Today the plan was to take a helicopter, or Helo as it is referred to here, to the weather station "Linda." At Linda we would change out the pressure gauge and update the program in the data logger. The flight was scheduled for 2:30 pm (New Zealand time is the time zone observed by the station). Unfortunately we were canceled due to "flat light conditions". Flat light describes a condition in which the sun is filtered through cloud cover and the ground topology is no longer visible. The ground topology is important for the helo pilot to land safely on safe terrain.
So we went to Plan B, check out a truck and drive to a nearby station. We chose to go to Phoenix Air Station AWS (Automated Weather Station). Along the way Matthew ran through some of the driver training with me so that I can also be a driver here. We stopped and fueled up and were on our way. The drive heads back in the direction that we arrived in to town on our LC-130 flight. The LC-130 landed at Willie Field which is closer to McMurdo than Phoenix. The drive is very bumpy and takes about 40 minutes, not too bad. Along the way we passed the Willie Field AWS and the new tower were my prototype will be installed, once the coding is in beta form.
Once we arrived at the air field we had to walk out to the station from the ice road. The station appears to be right there. However, as you begin hiking towards the station it doesn't seem to get any closer. Distances are very deceiving in Antarctica due to the vast openness and large features in the distance. It was a long hike in the heavy "Bunny Boots", i will post a picture later of the boots. The bunny boots are the white boots issued with our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather Gear). The boots are heavy and make for tiring hikes.
Once at the station we had to diagnose why this station was working in December, after being serviced by the initial team to the ice this season, and then went dark a few weeks later. The system showed good voltage and was able to communicate with our laptop. The data logger is working, the transmitter to the satellite must be giving us problems. We will have to head back to the lab and check the data on the down-link side later. We packed it up, made the trek back to the truck and drove back to the station.
After dinner Matthew and I met up with the other half of our team that just arrived back from West Antarctica. Dave and Marion will be around for a week or two and we can divide and conquer the rest of the site. Dave and I will try to get to Linda again tomorrow. We are on the flight schedule for 9:10 am. Lets hope the cloud cover moves out and we have the ability to get to Linda tomorrow.
PS - Here is a photo i took across the McMurdo Sound and Ross Sea.
Great picture! Anne
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