Ob Tube and Solar Panels

These next few posts will be of old photos I would have liked to have posted earlier.


The Observation Tube or Ob Tube is a tube they insert into the sea ice just a short walk off the coast. It is something I hadn't heard of until this trip, but apparently they have done it at least once before in the last few years. It is only open early in the season as the tube itself actually hangs from the sea ice and would sink if the sea ice were to break up.

It was definitely one of my neatest experiences here, but probably also the least impressive in photos.
In this first photo you can see the tube you climb down. I barely fit into the tube and climbing up was definitely challenge. At the bottom there is a box you can sit on in a sort of hexagonal room with windows on each face so you get a 360 degree view. I did this in late November I think and the 24-hour sunlight had started to help a lot of sea organisms to flourish so the visibility in the water wasn't as legendary as it is early in the season but was still fairly impressive.

My camera started fogging up almost instantly. The water was about 29 degrees and the Ob Tube was probably pretty close to that. I was standing on the surface for a while and it was a bit cooler up there so the cold camera was ready to condense whatever moisture there was in the tube. There were multiple panes of glass which were a bit dirty which also showed up a lot more in photos than in real life.

These two photos show brinicles which are like stalactites on the underside of the sea ice. They are hollow tubes and form as the sea water freezes on the underside of the sea ice. During the freezing process salt is forced out of the water. This makes the surrounding water saltier and thus denser. Because it is saltier, the freezing temperature is lower so it doesn't freeze, and because it is denser it sinks. As it encounters less salty water below, it causes that water to freeze. The brinicle is actually a tube with the salty, cold water flowing down the middle and freezing the surrounding water at it's edges.

There's an interesting video of the process and effects on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAupJzH31tc

I found out that somebody had to poke holes in all of the cells of the honeycomb backing of our solar panels and was glad it wasn't me. There is some concern that the sealed cells will build up pressure as the balloon travels to float and could damage the solar cells. The maker of these panels actually buys solar panels for homes, removes the cells and then makes new lighter weight panels. Each panel has three frames, and we have eight total panels on the gondola. This first photo shows most of one panel.

Now for something completely different. I found this youtube video talking about some of the Weddell seal research that is being done here. At least one of the researchers in the video is still here and gave the talk that I saw on Weddell seal research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qlaBS7SQ4Q

Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas to those up north. My apologies for not keeping this up to date. The internet has been pretty slow when I've had time to go on it. Now that ANITA is flying, I should be able to upload some more photos and work on the blog.

Here are some photos of the ANITA III launch. We scrubbed a number of times due to weather. The balloon launch requires low wind up to about 2000 feet. They would also like the wind to be blowing in a consistent direction up to that level. The wind also needs to blow in a consistent direction so they can lay out the flight train. Here they want things to be below 5 knots. It's also tough to predict the weather as it can vary dramatically over short distances and there aren't many weather stations. We had one attempt that had blowing snow as we came over the transition onto the ice shelf, but dead calm at LDB which is only about 7 miles away over flat ice. However the winds up at about 500 feet were blowing pretty good so we couldn't launch that day.

We generally showed up about 7-8 hours before the actual time of the launch attempt to start all the checkouts.

I'll see if I can get a video of the launch that I can share for those of you who weren't able to see it.

Here is the balloon right after release from the spool. The balloon itself connects almost directly to the parachute which is the orange thing in the middle. The balloon inflates as it rises due to the decrease in pressure as you go up. They have a collar on the balloon itself to make a "bubble".

The wind had shifted direction well before launch, but after they laid everything out so they knew they were going to be doing a bit of driving. It is always impressive to see. There are times they have to back up because the winds are so light, and times that they almost run out of balloon pad because the winds are so strong.

In this photo you can see the crew chief pulling the cable to release the pin that lets ANITA off of the Boss.

Our solar panels deployed flawlessly. I'll also see if I can get the video of the test of that in Palestine.

It flew just about directly overhead from where I was watching. After the incident in Australia a few years ago where a payload crashed into the vehicle that an unaffiliated photographer had parked at the edge of the launch pad even though he had been asked to move it, there have been many changes regarding safety. One of the more frustrating ones is the requirement that we be inside a building if the flight train is laid out pointing within about +/- 60 degrees of the viewing area. There was one scrubbed attempt that we were required to be inside the building for. I was glad we didn't launch that, but I know some of my coworkers would have liked to have been able to leave sooner.

Lastly, a photo of the remaining ANITAns at our Christmas dinner. I believe most of the others that were down here made it back North on Christmas Eve thanks to the crossing of the dateline. Dinner was delicious as always.

First launch attempt is tomorrow

Sorry for not keeping this updated. At this point we will be making our first launch attempt tomorrow. It probably would not launch before 10am local time 12-11-14.

Launch viewing should be available here:

http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm

I'll try to get another post up soon, but it will probably be an early start for me tomorrow, so I don't know when I will get around to it.

Thanks.

11-15-14

 Just a reminder, I have more photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/114463775@N04/sets/72157646697801283/

The internet at my dorm is spotty which is a big part of the reason I haven't been updating the blog.



Here you can the gondola assembly over a few days.

We have since added on the bottom ring of antennas which is not in the photo, but I'll add one later.

I thought I spotted a seal pup on the way back from work one day so a few of us walked back after dinner to see if it was one, and sure enough there was a seal pup out on the ice.

In this photo you can see the seals on the ice on the left of the photo, they look like dark blobs. LDB where I work is a blur on the horizon in the middle of the photo. Scott Base, the New Zealand base, is partially visible on the right. One of their vehicles is coming up the road.

Here's LDB from that same spot.

This is a shot from LDB of Mount Erebus (the volcano on the left) and Mount Terror (on the right)

I also went on a hike around Ob Hill with some people because I heard that there was another seal pup over there. Here you can see that seal pup with its mother. I'm hoping the other seal in the photo is pregnant and will go back to see if there is another seal pup. More on seals, they are one of the few 1,000 pound predators that you can approach with their young without risking seriously injury. I didn't approach them, but it makes it a lot easier for the biologists. The next few photos are from that hike.

Here are some people walking down Ob Hill.

Here you can see ANITA hanging outside of our hangar. Again, the bottom ring of antennas has been added on, but I don't have a good photo of it yet.

I think I took this picture to show you what it looks like here on a cloudy day. This is looking out towards Mt Erebus from LDB.

I also went on a tour of the pressure ridges which are near Scott Base. The Kiwis have visitor parking and a parking meter.

Here is a photo of part of Scott Base with Ob Hill in the background. McMurdo is on the other side of that pass.

A number of Kiwis were out flying their kites.

Here are the seals from the pressure ridge tour. These are the same seals that are in the first set of photos. The next photos are also from the pressure ridges. The ridges form as the Ross Ice Shelf pushes the sea ice into Ross Island. The sea ice has no where to go so it forms these waves that eventually compress enough to cause the ice to buckle. All the sea ice melted last year, so the ice isn't as thick as multi-year ice. Thicker ice makes for taller features. The features are much more impressive in person than in the photos.

One of the ridges in the middle right of the photo looks like a dog.

Here you can see footprints left behind. In certain situations such as this one, the snow around the footprint gets blown away and the compressed snow of the footprint becomes elevated.

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Things have picked up at work, most of our cargo has showed up. However, we are sharing our hangar space for the time being to allow other groups to get things done while their hangar is being constructed.

Here is the part of the view from the Crary Lab library. The Crary Lab houses offices and lab facilities for much of the research on this side of the continent. If you look carefully below the sunlit hill in the middle of the photo on the horizon, you may notice some darkish spots. Those spots are the buildings at Pegasus Airfield, which is the ice runway that I landed at.

This is a telephoto shot of Pegasus Airfield.

 I went on a tour of Crary Lab because you need be on the tour to visit the touch tank. They are currently doing a number of experiments in the room with the touch tank and do not want people to interfere with the experiments. Here you can see some of the experiments. Most of the research being done in the lab is looking at the effects of ocean acidification on the organisms in the Southern Ocean.

Here you can see some more tanks.

This is a skull from a crabeater seal that was tracked since birth. I personally find the seal research the most interesting and so there are many interesting facts about seals. One of the facts that I like is that crabeater and Weddel seals keep their breathing holes in the ice open in the winter by gnawing on the ice. This results in a lot of wear to their teeth and therefore many adult seals die either from starvation due to worn down teeth or drowning as they can't keep their ice holes open. The main driving force behind this behavior is to keep them away from their main predators, orcas and leopard seals, as well as to allow them to forage in other areas. Leopard seals and orcas need to stay near the ice edge, but Weddell and crabeater seals can travel dozens of miles under the ice by finding tiny holes and cracks to breath out of.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Weddell seals that are around where I am at are pupping at this time of year. The mothers will nurse their pup for ~5 weeks, the pup will grow from about pounds to about 300 pounds in that time, and the mother will drop from about a 1,000 pounds to five or six hundred. She is fasting this entire time, partially due to the fact that she probably ate all the food in the area before giving birth. What is pretty amazing is the mass conversion ratio though. For every two pounds the mother loses, the pup gains a pound, which is incredibly efficient.

Most of the research in the area on the seals has to do with monitoring the population. They have tagged over 200,000 seals in the last 40 years including one 32 year old female that is currently the oldest known Weddell seal and who also happens to have had 22 pups. The research also looks at movements of seals year to year in the area as well as weight monitoring. They can measure the weight of the pups at a two days by putting pup in a bag and weighing it. The lack of land predators has helped make the mothers less protective but some still are. The researches use the pups to get the mothers onto scales to get their weights.

Here you can see the size comparison of a skua and an Adele penguin. The first skua made it to town earlier this week, but I haven't seen any yet. They made it south before the first winterovers made it north though. The first flight into South Pole was supposed to be on the 1st of November, but they didn't even attempt until yesterday and they couldn't land due to fog at the South Pole.

This a shot looking out across the sea ice onto some glacier.

This is the view from the LDB looking back towards Hut peninsula. You may recognize Ob Hill in the photo or maybe the wind turbines. McMurdo is on the other side of those hills.

We frequently take the KRESS to and from work. It is a huge vehicle, 98 feet long. The tractor cost 

$750,000, the trailer with the cabin for the people cost $1,000,000. They had to move telephone poles  and blast away part of the hillside in town so it could maneuver and it still can't make it to the main shuttle strop. There is another bus, Ivan that is only like 60 feet long and much more maneuverable and only takes 11 fewer people but the money the NSF had available to purchase another vehicle could only be used with an American company and Ivan is made by a foreign company. I believe many people feel that it would have made more sense to buy more Ivans or similar vehicles than once KRESS. They also have a cargo version which doesn't have the two passenger cabs. I think the preferred design would have been a four wheeled vehicle with a mid mounted engine for better weight distribution and traction as the KRESS has had some issues already getting good traction. The cab in the middle is called the DV, or distinguished visitor cab, by at least me. It is nice because the seats are arranged facing eachother so you can more easily have a conversation. It would probably also be ejected should the KRESS jackknife or roll down the hill.

Here is an action shot of the KRESS coming to pick us up, you may notice the Boss in the snow on the side.

Here is the interior, not the greates shot. The windows are two high up the side to see out of when you seated. and the heater doesn't currently work.

They had to install these feet guards as people would put their feet one what seemed like a good footrest, but the seats are on springs so it made for a very nasty pinch point.

 I was able to ride in the cab on one trip back from work. The next few photos are from inside the cab.

I took this photo because a C-17 was flying out, you can see it in the upper left middle of the photo. (I don't know if that makes any sense). Apparently they will be trying to fly C-17's into McMurdo throughout the winter. There is a U.S. airbase in Australia that rotates a C-17 back to Washington state every six weeks. The Air Force agreed that the NSF would only need to pay to fly it to and from Antarctica. This would allow the NSF to resupply McMurdo year round and change personnel. It makes the cargo situation easier as the deadlines can almost go away. The NSF also hopes to make major renovations to McMurdo in the next few years as they could fly in carpenters, then electricians and plumbers, and then finish trades rather than having them all at McMurdo all winter waiting on eachother. They tried doing a night vision landing this past winter and were successful.

 Here is a photo from inside our hangar from a few days ago.

The weather was real calm at LDB yesterday. On calm days you often get neat mirages which you may be able to see along the horizon here.

This device is a sun rotator. It is used to rotate payload as they are hanging. Some payloads want certain sides to face the sun or be pointed away from it, others, such as the payload used to test the Mars' parachutes want to be pointed a certain direction. The red caps cover sun sensors which are used to detection the location of the sun in relation to the rotator and can the be used point the gondola. We will not be using one, but another group will and CSBF needed a hook in a climate controlled environment to test it for flight so they used ours as we can get by without it for the time being.

These metal plates weigh in at 4,000 pounds and represent the gondola.

Here you can see a light representing the sun shining on the rotator.

 This is the payload building called a weatherport that they are currently assembling for the third payload. It should be done next week. It will be heated, but can get quite noisy in the wind.