Mike on the Ice: A work day on Crater Hill

Tuesday September 4th was an interesting weather day. The day started clear and windless. By noon we were in a condition 2 in town and condition 1 out of town. This happened in a span of 5 minutes. I was sitting at work when all of a sudden I could hear the wind howling and feel the building shake. I looked out the window and it was a whiteout. Katabatic winds in the Antarctic can rush down elevated slopes at hurricane speeds and are unpredictable. They are caused by cooling of air atop a glacier or hill flowing downwards and warming as it descends. This creates a gravitational energy that is enormous.

Within an hour this condition abated, the temperature warmed and a heavy snow fell. Snow only occurs when the temperature warms to around -5 degF and up. We were back in condition 2 after dinner and for my walk to volleyball. As I was rounding the corner of Crary Lab on the downhill walk to the big gym I met a fellow player Ron who had stopped. He said he couldn't walk any further because of the strong headwind. He and I both tried again but were totally not able to make any further progress. At that we turned around and were basically blown back to the dorm. Life can be interesting here. There was no sense getting hurt so be bailed. We heard that no one else attempted the walk.

On Thursday we had work to do on Crater Hill so I checked out a Pisten Bully and drove us up the hill. This time of year the road is not maintained so is only passable with a tracked vehicle. I was at this work site several months ago in the dark. It contains a Transfer Data and Relay Satellite (TDRS) dish antenna with a small shed of equipment. This site is being developed for the future McMurdo Ground Station addition of another 10 meter dish antenna. All the data would then be routed through this TDRS antenna and uplinked to an orbiting TDRS satellite then downlinked to the customers. This site also contains the international nuclear detonation monitoring equipment set up by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. There are four stations in Antarctica that are a part of this seismic network that can distinguish between a nuclear explosion and an earthquake.