Time flies by… especially in Antarctica, and especially when producing newsletters! Our latest is now available for download from the newsletters page, or click the link below to view. This one has a great article by Sanki about katabatic winds and how we recorded a wind gust of 222 km/h, some of the best aurora photos we’ve ever taken at SANAE IV, and plenty of other good fun and interesting content. Enjoy!
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.
The Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, one of the institutions with on-going research projects here at SANAE IV, has recently been made the (ISES) Regional Warning Centre for Africa. As part of this initiative, the magnetic data collected here (and at other sites) is available online in real time via their web-page, spaceweather.hmo.ac.za. By using the drop-down lists (see picture above) you can select for the SANAE data, which is updated every 5 minutes. A large and sharp drop in the magnetic field is usually accompanied by an aurora. In the graph below, you can see that there was a drop of almost 300 nanoTesla in the total magnetic field last night, just after midnight. This is the typical time, as we swing furtherest from the sun and the ‘tail’ of the planet’s magnetic field passes overhead.
