We have just received the update below from Rob Bingham, reader in glaciology and geophysics at the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh. On the traverse, Rob is mainly working on the DELORES deep-looking radio echo sounding measurements. In early December Rob was awarded the Polar Medal for his service to UK polar research.
Greetings iSTAR blogreaders, and Happy New Year. I write to you as we bounce once more over Pine Island Glacier’s sastrugi (“dunes” of snow formed by wind) en route to our 20th site of the overall 22. Yes, the finish of the traverse is approaching fast, and indeed we have now already entirely completed our work with the deep-looking radar, DELORES (the “Deep-Looking Radio Echo Sounder”). Overall over the last five weeks the DELORES team (David, Steph, Damon and myself) have surveyed the glacier bed over a distance of approximately 2000 km, often operating in a continuous shift-rotation system to maximise the time devoted to data collection. Driving through the Antarctic summer “nights” has been a beautiful experience – it doesn’t get dark but the sun does get lower in the sky and gives the light across the ice surface an almost mystical quality.
Reflecting on this season’s DELORES as a whole, then, what have been the highlights? Personally I will never forget driving with Jan one windy evening when snow crystals were blown into the sky and sparkled in front of us to form a fabulous halo in front of the sun. The site we’ve just completed, Site 18, was especially fun as (in contrast to the other sites) there was definite topography at the ice surface forming a landscape of rolling hills and views of spectacular crevassing down on the main trunk of Pine Island Glacier several kilometres below. I think, though, that the main highlight for me must be sitting here now with all the data in the bank when, several times this season, we thought that perhaps the rough ice surfaces might have got the better of DELORES – that radar has certainly taken some bashing around.
In other iSTAR science news, Jan’s work in erecting GPS stations across the glacier is also done, so that’s 11 stations now installed to monitor ice motion here over the upcoming year. Our additional arsenal of radars, run by Anna and Thomas respectively, still have some ice to sound, and are busy engaged in this activity right now as we drive between site 21 and 22. And Peter’s neutron probe work continues to proceed apace at every site, now very much operating as a well-oiled machine.
As a veteran of an earlier season on Pine Island Glacier, over which multiple-day storms were a common event, I have to say the weather has been fantastically good to us in general. We did have a couple of murky days over new year, but this didn’t detract from a fun seeing in of 2014 through the medium of pub quiz (performed without a pub, admittedly; but otherwise correctly termed). Our resident quizmasters Anna and Jonny served up a rather challenging diet of trivia, sourced from the Best Pub Quiz Questions Compendium Ever Volume 4, and probably the least said about the fact that of the nine scientists present, the maximum score in the round named “Science” was 1 out of 8, the better. There weren’t any rounds named “Ice Radar” is my excuse; but for the record Thomas was the overall victor.
Finally, a brief mention that tonight, at our new location at 76° 20′ S, many of us including me will be the furthest south we have ever been. One day I wouldn’t mind experiencing the full 90°, but for now 76° 20′ will certainly do. Best wishes to all of you at home for a fantastic 2014.