nitrogen storage dewar got rather severely damaged when I
left some heaters on inside it while getting it ready for
filling, and now reeks of a foul odour of melted plastic and
other noxious substances! Panic and misery set in - the experiment
was over, we were finished etc etc. But I forgot we are working
with the Americans, who never come down with one of anything
when you could have six! And indeed there are spare storage
dewars of the right size around. So I have been spending the
night wiring up a new dewar to fit our needs. Saved! Though
that being said there are still a couple of other problems
which I'm waiting for Michael Ashley to send me solutions
to......
However
right now Michael and all the UNSW crew are observing on the
AAT, commissioning UNSWIRF, are new imaging Fabry-Perot for
the IRIS infrared camera. And the weather is clear!! Michael's
already sent me the first image obtained, the molecular hydrogen
in Orion - and its great. I've been sending helpful hints
on how to observe at Siding Spring while Michael A has been
sending helpful hints on how to fix dewars at the South Pole!
Tomorrow I'm going to try sending commands to the AAT to run
the FP - its essentially the same software that runs the IRPS
(and even has the name IRPS in it because Michael hasn't yet
got around to changing all the names in the program!).
Actually
I've been observing quite a bit at Siding Spring while at
the South Pole; this is the third AAT run I've been involved
with since arriving! And I was on the 2.3m the other night
too - I believe there have been some complaints about my observing
on two telescopes simultaneously whilst being at the South
Pole! Of course, I have some good collaborators who are doing
the work for me!
The
barber visited town and I got myself a haircut! There are
two hairdressers stationed at MacTown, and I tried to visit
them on my way through, but they were all booked up (Navy
personnel need lots of haircuts!). But it turns out that one
of the hairdressers is an enterprising sort and has managed
to persuade the NSF that personnel at Pole could do with haircuts
too. So she's been posted here for a week, and has had a full
queue of long-haired scruffies to deal with! Next year she's
working on persuading the NSF that personnel in field camps
need hair cuts too - a good way of getting to see Antarctica!
I
also checked out the exercise facilities at Pole. There's
a tiny room under the main dome full of assorted exercise
machines and weights. Not quite up to the standard of the
MacTown machines, but still pretty sophisticated. I climbed
up stairs for a mile (very exciting!), cycled an obstacle
course and ran in circles round a track which kept going up
and down and changing the speed it came past me. I was in
full sweat by the end. I need to time my next session to coincide
with my biweekly shower ration!
Some
big news in astronomy today, SOFIA and SIRTF, the two big
infrared astronomy projects (one airborne, the other space)
that have been the top-rated projects in the US astronomy
priorities have been given a `new start' by congress. That
means they have finally been funded, after decades of lobbying.
Quite amazing considering the budget crisis the US has been
going through. Harvey Mosely, the chief investigator of SPIRAC
has been going around wearing T-shirts of several ex-observatories,
including the KAO (the predecessor to SOFIA). We've decided
not to give him a CARA T-shirt in case that means we get shut
down to fund these new observatories!
Michael
Burton
South Pole
Diary February 5th, 5am
From
Michael Burton.....
Fog,
that's the story of today! Its the worst I've ever seen here.
Another weather change and the wind, instead of blowing down
from Dome Argus, is now coming from the South (grid South!)
- probably from Oz for all I know. Anyway its brought more
moist, warm air with it and thick fog. It reached -20 at one
point! Visibility is down to about 50m - and I certainly cant
see the dome from the astronomy sector. Its bringing a frosting
to everything too - being laden with moisture (or relatively
so) water seems to be condensing out of the air onto every
object it can find. I've had to make heavy use of a heat gun
to clean away the snow and frost from anything I'm working
on, otherwise all my connections would have become embedded
in ice!
 Indeed
the weather was sufficiently poor that one plane aborted its
journey having reached Pole and headed back to Mactown! I
was skiing to work at about 8pm yesterday, a route which crosses
the ice runway, barely able to see the next flag pole in front
of me. Then I noticed the warning lights come on warning that
a plane was approaching. After waiting around a bit I heard
a dull roar, which got closer and closer until I thought something
was going to land right on top of me! However the noise passed
overhead, or at least I presume it did, because I never saw
anything, even though the plane was probably no more than
50 m above my head. I could hear the plane turn around, and
10 minutes later the same performance happened - a near landing
but nothing seen! The pilot gave up at that point and headed
back to McMurdo, and I was finally able to cross the runway
and head to shelter!
A
couple of hours later another plane arrived (its a busy time
at Pole right now - we expect 5 flights tomorrow!). The visibility
had cleared to 100m and it managed to land. When it took off
an hour and a half later I could barely see it, though the
runway is only 100m from our building, and it was going in
the wrong direction! I have never seen a plane take off to
the south here - the wind's is always blowing from the other
direction!
Its
been a tiring last couple of days, but finally I see the end
in sight. When I last wrote I could see disaster ahead - there
were half a dozen problems to hand to which I couldn't see
the solution. Thankfully they are now past, though another
potential disaster came and went in the last few hours.
It
all started when I managed to destroy that storage dewar,
though fortunately another was found (and even the spare from
McMurdo has now arrived). In fact I underestimated when I
said the Americans always had six of everything, they have
sixty-six of them! Apparently at McMurdo they have scores
of these dewars and are looking for an excuse to get rid of
them, because there is some newer, fancier better dewar now
available! My second set of problems came when I installed
the automatic nitrogen filling system, and found that only
gaseous nitrogen would come out the end, no liquid! After
taking everything apart it turned out that a new component
we'd added this year, a sieve to keep our tubes clean, was
reducing the pressure sufficiently that the nitrogen was all
evaporating before it could reach the end of my fill tube!
But in the process of doing this I must have climbed the stairs
to the roof of the MAPO building 100 times. I had to set commands
running on the computer, then run outside to see what they
were doing, then disassemble bits and repeat the process,
and finally put everything together. There is only so long
you can work outside with fiddly bits before you need to run
into the warm to recover, and add about 10 trips to fill my
dewar with nitrogen, plus all those times I forgot some vital
tool, I think I got my exercise in, as well as seeming to
have spent half the day outside!
To
more mundane matters. The weekend has just past and we had
that good old American favourite, pizza, for Saturday dinner.
Apparently a South Pole tradition. My skiing advanced to the
point where I braved the super-direct descent down the mogul-covered
ice ramp into the dome (ie skis straight ahead, no turning
or braking), and survived! And I discovered a problem with
the high-tech running machine in the exercise room - you cant
set it to go faster than 10mph!
Rumour
has it that the AASTO is due to arrive tomorrow, if the fog
clears up.....
Michael
Burton
South Pole
Diary February 7th, 13:00
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
this should be my last report from the Pole, but looking at
the way flights are right now, it probably wont be. My flight
out today has so far been postponed twice, and then cancelled.
No reason given, but there are 3 more flights scheduled in
today, and they might just let passengers on them (for various
technical reasons passengers - PAX - are not allowed to actually
go on all flights - some are regarded as more `dangerous'
I believe. Anyway that's the military for you again!
I thought my last couple of days would be relatively light,
but in fact I've only had 6 hours sleep in the last 48, and
really just want to get out of here now! Various minor teething
problems, and just packing up simply take much longer than
you anticipate. That's really a rule of Polar life - every
task takes that much longer than back in the real world -
as simply living is that much more of an effort.
Even
now I am not leaving a trouble free instrument. I am having
an irritating problem with a loose valve. Something which
in the lab would be a slight inconvenience but here in the
middle of the winter might mean the difference between an
experiment and none at all. Still, I think I have hit upon
a solution (replace the valve - simple!), and given the flight
cancellations I might even have time to carry out the task.
Of course then I expect to find another problem to worry about.....
 I
did take some time out to visit the AST/RO telescope, one
of the other CARA projects that actually occupies its own
building (smart people!). AST/RO is a submillimetre telescope,
taking advantage of the new windows that open up for observation
into space at these wavelengths. AST/RO has just completed
its first winter - and come out with some very impressive
results. 80,000 spectra of which about 20,000 are actually
good! In fact the whole telescope is a lesson in how to deal
with Antarctica, a project designed for the Pole in the first
place, rather than retro-fitting an existing experiment. As
a result the winter-over is actually able to concentrate on
the science rather than just getting things to work. The entire
instrument is inside, making working on it very easy and just
the telescope is outside. Richard Chamberlain, last year's
winterover even managed to write a couple of papers while
he was down here!
AST/RO
seems to be making a habit of employing foreigners, and at
times there have been no Americans working at Pole on the
project! Currently a German and a Brit are in charge, with
the Brit wintering over. Actually of the 5 winter over astronomers
this year, Americans are in a minority. There are only 2 of
them, with 2 Brits and 1 Oz (Jamie once more).
Well
the weather is finally turning away from the heatwave conditions
we've been experiencing, and dropped below -30 at last. Still
some way to go to reach -40, but we're moving there. Its been
a much harder spell at Pole for me than I anticipated before
arrival - I thought I only had to shake down an existing experiment
and that would be that, but all kinds of unexpected difficulties
have arisen. Its symptomatic of the environment, and all the
people in the MAPO building have been working absolutely flat
out. Amazingly it does look as though most experiments are
actually going to work, though SPIRAC looks in trouble right
now as their detector wont actually record data at the moment!
But it would be nice to have a few more resources in order
to get the job done - the Pole is a challenging place to work!
Michael
Burton
McMurdo Report,
Saturday February 10th
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
I'm finally out of Pole, and on my way home. With luck, this
will be the last report from Antarctica that you, the patient
reader, will have to endure! After 5 flights in a row being
cancelled on the Wednesday (for reasons that were never explained
to us, but certainly wasn't to do with the weather), the first
"off-deck" from McMurdo actually did take off at
7am on Thur, and we knew there would finally be a flight for
the Pole. There were 17 "pax" on the flight; most
of the remaining science contingent at Pole, apart from the
10 or so staying on till "reverse winfly" (or station
close, to use English, as opposed to navy-speak) in about
10 days time (who happen mainly to be AMANDA guys desperately
trying to calibrate their instrument before winter by firing
flashes of radiation into the ice and seeing what they can
detect from these "false" neutrino signatures).
Unfortunately
I didn't leave the IRPS in the best of states. In the past
24 hours, since the time I was originally due to depart, the
instrument has been displaying some strange characteristics.
These may just be due to one of the temperature sensors deciding
to be temperamental, or it may be a more serious affliction,
and its not something I was able to readily diagnose in the
time I had available. So I left Chris Bero, our winter-overer,
with some emergency instructions to keep the IRPS alive and
hang on until Jamie arrives back and can check it out properly.
At least the instrument can still take data!
So
we arrived in MacTown in mid-afternoon of the Thursday into
unbearable heat - it must be 3 or 4 below zero with just a
light breeze! On our shuttle ride back to the base from the
ice runway at Williams Field I spotted a small green and gold
building waiting on the skiway ready for loading onto an aircraft
- it was our AASTO! After being checked in I rapidly made
some enquiries to learn the AASTO was ready to be loaded into
a Hercules in the very near future ready for transport to
Pole tomorrow! So I rapidly gathered up my camera gear and
the University banners I had been lugging around Antarctica
and found the first shuttle bus I could back to Willy Field
(incidentally it had NT plates - "Outback Australia"
- though heaven knows why?!).
So
a few minutes later I was standing outside this green and
yellow building out on the Ross Ice Shelf again. I had the
combination for the lock (Jack Doolittle's office phone number!)
- but in fact it was emblazoned in large numbers on it anyway.
Actually I was a little disappointed to find the AASTO looked
somewhat shop-worn. Despite Jack's careful attempts to keep
it clean by wrapping it in plastic, it had obviously been
torn off on arrival and various packing and freighting labels
had been adorned over it! It needs a fresh coat of paint,
and subsequent enquiries extracted the promise that we will
be able to use one of the heavy vehicle maintenance sheds
at Pole in mid-Dec (the hot season) to do the job!
The
AASTO wasn't quite an empty shell; it was equipped with some
furniture and even a ladder (to get on to the roof). I adorned
it with ANU and UNSW banners and started shooting away. Only
just in time. A large fork-lift soon arrived, driven by a
kamikaze navy cadet, to whisk the thing away. He didn't even
want to wait for me to get out and lock things away before
lifting up the AASTO. Within a few minutes it was shoved onto
a transportation platform and whisked into the back of a nearby
Herc by a whole gang of these cadets, with my both trying
to capture the whole incident on film with out being impaled
by a high-speed fork lift and my praying they weren't going
to impale the AASTO into the side of the Herc!
Standing
by all this time were 2 members of the AGO field service maintenance
team. These are the people who are now contracted to go out
into the field, recover the data from the AGO's, and service
the modules for another winter seasons work on the Ice. They
had been there to test whether a new fuel delivery system
for the AGO could actually be made to fit into the Herc! None
of this get a tape measure and design it to fit - it seems
the best way is to build it first and then see if you can
get it in the back of the plane! Apparently the AGO's have
been encountering some difficulties with their fuel lines,
with leakages, and here was a new compact package designed
to alleviate some of the problems. It might well be that our
AASTO will be the first module to benefit from the new system!
Anyway the service crew were keen to press upon me their services
when we need a field crew to go and maintain our AASTO!
That
was about it for me for the day; after dinner I was exhausted
and went to bed and slept for 11 hours. The next day I found
we had a "bag drag" scheduled for the evening (when
we check our luggage in), for a probable departure the following
day. So it was then a matter of packing in as much sight-seeing
as possible in the day.
There
is a hike to a prominent rock outcrop, Castle Rock, a few
miles off base that is a popular day trip, but you not only
have to go in pairs, but need to see a safety video and be
checked out. So the morning was spent sorting these details
out - enjoying a video telling you about all the people who
have died out on the route you are about to take, and how
you must follow the right flags (the red and green ones, not
the black ones which lead into crevasses, or the yellow ones,
which are to be used for peeing around (yes, seriously!)).
Bob Loeweinstein, one of CARA's stalwarts (and leading cross-country
skier) and myself then finally set out on the trail to Castle
Rock. The first section is in fact dreary, winding up the
back of McMurdo past the station rubbish dump, and the "Arrival
Heights" area (scene of one of the most protracted disputes
ever under the Antarctic Treaty system between NZ and the
USA about trespass over a site of special scientific interest,
that got so complicated that only the lawyers in the end knew
what people were arguing over!). But then the route reaches
a ridge, and the view becomes spectacular as you head towards
Castle Rock. Erebus, the mighty volcano is directly behind
Castle Rock (and another 40 km away!), McMurdo Sound is behind
you with the Transantarctic Mountains 100 km away across them,
the open Ross Sea to your left, free of ice, and the Ross
Ice Shelf to your left! We were lucky that the day was beautifully
clear and the wind virtually absent, and got to see the most
spectacular views of Antarctica, once we were out of sight
of the ugly mess that is McMurdo.
On
returning we bumped into a colleague who had just obtained
the keys to Scott's Hut, so we went and had a quick tour of
that historic monument too, past the remains of food, clothing
and equipment used by the early explorers in that part of
the world. Despite all the "specials" they had delivered
from London in graphically labelled food boxes, it certainly
was a tough existence for them.
That
evening, after a climb up the local hill, "Observation
Hill", I was just snooping around the Crary Laboratory
(the delux science labs they have here) when I was caught
by the director of the Lab, and given a personally guided
tour of the whole establishment! You might wonder why a director
has the time for such personal service - well he had been
due to travel out the same flight as me, but had been "bumped"
off it at bag drag earlier that evening and now had an extra
day to kill in Antarctica! The Crary lab is certainly an impressive
place, stocked with the latest equipment serving a wide range
of sciences. Though concentrating on the biological sciences,
there are facilities for ice core analysis, balloon launches,
electronic mapping, geological analysis, electronics labs
etc. etc. And all apparently vastly under-utilised! In fact
the place is a zoo in the early part of summer, but in late
summer, when it no longer becomes safe to venture to the ice
edge to collect your samples, most of the visiting scientists
head home, leaving a vast expanse of free space. As the director
impressed upon me, anyone wanting to work here from late January
on has virtually unlimited call on the labs resources. Maybe
this is the solution to our space crisis in Astro back at
UNSW?!
After
this I crashed again, and now, all being well I simply have
to wait around till 4pm for check in for todays flight out.
All being well, it'll leave at approx 7pm, to get into CHC
around 3am, to end another expedition to the great white continent.
But these could be famous last words.........
Michael
Burton
 Sydney,
February 13th
From
Michael Burton.....
And
I'm finally back in Sydney, where the weather seems almost
as cold as Antarctica! That just about wraps it up for another
year of the South Pole Diary. Here's to the AASTO adventure
for 1997.......
 
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