AntarcticDoctor

Sundogs and a 10 degree ring today… the photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but it’s a good idea:

Eh? Barring the fact that the title is a rather imperfect rhyme, what am I talking about?

You may, if you’re an avid follower of the blog (thank you kindly), remember that our meteorologist Sanki wrote a great article in one of the newsletters about interesing atmospheric phenomena here in Antarctica.  If you haven’t read that yet, then pop over to the newsletter page and look it up.  Sanki also gets special mention because I know her grandmother is a regular reader (Groete ouma!).

Parhelia, or ‘sundogs’ as they are commonly known, are bright glowing points in the daytime sky formed when the the rays of the sun are reflected by ice crystals in the atmosphere.  The same mechanism can cause beautiful rings to form (or an arc, if the sun is close to the horizon).  Depending on the size and type of the ice crystals, the common forms are 10° and 22° arcs.  Although not as striking as some of the ones I’ve been too slow to photograph, we had sundogs and an arc this evening which I was able to capture.  Oh, and yes, ouma, that is Sanki posing in the middle to blot out the sun 😉

Yes, the much-awaited August newsletter is approved and published; download or view it on the newsletter page here.  There are some great articles by  various members of the team, covering topics ranging from the Dry Valleys to our heating and ventilation system to the Aurora Australis.  Of course, there is the usual dose of good photography and light humour.  Have fun and learn something too 😉

Our pipe problem is STILL a huge issue despite the whole team putting in a very long day’s work yesterday (until around 23h00 last night) in poor conditions.  The saga continues today – I’ll write something when I get a chance.