By Lora Koenig Greenbelt (MD, US), 3 January — On December 28 in Antarctica (which corresponds to Dec. 27 back here in the States), the team completed the traverse and arrived back at Byrd Camp with a warm welcome from the camp residents. In 18 days they had traveled 500 kilometers (310 miles), drilled eight […]
Slow-Moving Meteor Paints the Night Skies
Early on the morning of Jan. 3, 2012, a beautiful meteor was seen traveling across the skies over Huntsville, Ala. Moving slowly at “only” 18.9 km/s — or 42,000 mph — the meteor was recorded at approximately 10:34:16 UTC in an allsky camera at the Marshall Space Flight Center. It started 88.5 km/55 miles up and was last detected at 79.8 km/50 miles up. The meteor had …
A Christmas Wish Granted
By Lora Koenig Byrd Station (Antarctica), 27 December — Randy had a strange Christmas list this year. He wanted the 50 knot winds to stop. Late on Christmas Day his gift arrived and the storm over West Antarctica broke. The team’s speedy progress was slowed down by the back-to-back storms, but on Christmas Day in […]
The First Storm
By Lora Koenig Byrd Station (Antarctica), 22 December — The traverse team got hit with their first storm last night. Everyone is safe and well. Here is the MODIS satellite image over Antarctica from Dec 21, 2011 showing the storm covering most of West Antarctica. The team experienced 35 to 40 knot winds with blowing […]
In A Fog
By Bob Bindschadler McMurdo (Antarctica), 27 December — McMurdo leapt back to life the morning after the 2-day Christmas weekend. It was a jarring transition from the solitude that had permeated the town to the rumble of vehicles churning up wisps of cindery dust as their operators resumed their various tasks. There was a revival […]
Quick Update
By Lora Koenig McMurdo Station (Antarctica), 15 December — Today the Traverse Team traveled from SEAT Camp 2 to SEAT Camp 3. They picked up their fuel cache at Camp 3 and enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies that were inside. So far, the team has drilled three ice cores and traveled over 220 kilometers (136.7 […]
Waiting, Shoveling and Traversing
By Lora Koenig Byrd Station (Antarctica), 13 December — Well, I am still at Byrd Camp. One plane for the day from McMurdo has already been canceled and two more are scheduled. Byrd has not had a flight in over a week, and they are trying to get as many flights from McMurdo in as […]
The Thick Brick Wall
By Bob Bindschadler McMurdo (Antarctica), 16 December — It was just weird. The Herc mission to land the put-in team at PIG had become a daily mainstay of the schedule I saw on the TV monitor as I walked into breakfast every day for the past week. Sometimes the cancellation came before breakfast was finished, […]
Fuel Cache and Camp 1
By Lora Koenig Byrd Station (Antarctica), 12 December —The traverse team left yesterday and made it to Camp 1, 95 kilometers (59 miles) away. I spoke with Michelle last night; they had a few problems yesterday. One was that some bolts on the bottom of the radar sled came loose and the sled started to […]
Getting A Wish
By Bob Bindschadler McMurdo (Antarctica), 19 December — Well, it is the holiday season and we are being forced to recognize it by accepting fewer Hercs and fewer crews to fly them for these two weeks (not to mention extending the no-fly Sundays to no-fly weekends both weeks). So maybe we should expect to have […]