Another Final Visit to Scott Base, Penguins, and a Final Party and Hike

My son's first acrylic painting. Nice!

I'm outta here soon - returning to New Zealand

My friend Rich.

HAL 9000 in the pub.

New Zealand's National Rugby Team. They are the current Rugby World Cup Champions and since 1903 have won over 75% of their matches.

The Kiwi bar is called "The Tatty Flag".

A long way from everywhere.

A time capsule to be opened in 2057.

Full moon over Scott Base.

The New Zealand flag.

The dining room/kitchen with the pub to the left.

On Saturday the 22nd we had the RIYCA end of the season party. The picture is of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of 1914. Their ship, the Endurance, was stuck in the closing sea ice and eventually was crushed and sank. Shackleton and his crew dragged small boats to open water and eventually made it to South Georgia Island where they found a whaling station. This was one of the greatest survival stories in history.

This depicts Shackleton and his crew dragging a boat across the sea ice to open water.

Penguins are naturally curious creatures who have no fear of humans. Photo credit: unknown.

With all the activity out on the sea ice lately they have come to check it out.

I have heard people tell stories of how they have to sometimes chase penguins off the runway when a plane is approaching. It appears this group chose a leader to inquire about all the stuff out there.

Lifting and moving a Military-Owned Demountable Container (MILVAN). McMurdo is full of these milvans most of them for storage. They come in many configurations including livable quarters.

Cool stamps in my passport.

The Goat Path up to the Carp (carpenter's) Shop the location for the final winter party.

Nicely cut steps.

Looking down from the Carp Shop.

The Carp Shop.

My friend Gracie fashioned another nice outfit from a discarded tent. We have taken a picture together at every party so this is our final one.

A heavy CAT for hauling on the ice.

A final Sunday hike. The first flight of main-body (summer crew) is due to arrive today. 30 winterovers are leaving. I am leaving this Friday! Three days and a wakeup!!

A Visit to the Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) Facilty

Aurora over Scott Base by Jody

Mt. Erebus by Cynthia

A friend of mine is a University of Colorado intern working at gathering ozone layer measurements. I was invited to observe the nightly (weather permitting) data gathering.

McMurdo LIDAR in operation.

The Dobson Spectrophotometer is used to measure the ozone layer.

This leads to a roof opening.

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is an ozone measurement technique that relies on absorption of laser light by ozone.

There are two lasers generated and directed upwards of 30 miles.

These filters and mirrors direct the laser beam.

These two telescopes are used to collect ultraviolet light that is scattered by two laser beams - one of which is absorbed by ozone and the other is not. By comparing the intensity of light scattered from each laser, a profile of ozone concentration vs. altitude is measured up to 30 miles.

The laser is generated here.

More filters and mirrors to direct the beam.

The front of the telescopes.

The laser beams are directed up through the two tubes through the roof.

The following three videos show laser generation.

McMurdo Post Office

America's first post office in Antarctica was established in 1933, when Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his crew arrived at Little America base camp, located on the Ross Ice Shelf. This expedition was Byrd's second of five to the Antarctic and the only one to have a post office.
When McMurdo was established in 1955, a post office was included and operated by the U.S. military. In 1995, the NSF Antarctic program contractor took over operations of the post office; however, it remains an Army and Air Force Post Office (APO) designation. 
The post office is located in the Movement Control Center (MCC), Bldg. 140. A Postmaster and Postal Clerk are responsible for the movement, sorting, and distribution of mail at McMurdo Station. At the post office, you can buy stamps, envelopes, and money orders, send mail, and pick up insured, or certified mail.

McMurdo Communications and Other Stuff

McMurdo internet has slowed to a crawl with the addition of 250 people during winfly (September winter fly in period). The station has a 60 mega bits per second (mbps) pipe that is transferred to the Black Island Telecommunications Facility via microwave. Black Island is 25 miles southwest across McMurdo Sound and was named that by the Discovery crew because snow does not accumulate there. Black Island sits directly west of White Island which has snow. They both sit in the shadow of Mt. Discovery. The microwaved link is then transferred to a ground dish antenna and uplinked to a near stationary Australian Optus satellite. The satellite sends the data to a ground tracking and processing center in Belrose, Australia. From there the data continues by an undersea AT&T cable to California. From California the data is sent to New York where 40mbps of the data pipe is sent to Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The remaining 20mbps is sent to Antarctic Support Contract in Denver where it is prioritized.

What starts off as 60mbps splits to 40 for NASA/JPSS and 20 for the rest of the station. This also includes three Armed Forces Network television channels. In comparison Brighthouse Cable network sells a home standard package of 10mbps, and upgraded turbo package at 20mbps, and top lightening package of 40mbps. So you can see that a typical house with the turbo package has the same bandwidth as the entire McMurdo Station minus the NASA portion. Sites such as YouTube have one of the lowest priorities. At first this was very frustrating but it comes with the territory. I can't imagine summertime with up to 1100 people using a "one house" internet.

Black Island Telecommunications Facility.

Belrose, New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Postcards

A very appropriate Florida Today cartoon by Jeff Parker about the scaled down U.S. Manned Space Program.

My roommate attached a message board to our door. The other day I saw this message that wasn't addressed to either of us. I kind of figured it wasn't for me...and I was correct.

An early morning moon over Mt. Discovery.

Working on one of the antennas today. Observation Hill...another one of my playgrounds.

Equipment being dragged out to the sea ice runway.

Ob Hill and the "ski slope" that is fun for sliding.

Mt. Erebus

The High Frequency Transmission Site - emergency communications.

Our new van.

The sea ice runway. The actual runway is the groomed area through the middle.