My Icy World

    Here is my repository of outside photos as the world gets darker and colder. But very beautiful... 
    This is a typical Science Expresss Snowmobile trip after lunch, when we all travel back to work from the Station. Robert drives, I am sitting backwards on the seat behind him, and in the sled are Allan in front, and Andrea, from AST/RO, using Allan as a wind and snow block. These shots were taken around the middle of February. 
    The snow blows under MAPO, and on the windward side forms curling bow-waves, like a ship passing through deep water at a great speed. When the sun is low and casts shadows under the building through the support beams it forms lovely images - these a little blurred as the window inhibits the shots... 
    The snow drift in front of the Station and Dome begins to build... 
    Earlier this week, as the sun dipped towards the horizon, we placed safetly flaglines between the Station and frequented buildings like MAPO so we can find our way in the dark. I nipped inside and here are a few shots of the busy bees staking the buildings beyond MAPO... 
    Below are some sunset shots. A couple are high res and may take some time to load, but they're so pretty I had to leave them that way. I'll keep adding to them until it gets dark. I'll hopefully have a separate page for aurora shots as I take them. The first shot is Steffen and Dana taking aerial photos using a kite, quite neat. In the fifth, enlarged shot you can see a last-minute sundog near the horizon.  
    We observed a very rare, bizzare phenomenon at the end of March. Only two previous winterovers (and there are veterans of many seasons here) have seen it before - and then on a single day last year. Perhaps a result of extremely cold, moist conditions near the snow surface, these strange cotton-balls of snow were made. I thought someone had split the lining on their jacket and was leaking stuffing! Thats how convincing this stuff is, but it is pure water threads. It floats and tumbles across the ice like fairy floss, and clumps like this in the snow drifts. Magical. The wind would kick them up and a few people (me included) were seen chasing one across the snow in a vain attempt to capture it... 


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