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
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