Hello All!
1. Fog!!!
Sorry for delays in getting an e-mail to you all..been very busy here, as we've had our first fog event since I got here. I spent the afternoon chasing after it up the extinct volcanic cone hill that is next to the station, Observatory Hill. It is a nice spot for a view of the station. It also sticks up into the fogs that blow from the South and East over the Hill into the area. This event was very short lived...only 3 hours. I have some samples, but don't know if I got anything in them yet. They are in the freezer awaiting me to hunt through them. I had to hike the hill twice (the hill is about 700 feet up), as I fell once (there is snow up there still after our summer snow storm!), to go get my pager that I lost. Ugh. Been a long day today.
Picture
courtesy of Raytheon Polar Services
Company's Antarctic Photo Library
2. Antarctic Vocabulary...
I've been meaning
to give a little time to the Antarctic Vocabulary that we all speak around
here. Words like "freshies" and "bag drag" have a
clearly different meaning here than you might think. So, here is a
sort list..some of this are from my prior e-mails from years ago, and
a few I may have failed to mention in years pages. If you like this, you
can buy a book on this! (Gee, I'd love a copy myself I think!)
Daisy Picking - Picking up trash around McMurdo
the Crud - The cold/flu that can go around in this small community
Beaker - A scientist
PAX - Passengers (in refering to those on a plane flight for example)
The ice - A reference to Antarctica
Hollywood Shower - The nice long showers you get to have back home, here in the field or at South Pole (and at one time McMurdo, you could only take a shower every other day for 2 minutes)
Freshies - Fresh Fruits and Vegatables, recently flown in for us to eat!
Bag Drag - Going to check in for your flight either home or in the field usually the night before, and since you have to go up hill to the MCC or movement control center, you literally drag your bags to MCC.
Herbie - A violent storm
Weather Guesser - A weather forecaster/meteorologist
Boomerang - When you have to turn around on a flight to someplace, especially with regards to coming down to McMurdo from Christchurch, NZ
Bumped - When you get pushed off or not allowed on a flight, often due to wieght (not over booking like you get in the US!)
CHCH (Cheech) - A reference to Christchurch, New Zealand
Kiwi - A reference to a New Zealander
DV - A Distinguished Visitor (congressmen, generals, etc.)
Medevac - Medical evacuation (having to have to fly somebody out due to a medical condition)
PQ'd - Personall Qualified (to come to Antarctica with the USAP)
PSR - Point of Safe Return - Each flight down from New Zealand or to anywhere has a point of safe return back to where it started, in case the weather gets back at McMurdo, etc.
Happy Camper School - Where you go camping out in the snow and learn to survive in Antarctica.
Mac Town /The Rock - A reference to McMurdo Station
Bunny boots - The huge but warm rubber military spec. issued boots we get with our ECW gear
ECW gear - Extreme Cold Weather clothing
Picture courtesy of Raytheon Polar Services
Company's Antarctic Photo Library
3. McMurdo International Airport...
It has been very busy
at McMurdo's skiways/airfields. (There are three - with only two operational
at anytime - Williams Field, Pegasus and the Ice Runway). Flights have
started up since the storm, we are go out first C-141 in town in over
a week (with about 80 PAX coming south and another 80 going north!). Plus
there have been flights to places all around Antarctica - South Pole (there
are lots of those, getting
cargo there for the winter and science folks there, like my co-workers
who are there to fix weather stataions near Pole), Onset Delta (an Ice
Stream in West Antarctica), Siple Dome (also in West Antarctica), and
Byrd Surface Camp (another place in West Antarctica). There is also lots
of "international" flights too - a colleague of mine just flew
in on his way back to the US from Dome C or Dome Concordia, where the
Italians and French have started a joint year round inland station in
East Antarctica. This week the US will fly some Russian science folks
to Vostok Station, the Russian inland station in East Antarctica (also
the station that holds the world's coldest temperature -129 F which occurred
in 1983.
A busy place indeed.
4. Sights and Sounds of McMurdo...
Ah, in all my hikes about town, there are so many different sights and sounds around McMurdo. In future e-mails, I'll try to capture a few for you...and get a photo on the web too if I can.
Today, the melting
snow running off the volcanic rock around here has given us mud season....nice
that it keeps the dust down, but its alot like mud season in March! (An
interesting fact...since there is no dirty here, just ground up volcanic
rock, it really does not stick to your boots or shoes like mud from Wisconsin
or your backyard sure can....)
Picture
courtesy of Raytheon Polar Services
Company's Antarctic Photo Library
5. Talking to the Space Station Live!
Today, we had the luxury of having the chance to talk to the Space Station! One of the folks here who is working on the meteorite hunting team is an astronaut herself. She was then able to hook up with the team on the Space Station, and we all got to visit with them. Neat that we have the communications ability here to do that.
Its been a long day...more soon!
Cheers,
Matthew