Danger! May contain educational material

What would posses a Met observer to get out of bed at 5 am on a Saturday morning?  That’s a loaded question I know, but on this particular occasion it was due to a rather large balloon flying at 17 km above our heads!  No, we weren’t trying to shoot down Richard Branson; instead this balloon’s payload consisted of a vast array of scientific equipment that is part of an international cooperative effort to study the atmosphere above Antarctica.  These huge balloons were released from McMurdo Station earlier in the month and will spend up to the next 100 days circling the Antarctic continent transmitting from the stratosphere real-time data of winds, temperature, pressure, humidity, and particles and of particular concern to us, ozone.  As the balloon approached Davis the plan was for us to synchronise the fly over with the release of one of our own weekly ozone balloons (hence the early start).

The release of the long-duration stratospheric super-pressure balloon from McMurdo Station early in the month (Photo: McMurdo post).

So what is ozone, why is it so important and why are we still interested in it, wasn’t that so last century?  Well ozone is a special form of oxygen (with the chemical formula of O₃) that constitutes a very small part of our atmosphere, but its presence nonetheless is vital to human wellbeing.  Most ozone resides high up in the atmosphere, between 10 and 40 km above Earth's surface in a region called the stratosphere.  It is here that ozone does us a huge favour by absorbing some of the sun’s biologically harmful ultraviolet radiation.  In 1985 scientists from the British Antarctic Survey discovered that since the mid 1970s ozone values over the Antarctic had been steadily dropping when the sun reappeared each spring.  Something in the stratosphere was destroying ozone.

Satellite data of the ozone hole over Antarctica as of 20 September 2010.  Blue and purple depict areas of depleted ozone.  Latest ozone values from the stratosphere above Davis are 191 Dobson units (Image: NASA)

As we all know, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were released into the atmosphere by industrial activity were the culprit.  It was this discovery and its potential consequences to human health that prompted governments around the world to sign the Montreal Protocol, which ensured the swift phasing out of both the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODSs).  The problem however, is that although the Protocol has been successful, ozone depletion will continue for many more decades because several key ODSs last a long time in the atmosphere after emissions end.

Enter climate change.  In the Antarctic, a projected increase in temperatures in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) will paradoxically result in decreased temperatures higher up in the stratosphere.  These lower temperatures would only exacerbate ozone destruction by increasing the frequency and extent of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs).  These beautiful clouds only form at temperatures below -80°C and contain the chemical compound that is responsible for the catalytic destruction of ozone in the presence of sunlight.  Collaborative work between the Ice, Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate (IOAC) program of the AAD, the Bureau of Meteorology and other international organisations aim to further understand these complex interactions in a changing climate.

An image depicting the “Mother of Pearl” appearance that these high polar stratospheric clouds can exhibit.  As beautiful as they are, their chemistry helps to break down the ozone layer every spring (Photo: McMurdo post)

After the very ordinary weather we’d experience last week it made a nice change to get outside once more.  The fine conditions this week allowed both myself, Ben and Kim to head out on the sea ice and continue the fortnightly seawater sampling.

Kim and Ben drilling through the 1.5 metres of sea ice so that the seawater beneath could be sampled

Whilst we were out water sampling we were paid a visit by a very inquisitive Emperor penguin.  Whata you lookin at?  (Photo:  Ben O'Leary)

(Photo:  Ben O'Leary)

Fitness month

Well we all had a bit of fun in July when the station entered the 2010 Antarctic International Winter 48 Hour Film Festival (quite a mouth-full that).  For those of you who have never heard of it, you're not alone.  It's not exactly a Sundance or a Tropfest, but it's the biggest film festival held in Antarctica!  The festival is in its third year now and is organised out of the American base McMurdo (or is it McMordor)?  The Americans had actually been holding the festival for a number of years before that, but it had always been in-house.  This year the festival is showing signs of increasing popularity with a total of 41 films from 21 Antarctic and subantarctic stations representing 11 nations.

So as with most film festivals the Antarctic festival has a theme.  The film has to be created and produced in a 48 hour period (usually a weekend) and must include five elements that aren't announced until the eve of filming.  This year the five elements were:

1)  A bottle of mouthwash
2)  The sound of a siren
3)  A mop
4)  A grumpy dieso (diesel mechanic)
5)  And the dialogue "Have you seen my chicken?"

I feel that it's particularly important to labour this point, if you watched this film out of context you may think we'd gone completely mad.  Who knows, you might think that anyway!

The voting is open to all expeditioners wintering in the Antarctic or subantarctic, with a total of five categories to vote on, best film, acting, cinematography, screenplay and use of elements.  The elements are chosen by the winners from the previous year's festival.  So it looks like it will be Davis' turn to pick them next time.  After many hours of work by all involved we were able to come out as winners in two categories, best cinematography and best film.  There was also an open category that Davis scored an honourable third place in (go Zupy)!  If you're interested, all of the films can be viewed at this link:

http://cid-143586e833b2f7ce.office.live.com/browse.aspx/2010%20Winter%20Film%20Festival

Or you can just check Davis' entry below.

The traverse

It seems as though every blog entry I've made so far has started off with me making excuses/apologising for the passage of time since my last update!  So, seeing as though 2 months has passed since my last entry, I'll spare you all the blubbering and just get straight into it.  My last blog finished off with our Mid-Winters celebrations and with us preparing to head out on our traverse attempt to Amanda Bay.  So what happened?  Well what didn't happen!

The main purpose of the traverse attempt was to visit the remote Emperor penguin colony of Amanda Bay in the Larsemann Hills which lie some 100 km to the southwest of Davis.  However due to the uncertainty of safe sea ice travel in the more direct and shorter path to the Larsemanns, the traverse route was to head inland.  This particular path was to almost triple our traveling distance and meant that we had to drive some 60 km "inland" over the Antarctic plateau before we could even head towards our intended destination.  This was done in order to avoid the heavy crevassing that occurs on the plateau as it slopes steeply towards the coast.  Here's a map of the route we took.

As you can see we didn't quite make it to our destination, but oh so close.  Along the traverse route over 3 days of travelling we experienced the most extreme conditions that I have, and probably ever will experience.  Who thought travelling to elevations of ~1,500 metres on the Antarctic plateau in the middle of winter was a good idea?  Temperatures hovered between minus 40 and minus 50 degrees Celsius with a blizzard thrown into the mix, just to keep things interesting.  This made life fairly uncomfortable as life inside the sanctuary of our "heated" Hagglunds vehicles never rose above freezing.  The extreme conditions proved all too much for the majority of our equipment.  Engines wouldn't start, doors wouldn't close properly, tents couldn't be packed away properly because the material had frozen, fuel stoves leaked because of frozen "o" rings (causing a fire whilst I was boiling water for everyone), batteries failed and water not kept in thermoses would freeze within minutes.  After overcoming all of these little setbacks it was a broken spring at L126 on the track of the Blue Hagg that put an end to our traverse.

The polar pyramids were erected at this point and camp was made for two nights while some ingenious repairs were made to the crippled Hagg.  Go team dieso!  If I thought sleeping in a tent at minus 45C was bad, I couldn't imagine what those guys went through for over 12 hours whilst they carried out repairs in those hideous conditions.  Thanks to their efforts we were able to break camp and after three days of constant driving, make our way safely back to Davis.

The relief of seeing the lights of Davis off in the distance was a moment we'll never forget, our little home on the edge of the ice never looked so good.  We were all disappointed that we didn't make our destination, but everyone I've spoken to thoroughly enjoyed (in retrospect) the experience.  The way we were able to work together and bond as a group was something that caught me by surprise too.  It will certainly be an experience that I'll never forget.