Notes from the Field

Radar days on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

January 23rd, 2012 by Maria-Jose Viñas

By Clement Miege

Hi there! After more than three weeks spent in the field, our team is very happy to be finally back, with many memories of the traverse. This year has been a very intense experience and I would like to tell you a little more about this expedition. I will focus on the days we were doing radar surveys. Indeed, two different studies were set up during this field work. The first one was during the traverse days, where we did a radar survey from one camp to another with a range of 50-90 kilometers (31-56 miles) between the camps. On the other days the surveys were smaller, set up around each camp; they consisted of a 10-km bowtie and a 280- by 280-meter (918- by 918-ft) grid to get a better idea of the spatial variability of snow layer depth surrounding each core site. These grid surveys will show us how representative the ice core is compared to the surrounding area and help answer the question of whether we would have gotten a different result if we had drilled our ice core a few paces this way or a few paces that way. We were also looking more in detail at the layering in a 2-meter (6.56-ft) snow pit; to do that, we were using a metal plate at different depths of the snow pit.

Here is a picture showing the two radars that operated simultaneously on the sled:

Both radars looked at the first 20 meters of the snow pack, sending electromagnetic waves into the snow. The snow radar (the big green horns in the picture) operates in a frequency range of 2-8 GHz. The other radar (the smaller brown horns) is the ku-band radar, sweeping between 12 to 18 GHz. The lower the frequency, the deeper the radars look. We have both radars for some redundancy in the system, imaging the snow/firn closest to the surface, which we core twice, and then the snow radar peers deeper than the cores to provide literally a deeper look. In addition to the 2 radars, we needed to know the elevation we were at, which is important for comparison with airborne data and also for modeling precipitation and temperatures. For that, we simultaneously collected GPS coordinates, which gave us our exact latitude, longitude and elevation every 5 seconds. The GPS antenna was on the very top of the sled, about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high.

On this sled, beside the radars sitting in the red box, we had packed: a blue bag, two black duffel bags and an orange bag. The blue bag was a survival bag, with all the gear needed in case we would have been caught in a storm; it included a tent, a stove, a shovel, and some food. The two black bags contained Ludo’s and my sleep kits, and the orange bag had some extra food, in case we were stuck for couple days. For the snow mobile, we had a repair kit under the seat to troubleshoot a possible failure. We were carrying two extra cans of gas as well. With this set-up, we were able to get a pretty light sled that was still comfortable and had all the gear we’d need in case of a storm or other circumstance separated us from the rest of the team, who were carrying all the camp gear. Fortunately, this never happened!

But now, let’s go back to the survey. The travelling days were the ones where the team was the most vulnerable: while we were traveling we had no shelters or camp set up to get back to if anything went wrong because we had to break down the entire camp in the morning, pack all gear on the sleds and ride with the snowmobiles pulling the sleds to the next camp. After driving between 50-90 km (31-56 mi), we would build our new camp, usually that same day in the afternoon. We had a total of seven travel days, covering a distance of about 500 km (310 mi).

During travel days, the radar team left camp first, mostly because we had to drive at low speed to ensure the radar’s safety. Indeed, on the days we ran into large sastrugi (small ridges of hard snow), we drove at less than 10 km/h (6.2 mph). These sastrugi made our travel a little bit more difficult. Toward the end of the day, the team responsible for breaking down camp would leave the radar team and go 20 km (12 mi) ahead, to start setting up the new camp.

The days we were at camp, we did some small radar surveys: a bowtie and a grid around the core site. To help us drive the snowmobile straight for the grids, we set up flags to visualize the corners and sides. In the deep field, everything is white and flat, so it is hard to maintain a nice bearing just by following the GPS for such a small grid.

The last side survey with the radar was done in the snow pit. After analyzing the snow pit and picking up snow samples for further laboratory analysis, we used the pit to calibrate the radars and look at a detailed snow layering for the top 2 meters.

To conclude, I want to say that this traverse was definitely an amazing experience and I was happy to share such a good time with the team. I am already excited to start looking at the radar data in detail to see what we can learn of the past few decades of snow accumulation in this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

GCPEx: GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment

January 20th, 2012 by Kevin Ward

GCPEx Logo

The GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) will be conducted in cooperation with Environment Canada in Ontario, Canada from January 17th to February 29th, 2012. The overarching goal of GCPEx is to characterize the ability of multi-frequency active and passive microwave sensors to detect and estimate falling snow through the collection of microphysical property data, associated remote sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of falling snow. Through collection of these unique datasets, GCPEx will seek to improve the GPM snowfall retrieval algorithms.

The GCPEx experiment will use instrumented aircraft (NASA DC-8, NASA-funded University of North Dakota Cessna Citation, and Canadian National Research Council Convair 580) for flights over heavily-instrumented ground sites located in and around the Environment Centre for Atmospheric Research Experiments (CARE) located in Egbert, Ontario. The DC-8 aircraft will fly high above clouds and precipitation with instruments similar to those on the GPM Core satellite. The Citation and C580 aircraft will fly through snowing clouds to measure snowflake properties in situ. Ground-based equipment such as radars and surface particle and snow water equivalent measurement instrumentation will connect airborne measurements of snowfall to what is measured at the ground. Data from the experiment will be used to develop and validate snow and frozen precipitation retrieval algorithms used in the generation of data products for GPM, CloudSat and future polar precipitation missions planned by the European Union.

For more information about GCPEx:

GCPEx Overview

GCPEx Campaign Blog

Ground Validation Image Gallery (recent images from GCPEx)

You can also follow this campaign and other NASA precipitation measurement missions on Facebook

Synopsis of the Traverse

January 19th, 2012 by Maria-Jose Viñas

By Michelle Koutnik

Now for a recap of our adventure! We arrived in Christchurch on November 19 and returned there on January 5. We spent 17 days in McMurdo before leaving to Byrd camp on December 7. It took only a few days to prepare for the traverse and we left Byrd camp on December 10.

The traverse lasted 18 days, with the longest time spent at camps 4 and 5 due to the storm delays. Otherwise, we moved fast! We spent an extra day at camp 3 to drill a second ice core, but by the end of the trip we were such fast drillers that we were able to drill two cores in one day at camp 6. We drilled ice cores at nine different sites (including Byrd Station), dug and sampled 6 snow pits, and collected more than 500 km (310 mi) of radar data.

Back at Byrd, we broke down our gear and with the help of the Byrd cargo handler we had it all packed on palettes in one day. Ludo and Jessica went by Twin Otter to pick up the ice cores on the day after we returned to Byrd so that soon after the traverse ended we were finished with almost all our work! In 18 days we finished all of our science, but to achieve these goals it took near seven weeks of travel and preparation – it is not easy to do work in Antarctica!

After the traverse was finished, we could not get a flight out of Byrd Camp back to McMurdo station for a few days so we enjoyed our time with the Byrd Camp crew and rang in the new year with a gorgeous dinner and dancing with the whole camp. Then we had a fast two-day turnaround from McMurdo to Christchurch. We all worked to clean and return all the gear we used in the field and ship all of the science equipment back to the U.S. It was very satisfying to complete all of our goals and finish on time despite weather and flight delays during the season. Great work, team!!

Chers lecteurs francophones

December 8th, 2011 by Maria-Jose Viñas

By Ludovic Brucker

Chers lecteurs francophones (que nous savons nombreux tels que familles, amis, et élèves de Goddard French Immersion Schéol), voici un petit récit résumant notre situation actuelle à Mc Murdo (77 o 51’ S, 16640’ E). Lors des prochains messages, nous essayerons d’avoir un court résumé du texte en français. N’hésitez pas à nous poser vos questions!

Tout d’abord, relatons l’objectif scientifique motivant cette campagne de terrain où nous ferons une traverse légère (déplacement en motoneiges et “nuitées” sous tentes) de 500 km durant le mois de décembre sur la partie ouest de la calotte Antarctique.

Nous cherchons à estimer l’accumulation de neige sur la calotte Antarctique, soit combien de centimètres de neige précipitent chaque année et s’accumulent avec le temps jusqu’à se métamorphoser en glace. L’Antarctique étant un immense continent d’une superficie d’environ 14 millions de km2 il est impossible d’obtenir cette information à partir de mesures locales obtenues depuis quelques stations. Par conséquent, notre objectif est d’utiliser des mesures satellites afin de retrouver cette information sur l’accumulation de neige à l’échelle continentale. Pour cela il nous faut tout d’abord obtenir des mesures in-situ pour développer des algorithmes servant à convertir la mesure satellite (celle d’un rayonnement électromagnétique, généralement dans le domaine des micro-ondes) en une grandeur physique (telle que accumulation de neige, température, densité, taille de grains de neige, ou encore présence d’eau liquide dans le manteau neigeux, etc.). Avec plus de 30 ans de mesures continuellement collectées par des radiomètres en orbite autour de la Terre, ces grandeurs servent au suivie climatique de la cryosphère en régions polaires.

Durant la traverse, cinq personnes seront présentes avec des rôles clés, définis:

– Michelle, au vue de son expérience lors de déploiements en régions polaires, est en charge du groupe. Après une prise en compte des idées/préoccupations de chacun, elle aura le dernier mot sur les choix stratégiques nous permettant d’évoluer en sécurité. Par exemple, il lui revient la décision de démonter le camp au petit matin afin de continuer la traverse, ou, au contraire, de rester une journée supplémentaire si le vent ou la visibilité ne permettent pas d’atteindre notre prochain point de ravitaillement en carburant (qui sera déposé dans quelques jours par avion). Michelle est également le contact radio avec le camp d’été à Byrd et la station McMurdo.

– Jessica et Randy s’occupent du forage de carottes de neige jusqu’à 15-20 mètres de profondeur, ainsi qu’aux premières analyses. Ils vont extraire des carottes d’environ 1 m de long et 5 cm de diamètre, puis les mesurer, peser et les mettre dans des tubes afin de les protéger. Ensuite, ces tubes seront transportés par avion jusqu’aux Etats-Unis.

– Clément travaille avec deux radars (bande C et Ku) que nous transportons sur un traineau spécial tracté par motoneige. Les jours de déplacement, Clément et Ludovic alterneront leur présence sur ce traineau et sur la motoneige. Comme vous vous en doutez, rester assis 8 à 10 heures à contrôler le bon enregistrement des mesures radars donne rapidement froid dans le dos ! Nous changerons donc de position très régulièrement. Durant les jours au camp, Clem passera l’essentiel de son temps aux révisions des instruments.

– Ludo, en plus de partager son temps avec Clem et les radars, réalisera des mesures des propriétés physiques de la neige dans des puits de 2 m de profondeur. En plus des mesures classiques de températures, densités, conductivité thermique, etc, nous prendrons également des photographies infrarouges permettant d’enregistrer  la stratigraphie du manteau neigeux, et d’estimer la variation verticale de la taille des grains de neige.

Notre équipe présente cette année en Antarctique est composée pour le moment de 6 personnes, les 5 déjà présentés plus Lora! Lora est une experte de la NASA dont la thématique principale est l’analyse de mesures par télédétection active et passive des manteaux neigeux en Antarctique et au Groenland. Elle a déjà réalisé 7 déploiements sur calottes polaires, dont 3 en Antarctique, elle a aussi passé 4 mois consécutifs à Summit durant un hivernage au Groenland. Sa maîtrise des préparations d’expédition est un atout incroyable tout comme sa connaissance de la station McMurdo. Lora va venir avec nous jusqu’à Byrd afin de s’assurer que tout soit parfaitement en place, puis elle rentrera dans le Maryland pour célébrer la Noel avec sa famille.

Les présentations étant maintenant faites, résumons les différentes étapes excitantes de ces derniers jours! Nous avons quitté les Etats-Unis le 17 novembre en direction de Christchurch (Nouvelle-Zélande) avec un passage par Los Angeles (Californie) puis Auckland (Nouvelle-Zélande). Après avoir perdu une journée en passant la longitude de changement de date, l’arrivée en Nouvelle-Zélande s’est très bien déroulée pour toute l’équipe.

Dimanche 20  a été consacré à récupérer nos habits polaires (voir les photos associées aux autres textes en anglais). Nous avons notamment reçu “Big Red”, cette fameuse parka rouge de la National Science Fondation (NSF) et du programme antarctique américain (USAP).

Lundi 21 fut le jour du départ pour l’Antarctique. Après un vol de 5h, le C-17 de l’US Air Force a atterri sur la glace de mer au large de la station McMurdo. Un moment magique!

Nos premiers pas nous ont menés vers de particuliers engins, Delta et Terra bus, dédiés au transport en commun afin de relier la piste d’atterrissage à la Station de Mc Murdo.

Les engins de transport à McMurdo sont soit équipés de chenilles, ou possèdent des roues d’une largeur exceptionnelle et d’une hauteur aussi grande que Clem!

Mardi 22 et Mercredi 23, Jessica, Randy et Ludo ont suivi une formation de sécurité pour les déploiements en extérieur. Cette formation, bien mieux connue sous le nom de “Campeurs Joyeux!”, inclue une nuitée ensoleillée dehors, à proximité du Mont Erebus sur la plate-forme glaciaire de Ross. Pour varier les plaisirs, Jessica a passé la nuit dans une tente standard en forme de dôme, Randy dans une tente Scott en forme pyramidale afin de résister aux vents antarctiques. Sur recommandation de Clément, Ludo a quant à lui creusé une tranchée pour y passer une excellente nuit ensoleillée avec un panorama fantastique.

Durant ce temps, l’autre partie du groupe a commencé la chasse aux caisses d’équipement envoyées depuis le Kansas en septembre dernier. Malheureusement, nos radars n’ont pas été trouvés… Apres quelques heures de recherches ils ont été localisés sur un bateau à Christchurch.

Durant la journée du Jeudi 24, nous avons tous apporté notre grain de sel aux préparations. Il s’agissait de préparer les caisses de nourriture pour les prochaines semaines, soit 350 kg d’aliments.

La dernière journée de cette première semaine était dédié à finir les préparations de toutes les caisses en partance pour Byrd. Malheureusement les radars n’étaient toujours pas arrivés à McMurdo due aux conditions météorologiques empêchant les C-17 de voler. Plus précisément, les avions auraient pu atterrirent sans difficultés mais durant la phase de descente ils avaient à traverser une couche humide qui auraient généré de la glace sur la carlingue de l’avion une fois posé. L’aileron de queue étant très haut sur ces avions et l’usage des produits dégivrant limité, aucun avion en provenance de Christchurch s’est posé depuis notre arrivé.

Dans l’espoir de recevoir très prochainement les radars, nous allons poursuivre notre découverte de Mc Murdo et de la base néo-zélandaise Scott durant le week-end de Thanksgiving.

 

Happy Camper School

December 2nd, 2011 by Maria-Jose Viñas

By Ludovic Brucker

Jessica, Randy, and I were scheduled to attend a 2-day Field Safety Training Program (a.k.a. Happy Camper survival school the nickname makes it sound much more fun than its official title!) on Tuesday and Wednesday, 23-24 November. The training includes spending a night outdoors. I heard about the program months ago and I was definitively looking forward to this enjoyable and educational experience. The invitation read: “Be sure to show up the morning of your course dressed for the field in your Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) clothing.  […] Trust us!  We want you to be comfortable and safe for the Antarctic environment.” Sweet!

On Monday evening (Nov. 22), I had carefully prepared my ECW++ pack (the ++ stands for water and food). My ECW gear consisted of: socks, bottom and top thermal base- and mid-layers, a fleece jacket, a thick bib, Big Red, boots, and all the basics (such as hat, gloves and glove liners, mittens, face protection, etc). Additionally, we took the sleep kits and tents that we will be using during our traverse. These last two are very similar to the ones you most probably use when camping, but the sleeping bag is much thicker and we also use pads, a fleece liner, warm fleece pants, and a pee-bottle. Our bag also contained other basic and mandatory items, such as sunglasses, goggles, sunscreen, lipstick, and water bottles, among other things.

The first morning of the training was dedicated to listening to lectures about the harsh Antarctic environment and its rapidly changing weather conditions, with focused courses on topics such as how to deal with hypothermia, etc. We then headed out to the field a few miles away from McMurdo station, in the vicinity of Mt. Erebus. It was gorgeous! We were a total of 20 people, all freshly arrived from New Zealand the day before.

The outdoor session was much cooler (pardon the easy pun) than the lectures and it provided us with information on setting up camps, such as mounting a mountain tent and a Scott pyramid tent. The latter is particularly well suited to Antarctic conditions and it’s inspired in the tent Robert Scott designed for his 1910-13 South Pole expedition. It resists high wind speeds very well; we will have one in our traverse. Obviously, the tent resistance to wind is all about the quality of its snow anchors.

Instead of spending the night in a tent, I opted for the alternative, which was digging up a trench and sleeping in it. “Why not,” I thought. “I’d rather experience my first night in an Antarctic trench when the weather is pleasant and I have resources close by than when I have no alternative to using a trench.”

My trench had a narrow opening and got wider a few feet deeper. The ceiling was made of snow bricks covered by lighter snow to close joints and holes. I used my bag as an horizontal ceiling door, right above my head. An easier option would have been using a sled for the ceiling, as others did.

My night was perfect: cozy and unbelievably quiet! I didn’t even notice that the wind had started to blow strongly during the night. I woke up around 4 AM feeling a bit chilly; I ate a chocolate bar, drank some water, and went back to sleep. It was interesting to wake up in the middle of the night and be able to see like if it was day time. At this time of the year in Antarctica, all nights are bright, with only one star in the sky. It felt weird to be sleeping in a snow trench only three weeks after having slept in a hammock hung between palm trees in Big Island, Hawaii. Thanks Lora and Thorsten for these two experiences!

Happy Camper also taught us how to use a High Frequency radio. It is significantly different to use from the common very high frequency radio. After deploying the two 10-meter antennas, we made calls to South Pole station (1360 km, or 850 miles, south of us.)

In summary, these first two days outdoors were successful. However, we expect tougher conditions once we’re out in the field, in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.